Rugby, for the purpose of the list, did lump both codes together (just as Hockey included both ice and field) and it was joint 9th with American Football, which is mainly watched in just one country.
http://sporteology.com/top-10-popular-sports-world/
It's a popular sport in Britain, France, Australia/New Zealand and South Africa, it's nowhere near football, but it's still quite popular.
So it's meaningless in a discussion about rugby league.
For the record, I really couldn't give less ****s about how popular rugby league is in France.