Playing live on Channel 4, Salford Red Devils vs Wigan Warriors managed to draw a peak viewership of 270,000 as Wigan pipped the Red Devils with a late try.
When comparing the figures to the Easter Monday games, this drew almost 150,000 more viewers than Castleford vs Leeds, and over 50,000 more than Hull vs Warrington at their peak.
In a game dubbed by Channel 4 as ‘maybe the best Betfred Super League game we have shown so far’, Salford were narrowly beaten 30-24 by Wigan at the DW Stadium.
An impressive late try from Wigan man Jai Field got the Warriors the victory in a tight game, and put them level with ST. Helens at the top of the Super League.
No words. Just watch 👇#C4League | #SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/oapoChRulv
— Channel 4 Sport (@C4Sport) April 24, 2022
For Salford, the late defeat has them down in 9th after round 10 of the Super League, with a tie against top of the table Saints next, coming off the back of a 4 game losing streak.
Channel 4 recently struck a deal with the Super League to show games on terrestrial TV, and is seen to be alerting new fans to the support, such as England cricketer Ben Stokes, who tweeted:
Best 20mins of Rugby League I’ve seen in a long long time between Wigan and Salford,some try from Jai Field to win it 👏 👏 👏
— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) April 24, 2022
Fans also reacted to this, with twitter user @jaybs saying: “Superb to see top sportspeople like Ben Stokes, raving on Twitter, and posting the video of Jai Fields winning try, and how many liked it! At last people nationally raving about out sport. Jai is such an amazing talented player!
The Salford RLFC Supporters’ Trust said: “From a personal point of view I can only see it as a positive for the game to have so many people watching on free to air television, although heartbreaking from a Salford point of view, with such a good game on show too.”
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