More than one million people watched the opening game of the NRL Telstra Premiership on the Nine Network and the crowd was up 30 per cent on last year in a strong start to the 2015 season.
NRL Head of Marketing, Lewis Pullen said there was also a huge social media audience for the match between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Brisbane Broncos.
Mr Pullen said the 36,057 attendance at Suncorp Stadium was about 9,000 higher than for the season opener in Sydney last year.
"And we are expecting a near sell-out crowd at Pirtek Stadium tonight for the Eels match against Manly," he said.
"Last night's game, televised on the Nine Network, was the number one television program in Brisbane and the number two program in Sydney.
"We reached more than one million viewers in two States which is a strong result."
Mr Pullen said the decision to open the Telstra Premiership in Brisbane had been successful with the attendance outstripping the Broncos average home crowd in 2014.
"Given the match was held on a week night that is a very pleasing result," he said.
"We have more blockbusters to come in the weeks ahead as part of our improved schedule."
Mr Pullen said more than half a million unique users had tuned into the season opening on the NRL Facebook account.
The NRL also took out the top three trending topics nationwide on Twitter.
