Rugby league: NRL Grand Final ratings sink to historic low in Australia

The Penrith Panthers swatted the Parramatta Eels aside in the 2022 NRL Grand Final. Photo / Photosport

The 2022 NRL grand final has proven a ratings flop in Australia, with historically low numbers tuning in for Sunday evening's contest between the Penrith Panthers and Parramatta Eels at Accor Stadium.

The Panthers secured a second-consecutive NRL premiership by toppling their cross-town rivals 28-12 in front of 82,415 fan at Sydney Olympic Park.

But there wasn't a whole lot of interest outside of Sydney.

According to MediaWeek, 2,367,000 fans tuned in nationally for the one-sided match, making it the smallest NRL grand final television audience on record.

It marks the first time the overall television audience for an NRL season finale has dipped below 2.5 million viewers in the history of OzTam ratings data.

These numbers are substantially lower than 2020 and 2021, when most of Australia was stuck in lockdown, but also the 2019 grand final between the Sydney Roosters and Canberra Raiders.

Only 252,000 people tuned in from Melbourne, the second-lowest viewership from the Victorian capital since 2000.

The numbers for other metro markets were 391,000 in Brisbane, 77,000 in Adelaide and 114,000 in Perth, according to MediaWeek.

However, it was one of the largest Sydney TV audiences of the year, with 837,000 people watching from the New South Wales capital.

The match received 389,000 viewers on 9Now, making it the highest streamed NRL grand final in history.

This is a disaster https://t.co/24lgcf4GuC

— BUZZ ROTHFIELD (@BuzzRothfield) October 3, 2022

NRL Grand Final ratings

2022 — 2,367,000 (Metro 1,671,000, Regional 696,000)

2021 — 3,233,000 (Metro 2,202,000, Regional 1,031,000)

2020 — 2,966,000 (Metro 2,103,000, Regional 863,000)

2019 — 2,641,000 (Metro 1,866,000, Regional 775,000)

* Not including streaming numbers

"There will be a flood of speculative reasons why this is happening but the result remains strong for the code and its broadcast partners," MediaWeek editor-in-chief James Manning said.

"Having no Brisbane or Melbourne representation was always going to mean this figure would not reach the highs of previous years and Parramatta's failure to turn up in the first half would have seen many viewers leave the game by half time."

The largest television audience for an NRL grand final since the start of the century was 4,103,000 in 2005, the unforgettable season finale between the Wests Tigers and North Queensland Cowboys.

Sunday's season decider was supposed to be a blockbuster western Sydney showdown, but it instead turned into a bloodbath as Penrith pulled off a famous victory.

The Eels were utterly overawed, while the Panthers were absolutely clinical in racing out to an 18-0 lead at half time — and it didn't get any better in the second stanza.

The loss also means Parramatta's premiership drought will stretch into a 37th season — which was already the longest in the NRL.

"I think our first half was the best we have ever played," Cleary said on Nine.

"I was thinking that today when I woke up. I thought we have put some really good seasons together but we have never really come off. That's the best game we could play. I think the first half was just about that."

Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards claimed the Clive Churchill Medal for best on ground, having run a match-high 281m and pulling off a desperate try-saving tackle in the second half.