YouTube in ANZ Sports: A 2025 deep dive

YouTube is no longer a supplementary channel for sports organisations. It is a primary fan engagement and commercial asset. With over 2.5 billion logged-in monthly users globally, it is the world's second largest search engine, the dominant destination for long-form video, and since the launch of YouTube Shorts, one of the most powerful short-form discovery platforms available to rights holders and their partners.

We have analysed over 72,000 YouTube uploads from sports teams, codes, competitions, podcasts, events and more from across Australia & New Zealand to reveal the true scale of the platform, how accounts have found success and the commercial benefit to the platform.

Why YouTube? 

For sports brands, clubs, and the commercial partners who invest in them, YouTube offers something broadcast television and social media platforms cannot replicate: a permanent, searchable, monetisable archive of content that compounds in value over time. A highlight from the 2025 BBL final does not vanish after 24 hours like an Instagram Story. It continues accumulating views, search traffic, and ad revenue months or years after publication as it becomes a piece of archival content from the vault. Aside from the nature of the platform, there are two clear distinct advantages for brands prioritising YouTube:

Longer content = deeper fan affinities & engagement
Longer-form YouTube content, videos over 10 minutes, creates a fundamentally different relationship between audience and brand than shorter-form content on other platforms.

A viewer who watches a 20-minute documentary about their club, with sponsor messaging woven throughout, develops deeper brand association than any billboard or TVC generates. YouTube's own research shows that viewers who engage with long-form branded content demonstrate higher purchase intent and brand recall than equivalent broadcast audiences.

For sponsors, this matters enormously. Traditional sponsorship metrics, logo impressions in broadcast and signage at the ground, are increasingly difficult to verify and hard to benchmark across different properties. YouTube provides transparent, auditable audience data that sponsors can use to compare the genuine digital reach & engagement of competing partnership opportunities.

A brand evaluating two AFL club sponsorships of similar value now has the tools to determine which club delivers more digital impressions, deeper audience engagement, and stronger long-form content that builds the brand affinity a 30-second ad cannot replicate.

Direct revenue generation
Ad revenue through YouTube's Partner Programme, channel memberships, Super Thanks and integrated brand deals are all direct monetisation mechanisms.

Accounts in our dataset with strong long-form strategies, Fox Cricket (56.9M views, 54% long-form uploads), cricket.com.au (428M views) and the Australian Open (990M views), are generating meaningful ad revenue from content largely already produced as part of their standard broadcast and editorial operations. 

 
YouTube offers clear, measurable revenue streams that most sports organisations are dramatically under-exploiting.

Our report reveals a market in Australia & New Zealand where a small number of properties capture an outsized share of digital audience, while the majority leave significant commercial value untapped.

The View Count Leaders: Who Is Winning on YouTube?

Across 141 accounts and over 72,000 uploads in 2025, a clear hierarchy forms. The top 10 accounts by total views collectively account for roughly two-thirds of all views in the dataset, a level of concentration with significant implications for sponsors, broadcasters and digital rights holders.

Fig. 1 — Top 10 Australian & NZ Sports YouTube Accounts by Total Views, 2025

The Australian Open sits in a category of its own. 990.6 million views from 2,807 uploads represents roughly 34% of all views across the entire dataset. Its January timing gives it near-monopoly status on global sports attention in the new year, and its digital-first production operation, investing in Shorts (798 published, averaging 1.13 million views each) alongside long-form match coverage, makes it a global YouTube benchmark, not just an Australian one.

Cricket dominates the mid-tier. cricket.com.au (428.8M views), BBL (186.9M) and Fox Cricket (56.9M) collectively demonstrate that Australia's summer sport has built the most mature YouTube ecosystem in the domestic market. Australia's strong 2024-25 international cricket calendar provided the content pipeline. But cricket's content teams also clearly understand YouTube: a mix of bite-sized Shorts, packaged highlights and extended long-form coverage maps precisely to how the platform's algorithm rewards varied content strategies, with audiences across South Asia consuming content from Australian accounts en masse.

