DHL Super Rugby Pacific fans showed their support across New Zealand and the Pacific Islands » superrugby.co.nz

In New Zealand, the competition saw increased fan support, with viewership on Sky up 12 percent compared to 2023¹The number of fans also increased by 9 percent and the number of social video views increased by 40%.

On the pitch, Hoskins Sotutu (Blues) and Sevu Reece (Crusaders) scored the most tries (12 each), with 663 tries scored across the competition and a total of 4,881 points scored. An average of 7.3 tries were scored in each DHL Super Rugby Pacific match and the top scorer for the season was Damian McKenzie (Chiefs).

Kevin Malloy, Chairman of DHL Super Rugby Pacific, is pleased with the results of the season, especially with the increased fan engagement in all areas².

“It’s fantastic to see the 2024 season performing well. The Super Rugby Pacific teams have been excellent this season with some exciting games, upsets and generally fast, intense, competitive rugby.”

“The quality of the competition is reflected in our results off the field. We saw more fans coming to games, tuning in and engaging through our digital channels. We would like to say a huge thank you to all the fans for their support this season, we couldn’t do this without your passion and dedication.”

Almost 2.1 million New Zealanders tuned in to the action on Sky Sport and free-to-air on Sky Open, a 12 percent increase from the 2023 tournament – and up from more than 1.94 million at the end of the 2024 regular season³.

A further one 249,000 unique viewers enjoyed the action on digital channels Sky Sport Now and Sky Go⁴with more than 6.81 million streams during the tournament⁵.

In Fiji, the quarter-final between the Blues and Fijian Drua was the most watched match, with more than 380,000 Fijian fans attending.⁶.

More than 640,000 fans showed their support for their respective Super Rugby Pacific teams throughout the season, a 9 percent increase on last year. Moana Pasifika hosted their first home game in Tonga, while the Blues v Chiefs final saw the highest attendance of 44,000 fans.

Throughout the regular season, Hurricanes proved to be a fan favorite. The Blues v Hurricanes attracted the largest crowd of the regular season of 25,873 and a further two matches were sold out during the regular season, Fijian Drua v Hurricanes (round 9) and the Chiefs v Hurricanes (round 14).

Fans also engaged with social content across competitive channels, with video views up 40 percent (162 million video views) and video engagement up 4.2 percent with 6.7 million engagements on posted content.

To cap off a successful season, five new All Blacks were named in New Zealand following the DHL Super Rugby Pacific competition.

1) Source: Nielsen eTAM AP05+, data: cumulative reach, DHL Super Rugby Pacific 2023 and 2024, Sky Sport 1-4 and Sky Open

2) Entry includes NZ, Fiji and Tonga. Only broadcast NZ. Social/digital competition broadly

3) Source: Nielsen eTAM AP05+, Data: Cumulative Reach, DHL Super Rugby Pacific 2023 & 2024, Sky Sport 1-4 & Sky Open

4) Sky internal data, DHL Super Rugby Pacific 2024

5) Sky internal data, DHL Super Rugby Pacific 2024

6) Number of devices logging into the Walesi app to watch matches for free on FBC Sports