2026 Crowd Watch

[Raiders_Premiers]

Ahh yes, think you're right. They're upgrading one of the grounds and having the national stadium as back up in case it's not ready in time, which looks like it may not be.

 

[Stinkfinger]

Just imagine the redeveloped stadium bounce the panthers will get from next season and what the warriors could potentially get with a 30k-35k stadium?

Pity it only holds 25,000.

 

[Ian Douglas]

Pity it only holds 25,000.

Hopefully their crowds will justify future expansion.

 

[Marshall_magic]

As multiple teams have demonstrated, you can play like shit and still draw a good crowd. If the Dragons aren't growing thier crowds, both the game day experience and the choice of venue needs to be investigated.

Good teams get some goodwill before the fans stop showing up. Clubs like the Dragons and tigers have been dogshit for the best part of a decade and as a result their crowds have bottomed out. A run if wins brings a few back but a run of losses will whittle it down to the diehards.

 

[Wb1234]

That too.

newcastle as well.

Fortress brookvale

their crowds are stunning even when their form is crap

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

Tigers selling out a Thursday night game well in advance is incredible.

Friday night in Brisbane is down to single seats. All other home games are still reserved for members only - the club should have opened all games up for sale a few weeks ago, because people missing out on tickets to the Bulldogs game would buy for future weeks. It's a weird strategy, and probably only results in a few hundred new memberships over thousands of pre-purchased tickets.

Edit: had the wrong Tigers venue, still awesome though

 

[Barney Stubble]

So the aggregate record for a round is on the line this weekend (218,813) & with fine weather should be surpassed ... just

Tigers V Raiders ( sold out) 17500
Cowboys V Sharks 20,000
Broncos V Bulldogs 45000
Wahs V Phins ( sold out) 33000
Dragons V Roosters 40000
Melb V Souths 25000
Newc V Penrith 23500
Manly V Parra 17500

221,500

 

[Burns]

Could we see potentially a perfect round of sell outs?

 

[i0Nic]

I think we’ll just scrape in and get it - 219k

Tigers V Raiders ( sold out) 17,000
Cowboys V Sharks 19,000
Broncos V Bulldogs 44,000
Wahs V Phins ( sold out) 33,000
Dragons V Roosters 40,000
Melb V Souths 25,000
Newc V Penrith 23,500
Manly V Parra 17,500

 

[i0Nic]

Could we see potentially a perfect round of sell outs?

Cowboys unlikely to sell out but every other game yes. But then again with a long weekend maybe who knows, would be great to see

 

[Sky_Is_The_Limit]

Campbelltown selling out a Thursday night game well in advance is incredible.

Friday night in Brisbane is down to single seats. All other home games are still reserved for members only - the club should have opened all games up for sale a few weeks ago, because people missing out on tickets to the Bulldogs game would buy for future weeks. It's a weird strategy, and probably only results in a few hundred new memberships over thousands of pre-purchased tickets.

They're playing at Leichhardt Oval on Thursday night, probably helps to explain the early sellout.

 

[steeden.]

Could we see potentially a perfect round of sell outs?

That’s a marketing strategy the NRL should try: challenging every game in a round to be sold out.

obvs be strategic on venue choices

 

[Cumberland Throw]

Could of snuck in a sneaky Monday game this week end too in NSW

 

[yakstorm]

Could of snuck in a sneaky Monday game this week end too in NSW

I reckon they would of if it hadn't been confirmed so late (Feb 15).

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

They're playing at Leichhardt Oval on Thursday night, probably helps to explain the early sellout.

oops missed that - Campbelltown might be a bit too good to be true, but still so good

 

[Captain Apollo]

Wow, excellent stuff from the Roosters. They have established such a good baseline for crowd attendance and Allianz really is a fantastic home ground.

They definitely are one of the big Sydney clubs.

Also probably a good thing they are travelling well because the Dragons sure as shit can’t be relied on to push tickets for Anzac Day next week.

It might have been better but track work yesterday would have affected it. The Metro was closed in the city (it ended at North Sydney), the Bondi Junction line was closed, and no trains were running between Granville, Richmond and Penrith.

 

[Captain Apollo]

It's notable that the chooks/knights game out drew dogs/knights 3 weeks ago in what was the dogs first proper home game this season.

Not sure which of Sat 3PM and Sun 2PM is the more favourable slot though

Sunday is more favourable. Saturdays are when many people do things like grocery shopping, kids sport and other domestic stuff. Saturday afternoon being "the match of the round" died out in the early 1970s when full day retail trading started in the mid-late 1970s.

 

[yakstorm]

Cowboys v Sharks
This is the least likely of all 8 matches this weekend to sell out, simply because of the timeslot (admittedly the opposition isn't one of the top drawers in Townsville either). Game is ahead of Titans and Sea Eagles, so will hopefully push into 20K territory. Cowboys have put out a 2-for-1 offer for defence & RSL service members (https://www.cowboys.com.au/news/2026/04/17/nrl-anzac-round-2-for-1-ticket-offer/) which should help move some.



Storm v Rabbitohs
This game is selling a bit differently than most Storm games. Generally speaking the ends that pretty much sell out first and then it's the upper areas that move last. For this game, there are still a lot of tickets in the ends, especially in the corners, whilst the upper areas, especially the gold seats, are starting to sell into the back 3-5 rows.

Later kick off (8:10pm local), current Storm form and the opposition does put this game at risk of not selling out, though it should be comfortably 20K+. The lowest ANZAC Day crowd in Melbourne (outside of COVID) was 13,948 for Storm v Manly in 2015. Worth noting, it took until around 2018 for this fixture to start drawing 25K+ regularly.

 

[yakstorm]

Sunday is more favourable. Saturdays are when many people do things like grocery shopping, kids sport and other domestic stuff. Saturday afternoon being "the match of the round" died out in the early 1970s when full day retail trading started in the mid-late 1970s.

IMO, the Saturday 3pm timeslot is made more for drawing crowds in winter, versus early season (like the Bulldogs had). Whilst the Bulldogs match was the day after a cold snap, March, generally, still has very much summer vibes, with people happy to go out later and as you said busy with domestic stuff around 3pm.

Once daylight savings ends and the cooler months start rolling in, I know myself, I'd far rather drags the family out to a 3pm Saturday game than 7:30pm.

 

[Valheru]

Sunday is more favourable. Saturdays are when many people do things like grocery shopping, kids sport and other domestic stuff. Saturday afternoon being "the match of the round" died out in the early 1970s when full day retail trading started in the mid-late 1970s.

I doubt grocery shopping would be a legit blocker but yes kids sport is valid as well as other social events which generally happen on Saturdays.

On a personal note I find sundays harder due to my own sport so wondering how many others are in the same boat.

Regardless, we outdrew dogs against a common opponent in comparable slots so the club is going well.