Broadcasters have strong digital rights - or at least, they invest in digital & content teams, who know how to leverage them effectively. Stan Sport Football are the only football/soccer focused account in the top ten, with their strong rights portfolio (EPL, UCL, internationals) appealing to both Australian fans & overseas audiences. NRL on Nine’s inclusion within the top 10 together with NRL itself highlights the strength of the code’s ecosystem - showing it is possible for both broadcaster and the competition itself to co-exist - and thrive - on digital channels.

Manly Sea Eagles are the dataset's most glaring outlier. 80 million views from just 52 uploads, a views-per-video average of 1.54 million, suggests one or a small number of viral moments drove the bulk of performance. Their 31 Shorts averaged 2.57 million views each, the highest Shorts average in the entire dataset across all account types.

 Views vs Engagements: What the Difference Tells You

The engagement leaderboard is broadly similar to the views leaderboard, with one critical distinction: Beyond23 Cricket Podcast appears in the top 10 for engagements (1.15M) but not for views. This reveals that its audience is significantly more active and invested than its raw view count suggests. Across social channels, engagement rate is often a stronger signal of audience quality for sponsors than raw views alone - with platform-specific metrics on YouTube such as watch-time and average view duration the ultimate barometer with longer-form content.

A podcast with 50M views and 1.1M engagements delivers a more commercially valuable audience than a broadcaster with 70M views and 400K engagements.

The videos that drove views in Australia & NZ - most viewed videos in 2025 per category

Looking at the most-viewed videos across each category in 2025, cricket again emerges to the forefront across multiple categories - emphasising the power of the sport’s global audience across South Asia and beyond.

Delving deeper into the dataset and performance of channels in the table above, it’s important to note outliers such as Manly Sea Eagle’s reel, SailGP Aus team - and to some extent, AFL. While these have delivered extraordinary views in isolation, they are not indicative of the metrics seen on the channels’ broader uploads. Manly’s Short above makes up over 98% of their overall YouTube views for 2025 - and accumulated 3662x more views than the average views on the channel last year.

It should also be noted that while the video from SailGP above was indeed the most-viewed video by an international team, it was not the most engaged. The Short attracted shy of 7k engagements, whereas this Short from the All Blacks produced 4 x many engagements - highlighting the perils of looking at views data in isolation. 

Accounts such as Australia Open, Fox Cricket, Beyond23 and cricket.com.au repeatedly produce high video views of this nature - and their inclusion in this list should be attributed more to long-term content strategy than a one-off flirtation with the algorithm.

Code Performance: The Competition Channel Hierarchy

Competition and code channels occupy a unique position in the YouTube sports ecosystem. Unlike club accounts, which serve existing fanbases, competition channels function as the central hub for the sport itself, attracting casual viewers, lapsed fans and international audiences alongside core supporters.

The view volume chart and the views-per-video efficiency chart tell different stories, and both matter.

 Top 5 most-viewed domestic competition channels in ANZ - 2025

It should be noted that the above table captures most major competitions, but not every competition. Coverage of certain competitions such as Super W is on the rugby.com.au YouTube channel - the same applies to the National Second Division (soccer), whose first season in 2025 lived on the Football Australia channel.

From the above dataset, some interesting observations emerge:

AFL and NRL take contrasting approaches
NRL have opted for volume, but AFL are averaging higher per-video views and engagements (double that of NRL).

Digging deeper into content mix, 48.9% of NRL’s uploads were longer-form (10-min+) is the highest of any football code competition channel, reflecting a genuine commitment to extended editorial content and full matches - however, it is questionable to what extent those videos are garnering views. The AFL sits at 26.7% in comparison, relying more heavily on mid-length highlights and compilation. Both achieve strong per-video figure and set a foundation for sponsor integration and  higher CPM ad revenue.

Super Rugby Pacific is the standout efficiency story among codes.
32.4 million views from just 136 uploads at 240,201 views per video are enormous numbers at a first glance, ranking second only to BBL for per-video efficiency among all competition channels, achieved with a fraction of their upload volume. However, the bulk of uploads on the channel are match highlights - also publishing highlights of international matches during Super Rugby Pacific’s off-season, so results here need to be framed under caveats that it covers a broader remit than just SRP itself.

