State of Origin breaks ratings records

State of Origin continues to swell in size, after it was revealed that this week’s Game II registered the highest TV ratings for any Origin game.

Origin I of this series had held the previous record. A total audience of 4.193 million viewers watched the NSW Blues finally end Queensland’s eight-year winning streak in the series, when they won 6-4 earlier this week.

Additionally, eight million unique visitors used Facebook to follow the game, via the NRL, Queensland and New South Wales pages.

“State of Origin is bigger than it has ever been,” said NRL Head of Commercial Paul Kind.

“Channel 9 deserves congratulations for the success of its world class coverage of both Origin games so far this year.

“Now the Origin focus moves to Brisbane for game III on July 9 and I have no doubt it will be just as competitive and keenly fought as the first two games.”

Meanwhile, it has also been revealed that the Auckland Nines delivered $9million of economic benefit to the New Zealand city.

Earlier this week the Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) released an economic impact statement on the tournament, which revealed that the Nines delivered $9.35million in GDP to Auckland.

This was around double the impact which was forecast. Additionally, 6000 Australians are believed to have travelled to New Zealand for the event, plus a further 16,000 people from elsewhere in New Zealand. A further million Australians watched the event on television.