Claimed viewership and participation across 22 sports and fitness activities, projected to the 15+ population. Cricket dominates the screen, but the participation story looks very different: badminton, volleyball and cycling punch far above their broadcast weight.
TOP VIEWED SPORT
Cricket
612 mn viewers · 42.5% of population
ACTIVITIES TRACKED
22
From cricket to padel
TOP PARTICIPATION
121.6 mn
Cricket, followed by badminton (60.8 mn)
HIGHEST PLAY-TO-WATCH
Cycling
More participants (12.2 mn) than viewers (10 mn)
📺
Cricket is a category of oneAt 612 mn viewers it doubles football (305 mn) and kabaddi (280 mn) combined would still trail it.
🏸
Badminton is India's playing field60.8 mn participants from just 145 mn viewers — a 42% conversion, the strongest of any big sport.
🤼
Watch-only sportsWrestling (210 mn) and field hockey (154 mn) draw big audiences but under 1.6 mn players each.
Sport leaderboard
Switch metric to re-rank all 22 activities. Hover any bar for exact values. Hover any bar for exact values.
Watching vs playing
Each bubble is a sport — size reflects % of population watching. Above the diagonal region = strong grassroots play.
Share of total viewership
Top 7 sports plus all others combined (2,421 mn claimed viewing instances).
