The NRL has reignited Australia’s sporting code wars with a claim to be Australia’s “biggest sport” in advertising material for the game’s foray into the USA next year.

The NRL will open its 2024 season with a double-header in Las Vegas in March and advertising materials for the fixture – including a four-storey high billboard on the side of Allegiant Stadium – are using the slogan: “Australia’s biggest sport unleashed in Vegas”.

The move has prompted rebukes from AFL luminaries including former Hawthorn president and Victorian premier Jeff Kennett, former player Kane Cornes, former AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou and hundreds of AFL fans online. “Dream on NRL,” one wrote on the AFL Memes Facebook page, with another adding: “Australia’s East coast sport unleashed.”

Hunter Fujak, lecturer at Deakin University and author of the 2021 book Code Wars, said under Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V’landys the sport had played into the rivalry in recent years. “The AFL tends not to give it as much oxygen, and that’s probably a reflection of where things are that the NRL feels the need to whip up the ‘code wars’-style discussion.”

The NRL advertised its State of Origin clash in Adelaide in May with the slogan “real footy is coming soon to Adelaide”.

Australia’s sports participation survey Ausplay lists running, swimming and cycling as the most popular sport-related activities in Australia, before association football comes in fourth with more than 1.1m participants among those aged 15. Australian rules football is 10th on the list with 567,000 behind sports including basketball and netball. Rugby league has 180,000 participants.

The AFL is also Australia’s best-attended sporting league. The NRL averaged just under 20,000 fans per match in 2023, substantially below the AFL figure of 36,000 according to analysis from sports industry blogger Jason Lassey.

But Australia’s television ratings show the NRL is close to its Melbourne-based rival. The AFL grand final attracted slightly more viewers than the NRL decider this year but the NRL also draws huge interest in its mid-season State of Origin broadcasts. And per match audiences during the season are comparable to the AFL’s.

Fujak said in terms of ratings, the NRL can claim the title of the biggest sport, but it also appeared to be leading the AFL in terms of digital presence of the league, clubs and players. “That’s going to be the next frontier, given that’s where young people will tend to be, and the biggest stars in rugby league tend to be better followed.” Brisbane fullback Reece Walsh has 413,000 followers on Instagram, compared with 241,000 for Collingwood midfielder Nick Daicos.

The NRL is taking its season-opening fixtures to the US in a bid to develop new broadcast and gambling markets. One of the four clubs involved, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, are sponsored by the New South Wales government’s Reclaim the Game initiative designed to reduce sports betting.