The festival of the boot sends digital sports audiences soaring – Ipsos iris June data

21.6 million Australians used a news website or app in June

22 July 2026 – The FIFA World Cup, NBA finals, the 2026 AFL fixtures, and the Wimbledon tennis championship sent huge numbers of Australians online for their fix of sporting updates in June, with strong Sports category growth recorded in June, Ipsos iris data released today reveals.

The Sports category’s audience jumped by +8.1% month-on-month, reaching 14.1 million Australians in June, who spent around an hour (56.6 minutes) across the month consuming sport-related content on sports websites and apps.

The FIFA World Cup, which kicked off in Mexico City on June 11, was the unparalleled leader in online sports news consumption, commanding massive global attention for everything from scores and fixtures to live updates.

As the tournament’s official Australian broadcast sponsor, SBS Brand Group, which covers SBS websites and apps on PCs, laptops and mobile devices, saw a huge surge in audience numbers in June, up +28.7% month-on-month, from 5.6 million to 7.2 million, and its SBS Sport audience jumped from 59,000 to 716,000 – an increase of more than 11 times.

FIFA, the World Cup’s governing body, saw its Australian online audience balloon from 112,000 in May to more than 1.6 million in June (up 13 times), with average minutes spent on the site also increasing +65% month-on-month.

The NBA finals, which kicked off on June 3, also commanded audience attention, with audiences on ESPN.com.au growing by +33% month-on-month, from 2.3 million to 3.1 million, as Australians tuned in to see the New York Knicks defeat the San Antonio Spurs on June 13 in an historic Championship victory.

The 2026 AFL season continued to prove popular with footy fans, with Australian Football League websites and apps receiving the highest audience numbers in the Sports category in June reaching 3.75 million, with viewers spending around 36 minutes per person across the month.

Sports category website and app consumption was strong amongst both genders, with audience reach increasing month-on-month by +7% for men, from 63% to 70%, and by +4% for women, from 52% to 56%.

The chart below shows the Sports brands’ ranking during June 2026 by online audience size.

FIFA World Cup also leads online news consumption on News websites or apps in June

The FIFA World Cup also dominated news consumption in June, commanding massive attention among Australians, including scores, fixtures and live updates.

The NRL also achieved high interest from league fans on its website, serving as a primary hub for fans seeking news, scores, and updates including the State of Origin Game 2 that was played in Melbourne.

According to the latest Ipsos iris data, 21.6 million people used a news website or app in June, reaching 95.7% of online Australians aged 14 and over, with users spending around 3.12 hours in June reading news online.

Several major news stories sparked nationwide interest, including the widely covered Coogee shark attack with reports identifying the victim as a young mother, and the case of an Australian tourist charged over an alleged “suitcase murder” in Thailand, including coverage of the arrest, the victim’s family’s demand for the death penalty and details of the accused’s background.

US politics and live updates from the Iran War also captured the attention of Australian audiences, demonstrating a strong Australian interest in major global conflicts and their potential implications domestically, while political and economic news also continued to garner attention, particularly focused on the Federal Budget, changes to housing and tax law, and the financial wellbeing of homeowners.

Karl Stefanovic’s controversial podcast with guest political activist Tommy Robinson and his subsequent departure from the Nine Network was also a major story, generating large readership across news articles, opinion and analysis of the fall-out.

Globally, incidents like the bungee jumping death of a woman in Brazil generated interest, along with natural disasters including the Venezuelan earthquake, deadly floods in Ghana and wildfires in Europe, along with reports of a night of violence at a French music festival, which descended into stabbings, sexual assaults and mass arrests. The resignation of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson’s cancer diagnosis were also top stories.

The chart below shows the News brands’ ranking during June 2026 by online audience size.

Career category continues to dominate

The Career category continued its record audience growth in June, recording its highest audience growth year-on-year for the fourth consecutive month, up +10.7%. This was followed by year on year increases in Travel (+5.4%), Energy suppliers/Utilities (+4.6%), Homes and Property (+3.57%) and Health (+3.6%).

Ipsos iris, Australia’s digital audience measurement currency endorsed by IAB Australia, showed that 22.57 million Australians aged over 14 used the internet in June, on par with last month’s data, and spent an average of just 4.97 hours daily online.

The most consumed categories in June were social networking (22.49 million), search engines (22.48 million), online media (22.46 million), technology (22.4 million), and entertainment (22.19 million).

Ipsos iris provides accurate data about the 22.57 million Australians aged 14+ who access a wide variety of digital content and services across smartphone, PC/laptop and tablet devices.

Notes for editors:

Ipsos iris is an independent source of truth for the media industry providing a level playing field for comparison of audience reach and characteristics and supporting the $18.4 billion Australian online advertising market (Source; IAB Australia Internet Advertising Revenue Report prepared by PWC CY25)
Ipsos iris provides accuracy in solving cross-device deduplication, the biggest challenge in measuring online audiences, using a single-source multi-device panel measuring activity on 8,000 smartphone, PC, laptop and tablet devices.
Ipsos iris provides accurate data about the number of people who visit the content of digital publishers and platforms, along with the frequency of visits and time spent by tracking digital audience behaviour across desktop/laptop, smartphone, and tablets. It uses a hybrid methodology that combines metered data from a high quality, nationally representative, single-source passive panel with site-centric census measurement via media owner tagging.
In February 2024, the CTV audience currency integration from a data partnership with OzTAM launched, providing total unduplicated digital audience currency data for BVOD across CTV, smartphones, tablets, and computers.
In August 2024, enriched YouTube audience reach and watch time data for Connected TV across mobile, desktop and tablets was integrated into Ipsos iris, in collaboration with Google and IAB Australia.
Ipsos iris is fully privacy compliant and cross-media ready and will continue to evolve with a roadmap of enhancements over 2024 and beyond. It will also be adaptable to changing requirements as the industry develops in future years.
The launch of Ipsos iris with monthly data from January 2023 was the culmination of extensive work by the IAB and its Measurement Council that commenced in early 2021 with a strategic review of industry requirements. Ipsos was awarded the IAB’s endorsement, having best met the standards on criteria across all areas of product along with criteria for operations and a future roadmap.
Further information can be found at: https://iris-au.ipsos.com/