The footballers are still a bigger draw in England but rugby scaled greater heights than it ever has before during Saturday's thrill-ride.
The television audience watching on the BBC peaked at 9.63 million during the England-France match - an all-time record for the Six Nations. The Scotland-Ireland games peaked at 5.1 million while the Italy-Wales match drew in crowds of 4.1 million.
The BBC Sport website saw record numbers of traffic on Saturday with 8.22 million unique browsers. The previous record of 8.03 million was set during the 2012 Olympics.
As far as the TV audience goes, the actual numbers dipped below what the England football team have pulled in in the past. 14.4 million tuned in to watch England played in the Italy in the opening game of the 2014 World Cup.