The NBL is the clearest structural gap in the competition category.
The channel produces 1,515 uploads with just 5,495 views per video. This is in stark contrast with only 5.2% Shorts adoption, sits in stark contrast to NBA Australia running a 69.7% Shorts strategy and generating 11.7M views from 1,063 uploads. The comparable exists in the same ecosystem for the same sport taking two entirely different approaches to Shorts v non-Shorts.

 The overseas success story 

And while we're on NBA Australia, it's a lesson that cultivating an Australian & New Zealand following on YouTube isn’t something that’s limited just to Australian and NZ brands…

In fact, the NBA Australia account stands as the only overseas competition with a dedicated, actively managed YouTube presence in this dataset. With 11.7 million views and a 70% Shorts adoption rate, it demonstrates a clear proof of concept: Australian audiences will engage with localised overseas competition content on YouTube when it is built specifically - and targeted - for them.

Several major overseas competitions, including NFL, Premier League and Formula One, maintain localised Instagram and Facebook accounts for the Australian and New Zealand market but have no equivalent YouTube presence as yet.

Australian fans are currently served by global parent channels, with limited local scheduling context, no locally relevant framing and no dedicated Shorts strategy built around Australian broadcast windows and fan culture.

So what's holding others back from adopting localised approaches for the Australian & NZ market?

• Broadcast v competition: For many overseas competitions, the rights to distribute specific match footage in Australia are held by the broadcast partner, not the rights holder directly. The NFL cannot clip and publish match highlights on an NFL Australia YouTube channel if ESPN or Seven holds Australian broadcast rights and those rights include digital distribution. However, even if these broadcast restrictions do exist, it encourages creativity around localisation strategy - and one that is perhaps more talent- or fan-led, rather than highlights-centred

• Fragmentation: The most common internal objection at global sports organisations is that a localised channel fragments the subscriber base and dilutes the metrics of the parent channel. The truth is largely the opposite of such beliefs. A localised channel approach engages fans at a granular, authentic level if truly localised content strategies are adopted - however, if the same content is posted across the main global and local channels, than those objections can be held true.

• Resource: Ultimately budgets and justifying ROI of a channel can be difficult in the short-term on a platform such as YouTube, where long-term content strategies and investment in content pay off. Often, overseas codes need to acquire fans or sell tickets on a short-term basis, opting for paid media or creator channels as a short-term sprint option - rather than longer-term brand building on localised channels. However, with Australia and New Zealand boasting some of the highest CPMs of all countries on YouTube, there is a clear ROI and path to revenue unlike other platforms.

The commercial gap this creates is straightforward. A localised YouTube channel generates sponsorship inventory that a global channel cannot sell to Australian brands. It builds broadcast tune-in for local rights partners. And in a higher-CPM, longer-watch-time environment than Meta platforms provide, it delivers meaningfully stronger commercial proof points for local partnership conversations.

With Australia and New Zealand boasting some of the highest CPMs of all countries on YouTube, there is a clear ROI and path to revenue unlike other platforms.

Volume vs Value: Why Posting More Rarely Means Earning More

The ten most prolific accounts in 2025 together published over 26,000 videos, more than a third of the entire dataset's upload volume. But posting volume and performance are not the same thing, and the data makes the gap plain.

beIN SPORTS Australia published 4,787 videos, the most of any account in the dataset, yet averaged just 5,469 views per video. NBL1, the second most prolific account in terms of volume, averages 152 views per video from 4,672 uploads - a challenger competition sitting below the NBL top division has opted for a volume play, but is yet to reap dividends. 

Both are posting at extraordinary volume with minimal return. 

The Australian Open - with the caveat being a behemoth in terms of audience size - has 2,807 uploads averaging 352,888 views each. Content quality and format strategy consistently outperform raw output.

Fig. 4 — Upload Volume vs Total Views. Bubble size = total views. Trendline shows near-zero correlation between volume and performance.

