OVER ONE MILLION viewers tuned it to RTÉ’s coverage of the final nail-biting moments of Ireland’s historic victory over the All Blacks on Saturday evening — more than watched both the All-Ireland football and hurling finals this year.
An average audience of 883,700 watched Joe Schmidt’s side record a first home win over the back-to-back world champions, with 57% of those watching TV at the time tuning into the national broadcaster’s coverage from the Aviva Stadium.
As Ireland remained stoic in defence right up until the final whistle, RTÉ’s viewership figures peaked at 1,036,500 at 8.56pm, while there were 93,800 streams of the match on the RTÉ Player.
There were an additional 43,500 online streams on Sunday as people relived the thrilling encounter in the aftermath of a special night for Irish sport.
It is the second most-watched sports broadcast on RTÉ in 2018 after last summer’s World Cup semi-final between England and Croatia, which drew in 1.12 million viewers.
In terms of comparison, 1,328,000 viewers watched Ireland clinch Grand Slam glory by defeating England at Twickenham in March on TV3.
The above figures don’t, however, include out of home viewing.
Schmidt’s Ireland conclude their November series against the USA at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening [KO 6.30pm].
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