CSK has become the biggest franchise in India with a fan base of over 136 million.
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Four-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK), with a fan base of 136.3 million, has emerged as the biggest franchise in India, according to a recent report titled ‘We, The Sports Fans of India’ by Ormax Media.
CSK is the most popular franchise in India with 40.9 million fans. Their fan base has increased from the 26.8 million fans reported during IPL 2020 in the last two years.
Quite notably, their loyal fans, accounts to 22.5 million which is similar to the size of entire football fans in India.
The report is an aggregated outcome of a consumer research conducted over the six-month period from July to December 2021. The research is based on a sample size of 12,000 people across urban and rural India. A fan has been defined as someone who watched live sports on TV or OTT in the last month for at least 30 mins.
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Cricket remains the most popular sport in India with 124.2m fans. Kabaddi, wrestling (including WWE) and football are in a close contest for the second position, with 23-28 million fans each. The report has noted these fans on the basis of their gender, age, NCCS, pop strata and states.
Seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi’s former club Barcelona tops the list with 3.9 million fans in India while Portuguese talisman Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi feature in the list of the 10 most popular sportspersons in India. The list includes seven cricketers and badminton star PV Sindhu, besides the two football superstars.
In the section on viewing behaviour, the report looks at the TV vs digital consumption of sports. While 44 per cent Indian sports fans watch live sports only on TV, a sizable 36 per cent are using both traditional and digital media to watch live sports, while the remaining 20% are watching exclusively on digital. The report also covers the preferred commentary languages in India, reported by various geographies and demographics.
“Viewership numbers, especially from television, are not an accurate representation of the fanbase of any sport, as India is predominantly a single-TV nation where a lot of sports viewing is passive in nature. Through this report, we aim to fill in the need gap for reliable data on the size and the profile of the ‘real’ sports fans, who are actively watching and engaged with the sport,” Shailesh Kapoor, founder & CEO, Ormax Media, said.