The scatter chart makes the central finding plain: there is no meaningful correlation between upload volume and total views across the industry

The Commercial Implication

For sponsors evaluating partnership ROI, upload volume is evidently a meaningless metric. A club posting 700 videos and generating 4M views is a weaker digital partner than one posting 50 videos and generating 80M views. What matters is views-per-video efficiency, watch duration and format mix. These are the factors that determine whether audiences are actually watching, and whether they are engaged enough to notice brand messaging.

Shorts vs Long-Form: The Format Strategy Divide

The single biggest strategic variable separating high-performing accounts from low-performing ones is not budget, production quality or brand profile. It is how accounts distribute their content across YouTube's two most algorithmically rewarded formats: Shorts and long-form video (10 minutes or longer).

YouTube Shorts function as a discovery engine. Short-form clips are served to non-subscribers through YouTube's Shorts feed, which now reaches over 70 billion daily views globally. For sports accounts, Shorts of match highlights, player moments and behind-the-scenes content are the primary mechanism for reaching new audiences beyond an existing subscriber base.

Long-form content (10 minutes and above) functions as an engagement, viewer retention and monetisation layer. Longer videos generate higher CPM ad rates, accumulate watch time that the algorithm rewards with recommendations, and create the deep brand affinity that sponsors are ultimately paying for. A viewer who watches a 20-minute post-match analysis or 60% watch-time of a podcast is a fundamentally more engaged, and commercially more valuable, audience member than one who watched a 45-second highlight. 

Four strategic clusters emerge from the data:

1. Dual Investment (top-right, above 30% on both axes):
Accounts investing meaningfully in both formats simultaneously:

• Beyond23 Podcast (57.9% Shorts, 42.1% long-form) 

• The Grade Cricketer (55% Shorts, 39% long-form)

• All Blacks (47.7% Shorts, 34.5% long-form)

• Sky Sport NZ (33% Shorts, 53% long-form) 

These accounts use Shorts to grow their audience and long-form to convert that audience into genuine fans. The approach is achievable: combined Shorts and long-form percentages can reach 100% of uploads.

2. Shorts-First (bottom-right, above 30% Shorts / below 30% long-form):
Account prioritising short-term discovery with minimal long-form content:

• Kayo Sports (91.9% Shorts)

• Stan Sport (66.1%)

• Hawthorn FC (81.9%) 

• Brisbane Heat (92%) 

This drives broad reach but limited audience depth. It works well for a streaming service using YouTube as an acquisition funnel, but it is suboptimal for clubs trying to build long-term commercial value.

3. Long-Form First (top-left, below 30% Shorts / above 30% long-form):
Fox Cricket (54.4% long-form, 7.3% Shorts), Supercars (39.8% long-form), the NRL (48.9% long-form) and Cricket Australia (91% long-form) invest in depth over discovery. Fox Cricket's approach is particularly telling: its rare Shorts average 230,000 views each, suggesting that even a small number of event-driven Shorts can significantly over-perform when the underlying audience is already there.

4. Mid-Length Focus (bottom-left, below 30% on both axes):
Many club accounts and some broadcasters sit here, relying on mid-length (2 to 9 minute) content. This is the least algorithmically rewarded zone. Mid-length content neither benefits from the Shorts discovery engine nor accumulates the watch time and CPM value of long-form. beIN SPORTS, Super Rugby Pacific clubs and most A-League clubs fall into this quadrant, showing a reliance on match highlights content.

Mini success stories

Sutherland Sharks: The semi-pro club outperforming A-League teams

A semi-professional team in NSW has more subscribers on YouTube than all A-League teams combined. 

Outside of Manly Sea-Eagles, they averaged the highest video views by any Australian or NZ domestic sports team in 2025 - emphasising that results on YouTube can be achieved irregardless of content resource.

Their Sink or Swim content series generated close to 500k views in total across long-form and Shorts cutdowns. 

The Shorts machine in the BBL

Brisbane Heat are the BBL outlier worth noting. 340 uploads at 25,872 views per video, seven times the team median, with a 3.5% engagement rate. 

92% of all uploads from the Heat are Shorts. They are essentially running a Shorts-first playbook with discipline and it is working at a level that most BBL clubs are not approaching. The engagement rate at that view volume is the tell that this is a real fanbase, not algorithmic noise.

