With just hours to go until the United Rugby Championship kicks off a new season, five years of sustained growth have set the stage for the league’s teams, players and fans to push the competition to another level.
Launched in 2021 as a “Different League”, the BKT URC has grown its audiences on screen, in stadiums and across digital platforms while building a competition increasingly defined by jeopardy, rivalry and innovation.
Now, after five seasons of building momentum, CEO Anayi says the next challenge is ensuring that the growth of the league translates into even greater success for its 16 clubs.
Anayi continues: “There is a strong case that the BKT URC is now the hardest league in rugby to win. What’s happened on the pitch tells its own story: four different champions in five seasons, 14 of our 16 clubs reaching the Play-Offs and no successful title defence until Leinster last season. Teams must win in different climates, intimidating stadiums, different surfaces against opponents who present completely different challenges from one week to the next.
“Now, more people are coming through the gates, more people are watching, our social audience has more than trebled and we have clubs creating bigger occasions and finding new ways to connect with their supporters.
“This growth gives us enormous momentum, but momentum only counts if you use it. Our ambition now is to make the URC feel even bigger: more major occasions, more full stadiums, more supporters and an even stronger competition for every one of our clubs.”
MORE JEOPARDY, MORE RIVALRY
Across five seasons, four different teams have lifted the URC trophy, two Grand Finals have been won by the away side and 14 of the competition’s 16 clubs have experienced Play-Off rugby.
That unpredictability has become part of the identity of the competition and is now brought into even sharper focus through the Race to the Eight as the battle for Play-Off qualification intensifies during the final rounds.
Last season, 37% of URC games were decided by seven points or fewer — a higher proportion than the equivalent benchmarks for Top 14, Premiership Rugby and EPCR.
The arrival of the four South African teams has also created an entirely new competitive dynamic and created new rivalries that few could have previously contemplated.
Across the first five seasons, South African sides have recorded 158 victories against northern opposition compared to 94 in the other direction. Yet despite providing a finalist in every BKT URC Grand Final, only one South African team — the DHL Stormers — has lifted the trophy.
At the same time, the league continues to showcase extraordinary player depth. Across the three seasons in which the measure was benchmarked, URC squads contained an average of 325 internationally capped players.
And the attacking numbers continue to rise. The first URC season produced an average of 6.0 tries per game. By URC5 that figure had risen to 6.9. More tries have come alongside more eyes.
MORE PEOPLE WATCHING, IN MORE WAYS
Between URC1 and URC4, cumulative television audience grew by 53%, from 34.6 million in the league’s launch season to 53 million in 2024/25.
Across those first four seasons alone, URC programming generated almost 173 million in cumulative television audience.
As viewing habits have evolved, so has the way the league measures its audience. In 2025/26, URC moved to total viewing hours to incorporate linear television, streaming, URCTV and digital highlights within a broader picture of consumption.
Last season generated 48.4 million viewing hours despite major changes to free-to-air distribution, while OTT viewing increased 28% and highlights consumption grew 20% to reach 9.5 million hours. The proof is that as the audience chooses different platforms to consume their sport, the URC is ensuring it is accessible in all of those spaces.
BIGGER CROWDS, BIGGER OCCASIONS
The growth has been just as visible in the stands. URC1 welcomed 1.09 million supporters during and since then the competition has established an entirely different attendance base, with around 1.7 million supporters attending in each of the past three seasons and a record 1.82 million recorded in URC4.
The most recent season delivered the second-highest attendance in the competition’s history while the underlying matchday picture continued to strengthen: 11 of 16 clubs increased their regular home attendance, league-wide occupancy rose to 57% and 32 regular-season games were played at more than 90% capacity.
Clubs are also thinking differently about what a URC fixture can become.
The league’s Big Match strategy has helped turn selected games into major events at venues including Croke Park, Murrayfield, Hampden Park, McHale Park and South Africa’s biggest rugby stadiums, while clubs continue to develop entertainment, hospitality and matchday experiences around their regular fixtures.
URC’s themed rounds are also demonstrating that storytelling can translate into demand.
Last season was the first in which the league had sufficient data to measure their impact conclusively. Origin Round and Kids Round both outperformed modelled attendance forecasts by more than any other non-derby rounds, while continuing to provide broadcast, social, content and PR opportunities for clubs and the league.
INNOVATION FANS CAN SEE
That willingness to experiment has become one of the defining characteristics of the URC.
Fans have seen it through Origin Round and Kids Round, the Race to the Eight, original and personality-led content, enhanced broadcast presentation, live Player of the Match voting, improved player access and the development of major-match occasions.
They have also seen it through a growing digital ecosystem that includes a custom-built URC app and website, URCTV and the next phase of direct fan engagement through a new membership platform.
At the heart of that approach is a social audience that has undergone its own transformation.
Before the BKT URC launched, the league’s central social channels had approximately 618,000 followers. By the end of URC5 that audience had passed 1.9 million and is now closing in on two million across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube and LinkedIn.
The audience has more than trebled through an evolving strategy built around original content, collaboration with clubs and players, platform-native storytelling and greater access beyond the touchlines. Five years into the United Rugby Championship, the proposition is clear:
More fans. Bigger occasions. More ways to watch. More stories. More jeopardy.
Now the challenge is to turn that momentum into the next phase of growth. Kick-off to URC can’t come soon enough.