Rugby is the most popular sport in Otago player-wise and coaching numbers are also on the rise.
The New Zealand Rugby Union said in its annual release that nationally a total of 146,893 people were registered as players this season.
That was a 1% increase from last year.
At the provincial level, there were 8118 men, women and children who registered with the Otago union to play rugby this year, a 2% increase on last year.
Otago Rugby Football Union chief executive Richard Reid said the figures showed rugby was still a popular sport within the region and reflected the hard work done by union staff and all the volunteers at club and school level.
"It's a pleasing result but we must not rest on our laurels.
"We must continue to focus on delivering new rugby programmes and initiative and also support those clubs and schools who deliver rugby-based programmes," Reid said.
Coaching numbers were also on the rise, with an 8% rise in registered coaches over the past 12 months.
Union resource coach Phil Young said more qualified coaches meant greater the skill level and enjoyment for the players.
Other sports in Otago reported good numbers of people playing sport, although most had a drop-off in the late secondary school age group and then when teenagers left school.
Some sports found it hard to get an exact number of players, as many competitors played socially and did not register.
Football South competition co-ordinator Pete Ritchie said there were about 3000 football players across Otago.
A survey carried out about two years ago had shown there had been a 40% increase in primary school age players in the past five years.
Though anecdotally there may have been an increase in numbers this year as the sport's profile increases no official numbers had been recorded.
A lot more people were keen to be involved in the sport, he said.
Netball Otago regional manager Nicky Paterson said there were about 5000 registered netball players throughout the province but there were possibly a lot more that just played socially and were not registered.
She said there was always a drop-off from players moving into the later years at secondary school and also when players left school.
Netball Otago tried to keep in touch with players to encourage them to play and also got in touch with players coming to Dunedin to study.
There were 5120 basketball players registered throughout Otago with competitions played throughout the week.
Growth had been good in junior grades.
Hockey had experienced some strong increases in playing numbers in the past few years, Otago Hockey Association chief executive Chris Aubin said.
The association was just going through the process of counting all its players.
It had about 2300 players.
He said there had been good growth in junior numbers and social leagues played in summer were also popular.
Otago Cricket Association development manager Nathan King said there were about 7000 registered cricketers in the Otago region.
This did not include about 3000 cricketers in Southland.
There was growth in juniors and twilight cricket but playing numbers in the longer forms of the game for adults were static.
