T20 World Cup opening weekend draws record crowds and digital views

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 has seen record fan engagement, with 647 million video views, 107,781 in attendance over the opening weekend, and strong growth from non-traditional cricket nations. Streaming on ICC.tv also surged with new language feeds

Hyderabad: Fans around the world have been captivated by the opening weekend of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, with supporters packing stadia and digital engagement soaring.

After the first six thrilling matches across India and Sri Lanka, the ICC’s digital channels have seen a huge increase in engagement compared to the first two days of the 2024 tournament, highlighted by 647 million video views across all platforms — an increase of 53 per cent.

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The ICC app has enjoyed an 83 per cent spike in users since 2024, while there has also been 16 per cent more people using the ICC website across the same period.

The biggest growth has been seen from fans outside the Full Member countries. Nepal, who pushed England hard during their Group C clash on Sunday, leads the way in terms of individual country increases, with users from the southeast Asian country up 442 per cent.

There have also been 196 per cent and 49 per cent jumps in users from the UAE and the USA, respectively, showcasing the tournament’s ability to grow the sport globally.

India’s victory over the USA at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium saw the highest attendance over the weekend with 24,997, with four of the five other matches seeing more than 15,000 people through the gates.

Improved accessibility to tickets through pricing strategy and an early announcement of the match schedule has also seen encouraging numbers in the crowd turnouts for the Group Stage of the 20-team tournament being played across eight venues.

The total attendance across the opening weekend was 107,781, building on the combined 48,000 people who watched the warm-up encounters between India and South Africa (43,000) and India A vs USA (5,000).

Streaming figures also showed strong growth, with total views on ICC.tv up by 296 per cent, including a 192 per cent increase in unique users.

The ICC’s commitment to making this the most accessible ICC tournament ever has paid dividends, with engagement from non-traditional territories such as Japan, Germany, South Korea, France, Malaysia, Italy and the Netherlands now accounting for over a quarter of total views on ICC.tv..

This growth has been powered by the introduction of non-English commentary on ICC.tv for the first time, with the Nepali feed for England v Nepal and the Hindi feed for India v USA being the top two streamed matches.