More than six million people viewed content on the NRL’s official Origin Facebook pages as Holden State of Origin reached its biggest ever social media audience in a single day.
And in the digital media space, there were 500,000 unique browsers on the NRL’s website, mobile site and official app for yesterday alone – the highest one-day digital audience in NRL history.
It was the NSW VB Blues who won the social media State of Origin battle with 4.4 million people viewing content on the team’s official Blues Facebook page compared to 3.2 million for the XXXX Maroons.
The #UpTheBlues hashtag also outpointed the Maroons’ #QLDER hashtag 57% to 43% on Twitter.
Among the achievements of the NRL’s Holden State of Origin ‘Mission Control’ Centre’ at Suncorp Stadium:
• Holden State of Origin was being talked about on social media in 104 different countries last night, led by Australia, USA, United Kingdom, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Morocco and Fiji;
• Man of the Match Jarryd Hayne was the most talked about player on Facebook / Twitter, with the Morris twins, Cooper Cronk, Billy Slater, Paul Gallen, Cameron Smith and Darius Boyd also among the leaders;
• The #ORIGIN, #UpTheBlues & #QLDER hashtags trended globally;
• Total Origin related tweets during the 80 minutes of the game exceeded 100,000 - a Twitter State of Origin record;
“Mission Control has provided an exciting forum for fans to join the Origin conversation,” said the NRL’s Head of Marketing, Content and Digital, Mr Lewis Pullen.
“We have had great support from the QRL, NSWRL and Telstra in building Mission Control into something special for fans and we are seeing them engage with the game across our social media platforms in record numbers.”
The social media reach follows record television ratings for the opening game of the series, which is the most watched program on Australian television in 2014.