Don't sleep on Supercars

Supercars sit at 3.6 times the median for competitions in ANZ. For a domestic motorsport series that does not have the global profile of Formula One or the mainstream audience of AFL and NRL, generating 31,470 views per video from 508 uploads with a 1.9% engagement rate is a genuine overperformance. 

The motorsport content format, race replays, technical breakdowns, team garage access, maps naturally to YouTube's long-form rewards and Supercars appears to understand this.

What This Means for Sponsors and Commercial Teams

The data in this report tells a story that goes well beyond content strategy. At its core, it reveals a significant and largely unmeasured gap between the digital commercial value Australian and New Zealand sports properties are delivering to their partners, and the value they are capable of delivering.

YouTube performance data is increasingly becoming the commercially sophisticated sponsors examine when evaluating both partnerships and broadcast agreements. A club that cannot demonstrate competitive digital reach, views per video, Shorts performance, long-form engagement, is going to market with weaker commercial proof points than its rivals, often at similar price points.

The spread in this dataset is striking. The top-performing accounts achieve 100 times the views per video of the weakest accounts in the same category. When sponsors compare two AFL club packages of equivalent fee, that differential is not invisible to them. It directly affects the digital impression value, the branded content reach, and ultimately the renewal conversation.

The clearest action item from this data for commercial teams is not to simply tell their content & marketing teams to post more content. The upload volume analysis shows conclusively that more content does not equal more views. The action item is to audit your format strategy: how much of your content budget is allocated to Shorts that reach new audiences, and how much is invested in long-form content that builds the brand affinity sponsors are actually paying for?

The Sponsorship Opportunity

Digital reach is a sellable sponsorship asset. An account averaging 40,000 views per video across 400 annual uploads delivers 16 million digital impressions per year from YouTube alone, each with the potential for integrated brand messaging that outperforms traditional broadcast advertising on recall and purchase intent. Most Australian sports commercial teams are not pricing or packaging this inventory, because they have not benchmarked it against the market.  

For Sponsors and Brand Partners

The critical insight for brands investing in Australian sports sponsorship is that not all digital audiences are equal, and many sponsorship packages are priced as if they are. A brand paying similar fees to two cricket clubs may be receiving dramatically different digital impression values. Without independent benchmarking data, that asymmetry is invisible.

YouTube provides a uniquely transparent window into actual audience size and engagement, because the data is public and auditable. Unlike broadcast ratings, which are modelled estimates, or social media reach, which is frequently inflated by algorithm gaming, YouTube views and engagement figures are directly verifiable.

YouTube metrics should be part of every sponsorship due diligence and renewal assessment:

•       Views per video: The most reliable efficiency metric. A club posting 50 videos averaging 40,000 views each delivers 2 million views annually. At what CPM equivalent does that value stack up against the sponsorship fee?

•       Engagements/view: Engagements as a percentage of views reveals audience quality. Accounts with 3 to 4% engagement rates in our dataset, Brad Jones Racing, Western Bulldogs, Tasmania JackJumpers, deliver an audience that is actively invested and more receptive to brand messaging than a passive mass audience, also eliminating any paid media spend on videos that drive viewership without active audience engagement.

•       Watch-time: What is the average watch-time of longer-form content pieces? Are the audience watching for over 50% on average, or switching off soon after the first few frames? This shows the true depth of audience engagement.

The Bottom Line

The Australian and New Zealand sports YouTube market generated 2.9 billion views across 141 accounts in 2025. A small number of properties captured the majority of that value, and the gap between the leaders and the rest is growing as format strategy becomes more sophisticated. For sponsors, the question is whether your current partnerships sit in the first group or the second. For sports commercial teams, the question is whether you have the data and the strategy to prove it.

 This report is based on 2025 full-year YouTube performance data across 141 Australian and New Zealand sports accounts spanning teams, competitions, broadcasters, governing bodies and podcasts. Data includes total views, uploads, engagements, Shorts performance and long-form content analysis. Accounts with anomalous data values have been excluded from category averages.