South Africa made history at the Rugby World Cup last week to win back-to-back championships and lift the Webb Ellis Cup for a record fourth time.

A brilliant and tightly contested final featuring the Springboks and their southern hemisphere rivals New Zealand brought the curtain down on the sporting spectacle.

As a result, engagement with our premium publishers’ Rugby content reached record levels as sport-loving Brits followed the action.

History making Springboks crown Rugby World Cup success

• 9.6m page views: Almost 10m Rugby page views last week as the Rugby World Cup concluded was the third highest week for engagement during the tournament. Weekly page views were +7% higher than the championship average and 2.4x greater than the 2023 weekly average.

• 3x higher engagement: The biggest week for engagement was the semi finals. England’s defeat to the newly minted world champions South Africa saw weekly page views reach 12.1m – a record high and 3x higher than the 2023 average – as a home nation team in action piqued interest. 

• +100% share of Sport growth: This year, Rugby page views have accounted for 6% of all Sport category engagement. During the Rugby World Cup this share doubled, increasing by +100% to a 12% overall share. This shows how major sporting events can really ramp up engagement.

Take Action

• The Rugby World Cup is yet another example of how Ozone’s premium publishers are used by millions of sport-loving Brits as go-to destinations during the biggest events in sport. Next year, we’ll see similar levels of attention and engagement during the Six Nations, Wimbledon, Euro 2024 and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

About Reading the Nation

Reading the Nation will connect you to our broadcast-scale audience – who we see across the Ozone platform in their millions day-in-day-out – to unearth insights into their habits and behaviours when topics start to trend or big stories break.

Check out previous issues of Reading the Nation below: