The NRL has a way to go in the brutal US sports market with TV ratings in America for the historic NRL double header not making for pretty reading.

According to SportsMedia, just 61,000 tuned into Fox Sports 1 with the ratings dropping to under 50,000 for the second match.

But the NRL were still delighted with the result for the first games of a five-year deal in Las Vegas.

“The Las Vegas matches were watched by a huge number of people around the world, including a record Australian audience,” NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said.

“We had a 61,000 average viewership on Fox Sports 1 for the first game, which was more than one third of the marquee college basketball clash between Xavier and Georgetown which preceded our games. That figure also compares to some US Major League Soccer games on Fox Sports 1.

“The second game attracted an average audience of 44,000. These are the two most watched NRL matches in the US on record. The audience of the first game was three times higher than the most watched NRL games on Fox Sports in the past three seasons and over 280 per cent higher than the most recent Saturday games on Fox Sports 1.

“We are proud of what we achieved this year in Las Vegas and have been blown away by how positively Americans have responded to rugby league.

“The exposure the game received and the reviews of the matches by US fans and media will be a massive boost for year two and beyond. We are very focused on the long-term opportunity this presents for the game.”

More than 40,000 fans packed into Allegiant Stadium where the Sea Eagles and Roosters ran out winners.