A very tight fought game II has led to a drawn series heading into Game III.
Last night was the third Origin game at Optus Stadium, but was the lowest attended of them so far, likely due to wet weather.
- Game 2 2019 – 59,721
- Game 2 2022 – 59,359
- Game 2 2025 – 57,023
In 2019, close to 11,700 people visited WA for Origin II, spending more than $19 million and staying nearly 69,500 combined nights – generating huge benefits for WA tourism businesses, hotels, bars, restaurants and other hospitality operators, while the 2022 edition generated $13.3 million for the local economy from the nearly 7,000 people who travelled from outside WA to attend.
Origin Game IIs television rating of 3.751m on Nine was the best rating for Game II since 2015, and the 4th highest rating Game II since the ratings system changed in the early 2000s. It is the second highest rating Origin (behind Game 1 2025) since VOZ began.
State of Origin Game 2 was the No. 1 program of the night in:
- Sydney – Total TV Audience of 1.042 million
- Melbourne – Total TV Audience of 308,000
- Brisbane – Total TV Audience of 888,000
- Perth – Total TV Audience of 190,000
State of Origin Game 2 was the No. 2 program of the night in Adelaide – Total TV Audience of 96,000.
Perths Origin rating of 190,000 is almost certainly a record for Origin, and Brisbanes 888,000 is the highest I can see going back to 2013. In Both cases, certainly the highest ratings since VOZ began.
And all of this despite the poor coverage in the West Australian.
A cracker of a decider is expected in July, with a sellout crowd predicted for Accor, and a possible 4 million+ audience in the offing, needing 4.367m to tune into Nine to set a new Origin record that has existed since 2013.
Data: VOZ, 9PR, Oztam via Mediaspy.org
Note: since I was asked on twitter – for comparison
The Western Derby rated 156k earlier in the year. standard AFL games rated around the 50k-100k mark, depending on time and teams playing. 2024 AFL Grand Final 344k (2024 NRL Grand Final 131k).
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