Workington Town and Barrow improved their opening match attendances on Sunday, compared to the 2019 season.
It was part of a general across-the-board increase in crowd figures in the Betfred Championship compared to pre-COVID figures.
The Rugby Football League have used the 2019 figures as a comparison because that was the last time a season opened on time and was not subsequently affected by the pandemic.
Workington, in fact, had the second biggest increase of 40 per cent compared to their home start in League One three years ago.
Their game at Derwent Park against Newcastle Thunder, as they returned to the Championship, was watched by 1,205.
That was a rise of 346 on the opening crowd figure of 2019 against North Wales Crusaders (859).
Barrow also started 2021 in League One and went on to win the title.
They had 1,927 there for the opening game on Sunday against Sheffield Eagles. That was 413 more than saw the first home game in 2019, which was also against Sheffield and in the Championship.
Whitehaven were at Leigh and won’t be able to reveal their comparable figures until after Sunday. But they should be healthy as they start the home programme with a Cumbrian derby against Barrow.
Of the seven clubs with home games at the week-end only Dewsbury Rams showed a decrease in attendance – but only of 44.
The biggest crowd was for the Monday night game between York City Knights and Featherstone (3,602) which was the live game screened by Premier Sports.
Figures released today reveal the average viewing figure for that game was 51,000 with a peak of 52,400
A spokesman for the RFL said: “It has been a great start to the season. Attendances are strong, our competitions have already been viewed live on four different platforms generating some seriously impressive viewing figures and awareness for the competitions, our clubs and all of our partners.
“The opening week viewing figures of 51,000 for the game between York City Knights and Featherstone Rovers was incredibly strong and the overwhelming positive reaction on social media to their production has all gone down really well.”
