Meltwater has revealed the latest State of Origin data ahead of Game 2 on Wednesday, on Nine and 9Now.
The data from the media intelligence and data analytics company shows how the two States faring and what has been most discussed and debated across social media platforms and on mainstream news media ahead of the game tomorrow night.
Among the key insights is Brad Fittler being the most discussed figure amongst all players and opposing coach Billy Slater, with an increase in mentions by 111% from 2022 (47,000 mentions between Jan-June 2023 vs 22.2K in 2022).
Brad Fittler Mentions Increase
Most Talked About Players in NSW
Most Talked About Players in QLD
Brad Fittler negative sentiment – 2023
Brad Fittler negative sentiment – 2022
This year the negative sentiment towards Fittler’s coaching has increased by nearly double (75%) from 6.8% in 2022 to 11.9% in 2023.
Meanwhile, News audiences are the most engaged (over two-thirds) with the game, with 327,000 engagements, followed by TikTok users with 89,500 out of a total of 448,000.
Most Engaged Content
Engagement Trend by Source
The top four most engaged content comes from TikTok – the top two rankings are:
• SMH TikTok post (106K reach) saying Brad Fittler will have 80 minutes to coach ahead of second game
• TikToker Jon-Bernard Kairouz post (525K reach) on what NSW needs to change
The Meltwater data also shows the NSW team has more mentions overall in the week leading up to Game 2, with 6.66K vs 5.57K for QLD, and NSW is the location where the State of Origin has been discussed the most (42.7K compared to 6.78K in QLD)
State of Origin SOV By Location
The media intelligence and data analytics company also found the key themes are not surprisingly focused on the injuries and the players selected for the line up.
Ahead of the game, the data found an overall 22,900 mentions about the State of Origin games in June, down by 24% from the same period in May in the lead up to the first game, with the peak of mentions on 1st June (first game day).