Revealed: The top 40 most watched matches on Sky Sports in 2019

The most viewed matches on Sky Sports this season have featured either St Helens or Wigan, figures show.

Their derby on Friday wasn’t televised, the first time a meeting between the two has not been broadcast live for more than two decades.

The opening day meeting at the Totally Wicked Stadium, which kicked off the Super League season on Thursday January 31, attracted the biggest viewing figure of the year, 181,079 across all Sky platforms.

That put the match sixth across all Sky Sports channels in that week, behind three live Premier League football matches, a Championship football match involving Leeds and Gillette Soccer Special on the Tuesday night.

The top seven viewed games of the season all feature either Saints or Wigan, with Hull’s meeting with Castleford the highest viewed game without either of those two sides.

Wigan’s World Club Challenge match with Sydney Roosters attracted more than 200,000 viewers across the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Arena channels.

Figures take in to consideration views live on TV and via Sky’s streaming platforms, including laptops, tablets and mobiles.

Only figures for the top 15 shows on Sky Sports weekly are available, which means some matches may not have been listed.

That may mean that matches that were broadcast simultaneously across two channels, such as Main Event and Arena, had more views than what is listed.

More on site

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Interestingly, Sunday evening matches perform well, with the second most-watched game the Magic Weekend clash between Saints and Castleford.

The Championship Summer Bash clash between Leigh and Widnes, also on a Sunday evening, attracted 86,858 views, the most-watched Championship game of the season, and 33rd overall.

The only Toronto match to feature in the rankings was their recent trip to Batley, which attracted 58,606 views.

Average views on each day are largely the same, with Friday the most popular – 103,176. Thursday and Saturday are next, with very little to choose between their figures around the 100,620 mark, and Sundays coming in at 97,610.

There are many variables to live viewing figures, such as other events on TV at the same time and also other live rugby league matches being played.

Top 40 Sky Sports matches

Source: BARB / figures from the top 15 watched shows across Sky Sports each week, those outside not included / covers views on live TV and streaming devices (laptops, tablets, mobile) / includes games up to end of June 2019