Mon Feb 9

More Australians are international sports fans, especially the NFL. Are local leagues threatened?

Written by: Adam Karg, Professor, Deakin University

Australian sport fans have long shown interest in international leagues.

Australian fans watch and stream the United States’ National Basketball Association (NBA) games at one of the highest rates outside of North America ^[1].

When it comes to the US’ National Football League (NFL), Australians’ interest has historically been limited to major events like the Super Bowl. But an increased focus from the NFL’s head office ^[2] suggests many Australians’ interest has grown from casual to committed, with the NFL challenging local leagues for fan interest.

Our research teams recently conducted a national survey ^[3] quantifying Australians’ consumption of national and overseas leagues.

It reveals interest in the NFL now exceeds 1.7 million adult Australians. This is around 8% of Australians aged 18-80, almost 2% higher than three years ago, and now matches the number of Australian fans of the NBA.

The NFL and NBA sit second to only the English Premier League in Australian fan interest (3.5m) for international professional team leagues.

NFL is heating up Down Under

Drivers of the NFL’s growth in Australia are strategic and clear. Simply and most critically, the league has become more available.

To the envy of many other sports, it boasts visibility on free-to-air channels and multiple streaming services, alongside free and accessible highlights packages on streaming channels and non-match content from documentaries to social content.

Expansion outside of the United States has also been deliberate and prolific: in 2025 ^[4], the NFL hosted games in Brazil, Mexico, England, Ireland, Spain and Germany.

Australia, as well as France, will be added to the rotation of international sites this year. The match at Melbourne’s MCG in September will be the first NFL game to be played in Australia ^[5].

Based on recent years, Australia’s 1.7 million adult NFL fans will be among an expected non-US audience over of more than 60 million ^[7] who tune into Monday’s Super Bowl, joining a further 120 million ^[8] expected to watch within the US.

We found NFL interest is far more prominent in males and audiences in the 30-50 age brackets. Conversely, the NBA retains higher interest for audiences under the age of 30.

Of the 1.7 million NFL fans in Australia, we found:

72% support a team (San Francisco and New England lead the way)
62% watched games live or highlights at least fortnightly
29% follow non-game content on social media fortnightly
47% own merchandise of a team
two-thirds have watched a documentary related to the sport
one in six play fantasy sport aligned to the NFL
one in five gamble on an NFL game monthly.

The Australian NFL fanbase, like other sport and non-sport brands across industries, remains dominated not by hardcore fanatics but by medium and light users.

Around 30% of Australian NFL fans would be classified as light fans (which means only half support a team and 65% only watch highlights) while 26% are highly committed fans (which means 96% follow a team and 86% watch games live at least every few weeks).

These segments and consumption patterns mirror those for EPL and NBA fans in Australia. Even the AFL, our leading local league, boasts large medium and light user segments which are critical for driving core revenues.

A threat to local leagues?

Interest in the NFL is growing among Australian adults and now exceeds interest in ^[9] established local leagues including Super Rugby and Super Netball.

However, our evidence ^[10] suggests major local leagues shouldn’t be too worried yet about losing fans.

On average, those who identify as Australian NFL fans follow five professional sport leagues. But Australian fans who are not NFL fans follow, on average, two or three leagues.

This pattern of increasingly shared or fluid fandom aligns with global shifts ^[11] that see fans consuming more sports, in different ways.

The NFL is not replacing established Australian sports. However, it is part of an ongoing challenge to local leagues’ share of fan numbers, attention and spend.

Australian sports must understand and layer new features of sport consumption (such as ease of access, flexible viewing, highlights and storytelling beyond matchdays).

These aspects, combined with media and global strategies have allowed the NFL to build ^[12] and now grow low and medium interest fan groups.

The question is no longer whether Australians care about US (and increasingly global) sports such as NFL but how local sport organisations adapt to their growing appetites.