Indian Premier League (IPL) continues to dominate TV viewership and is steadily growing each year. It's been 18 years since IPL started way back in 2008, but for fans all across the globe, IPL still is the number one watched show during the April-May slot. Cricket's hold over any other sport is huge in India. This fact is not even surprising, as for generations, cricket has been a religion in India. However, apart from IPL, Women's Premier League (WPL) has also got fans.
A new report in Havas Play has stated that the reach of Indian sporting leagues - IPL and WPL continues to surpass any other T20 leagues. IPL has also gone past European football giants in Indian viewership. According to the same report, the IPL recorded a staggering 857 million viewers across TV and digital platforms last year. Among that, 464 million tuned in via TV and 393 million watched on OTT platforms.
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Compared to IPL viewership, the UEFA Champions League, the biggest sporting football league and for the longest time considered the benchmark event among the sporting circle, attracted just 125 million viewers in India. One of the major reasons for that could be the exit of football superstars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, as both have quit playing in Europe. Even the English Premier League (EPL) trailed behind UEFA, with only 96 million.
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WPL overshadows UEFA Champions League
WPL, which started in 2023, notched up a jaw-dropping 130 million viewers, with 110 million of them being TV and via OTT. WPL's views top UEFA and EPL, and also UCL, which is a massive victory for the women's game in India. One of the factors of this is also numerous regional language commentaries and increased OTT access.
The IPL 2025 season alone was enough to prove how big the T20 league has grown across other sporting leagues. This season, IPL saw 840 billion minutes of total watch time. Even the league's one-week suspension could not stop them from breaking all records. The final between RCB vs PBKS shattered all previous records with 31.7 billion minutes of watch time. JioHotstar reported 169 million tuned in to watch the final on TV, while JioHotstar reported a stunning 892 million video views. The icing on the cake was peak concurrency of 55 million, the most recorded for a T20 game ever, surpassing even the T20 World Cup 2024 final between India and South Africa.
