NRL

Forget the Panthers, Roosters, Bulldogs, Storm or Rabbitohs.

With the NRL Finals Series set to begin on Friday, streaming service Kayo has released its official viewer ratings for the 2026 NRL home and away season and it includes some eye-opening stats.

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Top of the list is a major surprise for the most-watched match of the season which featured two teams that have just finished in the bottom four of the ladder for 2026 — the Tigers and Broncos.

Yes, the Round 7 clash between the Wests Tigers and Brisbane Broncos at Campbelltown was the most-watched regular season match all season, with Adam Reynolds landing a late field goal to secure a 21-20 Broncos victory.

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While the Broncos have long been a consistent ratings puller for broadcasters — and once again recorded the highest average Kayo audience for 2026  — the Round 7 figure was clearly buoyed by the Tigers’ strong start to the season which shows just how excited Tigers fans were before the wheels completely fell off.

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Even more impressively, the Tigers-Broncos clash wasn’t just the top rating match of the 2026 season, it was Kayo’s top highest rating NRL match of all-time.

According to Kayo, the Roosters-Broncos match-up in Round 9 was the second most-watched match of 2026 while the season openers in Las Vegas both delivered huge ratings with the Knights-Cowboys and Bulldogs-Dragons clashes ranking third and fourth respectively.

Penrith and North Queensland delivered the second and third highest average Kayo audiences across the home and away season respectively.

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