What is Australia's most popular sport?
- Jamie Clark
- Feb 10
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 12
From backyard cricket on Christmas afternoon to 100,000 people packing into the MCG on a Friday night, sport is stiched into Australia's national identity.
But unlike many countries with a single dominant sport - Spain (mostly) with football, the US with the NFL and basketball, Canada with ice hockey, or India with cricket - what makes Australia unique is the breadth of sporting passion across so many different codes and competitions.
And so I’ve been wondering: what truly is Australia’s most popular sport?
This analysis focuses primarily on our domestic leagues, aiming to reveal which local competitions capture the most attention, investment, and participation across Australia.
To do this, we’ll use a weighted scoring model based on six criteria:
TV viewership – How many are watching at home
TV rights deals – The size of broadcast agreements
Sponsorship revenue – Commercial backing and brand investment
Live attendance figures – People showing up to the stadium
Merchandise sales – Jerseys, memberships, licensed products
Grassroots participation – Community-level involvement
While the weightings below will be subjective measures, they are based on factors that, in my view, best capture a sport’s enduring popularity: commercial clout, fan engagement, and cultural significance. A further limitation in this analysis is that sports held only seasonally, such as Formula 1 Grand Prix or the Australian Open, might have an outsized cultural impact that isn’t fully represented here.
With that said, we're ready to kick-off.
Weighting:
Criteria | TV Viewership | TV Rights Deal | Sponsorship Revenue | In-Person Attendance at Stadium | Merchandise / jersey sales | Grassroots participation |
Weighting Score | 20% | 20% | 10% | 30% | 5% | 15% |
The analysis will draw on data from a variety of online sources, focusing on 2024 to ensure accuracy, as the 2025 data may still be getting prepared.
So, which sport truly sits at the pinnacle of Australia’s sporting landscape?
(Behind this article sits a more comprehensive excel, but for clarity and readability, I’ll only present the statistics for each criterion for the top five sports.)
TV Viewership - Top 5 sources: Footy Industry, Ministry of Sport
Sporting Code | Number of Aussies who viewed in 2024 | Cumulative views |
AFL | 9.10 million viewers | ~148.8 million |
NRL | 7.31 million viewers | ~186.8 million |
International Test / One Day Cricket | 7.30 million viewers | N/A |
Tennis (Australian Open Only) | 4.76 million viewers | ~7 million |
Soccer (A-league) | 1.6 million viewers | ~5.7 million |
The three largest single viewed sporting events in Australian leagues in 2024 were:
AFL Grand Final 2024: 6.09 million Australians
NRL State of Origin Game III 2024: 5.40 million Australians
NRL State of Origin Game I 2024: 5.31 million Australians
TV Rights Deals - Top 5 sources: sportcal, sports industry
Sporting Code | Per Year Revenue from TV | Total TV Rights Deal Size |
AFL | ~$643 m / yr | $4.5 billion |
NRL | ~$400 m / yr | $2.0 billion |
Cricket Australia | ~A$150 m / yr | $1.2 billion |
Tennis Australia | ~$85 m / yr | $425 m deal |
A League (Soccer) | ~A$29 m / yr | $200 million |
To compare, other sports like basketball (NBL) have annual TV rights deal of $15M, and Netball has $12.5M.
Sponsorship Revenue - Top 5
Context: there is no centrally publish a fully audited ranking of sports by sponsorship revenue each year. However, multiple market reports and individual governing‑body financials allow to approximate relative rankings based on sponsorship income, commercial partnerships and category spend in 2024.
Sporting Code | Sponsorship Revenue (estimated range) |
AFL | $100M - $130M |
NRL | $80M - $110M |
Tennis Australia | $50M - $80M |
Cricket Australia | $40M - $70M |
Netball Australia | $24 - $30M |
Live In-Person Attendance - Top 5
Note: this does not include one-off events like the Australian Open, International Cricket Tests. Formula 1. As these events may only happen annually or may not have consistent scheduling.
Source: Ausstadiums
Sporting Code | Total Live Attendance | Average Attendance Per Game |
AFL | 8,243,908 | 38,344 |
NRL | 4,265,299 | 20,605 |
Soccer (A League) | 1,509,357 | 9,148 |
Basketball (NBL) | 1,146,802 | 7,168 |
Cricket (BBL only) | 898,396 | 23,036 |
The three largest single attended sporting events in Australian leagues in 2024 were:
AFL Grand Final 2024: 100,013
AFL Eliminatory Final 2024: 97,828
AFL Round 17: 93,644
Merchandise Sales (jerseys, other clothing etc) - Top 5 Sources: deep market insights, statista
Sporting Code | Merchandise Annual Revenue |
AFL | $160 - $190M |
Soccer (A League + Socceroos/Matildas) | $90M - $110M |
Cricket | $70 - $100M |
NRL | $50M - $80M |
Tennis | $40M - $60M |
Grassroots Participation
This data is by number of participants in organised (club/association) sport, primarily using the recent AusPlay / National Participation data:
Sporting Code | Participation |
Soccer | 1.9M |
Basketball | 1.06M |
AFL | 930k |
Netball | 900k |
Cricket | 790k |
And so..........
When the numbers the weighted scores tallied, the data points clearly directs us to one winner - Australia’s overall most popular sport is ................
AFL
It’s remarkable that Australia’s most popular sport hasn’t meaningfully expanded overseas. It’s a game that can be difficult to explain to outsiders - layered, physical, and uniquely structured - and yet it's simply amazing. From suburban ovals to packed stadiums.
For those that are not familiar with the sport, this is a nice AFL explainer video:
Beyond this analysis, I do also believe cricket deserves to be right up there. Because it’s concentrated into roughly two months of the year, it naturally struggles to compete with sports that run six-month domestic seasons in this weighted annual model. But when in Aussie summer, cricket takes centre stage. Stadiums fill, TV ratings surge, and the country rallies.
And now you may ask:
What is Australia's biggest sporting club?
This is known to many, particularly those living in Melbourne, within Australia's most popular sport there is one team that has standout support, Collingwood.
Metric | Collingwood Football Club (2024) | Extra notes |
Members (2024) | 110,628 paid members | Collingwood set a new VFL/AFL club membership record in 2024 with 110,628 members. This was the highest for any AFL club that year. |
Home Attendance (2024) | 778,865 total (~64,905 average per home game) | Collingwood led the league in home attendance, breaking the club and AFL home crowd record with 778,865 fans across 12 home games (avg ~64.9k). |
TV Viewership (Indicative) | • Individual Collingwood matches have reached ~1.8m + national reach (e.g., Collingwood vs St Kilda broadcast) • AFL matches overall reached tens of millions across the season | Key Collingwood matches have exceeded ~1.8 million national reach on free‑to‑air TV, and league‑wide AFL TV reach was in the tens of millions in 2024. |
I hope you enjoyed the read! 🎾
