Just more than two million Australian's tuned in overnight to watch the NSW 'Blues' hand the Queensland 'Maroons' its first Origin series defeat since 2014.
Nine's coverage of State of Origin II attracted 2.09m metro viewers - 344,000 less than Origin I - and it attracted more than one million regional viewers.
The match peaked nationally at 3.64m viewers and was the second highest rating program of 2018, behind game one.
Returning to Sunday night for the first time in 15 years, the Blues and Maroons met at a sold-out ANZ stadium (82,223 in attendance) to what many believed to be NSW's best chance to take home the series shield.
Nine bet heavily on the decision to move one of the games to a Sunday night to attract new audiences outside traditional fans and generating new client interest in the Sunday night programming slot.
Nine head of sales of sport Matt Granger previously told AdNews he was confident the decision would pull a broader audience because Sunday night rates well for free-to-air TV, even though other networks may run some of their tent pole shows against it.
Confident in victory, Queensland shocked Blues fans early on, with two quick tries by way of Valentine Holmes and Dane Gagai. NSW would eventually enter half-time with a 12-10 lead, following a controversial penalty try.
Down to just 12 men in the last 10 minutes, the Blues held out against a relentless Maroons attack to walk away with an 18-14 victory and the 2018 State of Origin title.
Despite the strong ratings performance, Nine will have concerns for the final game of the series, with last year's 'decider' drawing in nearly 2.5m viewers and early series wins often leading to a drop off in game three ratings.
Seven's House Rules still performed well in the primetime slot, drawing an audience of 948,000 viewers.
Over on SBS, England's 6-1 thrashing of Panama drew in an audience of 566,000 viewers, as the broadcaster continues to enjoy strong main channel figures, following Optus' decision to surrender the rights to the remaining group stage games of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
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