Melbourne Storm has the largest supporter base of any club in the NRL – more than one million Australians – according to the latest research data from Roy Morgan.
Less than a week after setting a new all-time membership record for NRL clubs, Storm has again topped the ladder as the most widely supported NRL club with 1,199,000 supporters, an increase of 1.7% on a year ago.
Earlier this year, Storm took over the status as the NRL’s No.1 club for membership for the first time in the club’s history.
The Roy Morgan data released this week shows that 10 of the 16 NRL have experienced an increase in support from 2021.
The total NRL supporter base has grown marginally from a year ago, up 0.5% to nearly 6.4 million Australians aged 14+ in 2022 as the code emerged from two heavily COVID-interrupted seasons in 2020-21.
The NRL was forced to relocate all 16 clubs to Queensland last season after large outbreaks of COVID-19 in the key market of New South Wales as well as the secondary markets of Victoria and the ACT.
It was the second straight season that Storm had a forced relocation to the Sunshine Coast.
In addition, the border to New Zealand remained closed throughout last season with the NZ Warriors able to play their first home game in their own country since 2019 only less than three weeks ago.
Behind Melbourne in second place is the Brisbane Broncos, the only other club with over 1 million supporters on 1,025,000.
The most widely supported Sydney-based club is again the Parramatta Eels with 460,000 supporters, an increase of 0.4% on a year ago.
The reigning NRL premiers, the Penrith Panthers, have experienced the biggest increase in support over the past year increasing by 86,000 (+38.9%) to 307,000 following their 2021 premiership victory.
Roy Morgan says the findings are derived from detailed in-depth interviews with more than 60,000 Australians each year.
