The return of Origin last night has been deemed a success with 58,141 attending the match between Victoria and Western Australia at Optus Stadium. The game was watched by a further 843,000 on channel 7, with the audience reaching 1.96m on the FTA broadcaster. (Fox data is unavailable).
For Seven, this is narrowly behind ANZAC Day 2025 (844k) and behind the Legends game (904k). All finals also beat this figure bar 1.However, this was about the expected audience for mine for a return game during the pre season.
In Perth and WA, The match reached a whopping 367,000 West Australians across Seven and 7Plus Sport on Saturday, with a total TV audience of 173,000 tuning in. That figure was 132 per cent higher than last year’s regular season average and 29 per cent higher than the finals average. More than 43,000 viewers streamed the game on 7Plus Sport, up an astronomical 682 per cent on the season average in 2025. It was the highest streaming audience in WA for a match other than last year’s AFL grand final.
The SA Premier has flagged the states interest in a game at Adelaide Oval, while the WA premier wants Origin to be homed in Perth. The AFL has indicated Origin will return in 2027, with venue and date TBA.
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