India’s sports league market is no longer built around one tournament. The Indian Premier League remains the most-watched sports league in India, but several other competitions now attract large television and digital audiences.
Cricket still leads by a wide margin. The IPL crossed 1.2 billion viewers across television and digital in 2026.
The Women’s Premier League has also grown quickly, while the Pro Kabaddi League remains India’s biggest non-cricket sports league by audience scale.
This list uses the latest publicly reported audience figures available for recent seasons. One important point needs to be clear: leagues do not all report viewership in the same way.
Some publish unique audience reach, while others report cumulative TV viewers, digital viewers, or video views. Because of that, the ranking below should be read as an indicative viewership ranking, not a perfect apples-to-apples measurement.
Most Watched Sports Leagues in India at a Glance
| Rank | League | Sport | Recent Reported Audience Metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indian Premier League | Cricket | 1.2+ billion TV and digital reach in 2026 |
| 2 | Women’s Premier League | Cricket | 325 million TV and digital viewers in 2025 |
| 3 | Pro Kabaddi League | Kabaddi | Around 230 million combined TV and digital viewers |
| 4 | Indian Super League | Football | 152.9 million linear TV reach in 2024-25 |
| 5 | Prime Volleyball League | Volleyball | 239 million live TV and YouTube views in Season 4 |
| 6 | Hockey India League | Hockey | 40.8 million cumulative viewers in 2024-25 |
| 7 | Ultimate Kho Kho | Kho Kho | 21 million viewers in Season 2 |
| 8 | Ultimate Table Tennis | Table Tennis | 20 million viewers in 2024 |
That is why it should not be compared directly with unique audience reach.
1. Indian Premier League
The Indian Premier League, or IPL, is comfortably India’s biggest sports league.
The tournament started in 2008 and changed the way franchise sports work in the country. It combined city-based teams, international players, prime-time television, and entertainment into one competition.
The gap between the IPL and every other Indian sports league remains huge.
IPL Viewership Numbers
The 2026 season reached more than 1.2 billion viewers across television and digital platforms.
That was a new league record.
The same season produced around 870 billion minutes of cumulative watch time, according to broadcaster data.
The previous year was already massive. IPL 2025 reached around one billion viewers across TV and digital.
The 2025 final between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings also attracted 169 million television viewers, according to BARC data.
Why IPL Is India’s Most Watched League
Several factors keep the IPL far ahead:
- Cricket is India’s most followed sport.
- The league includes many of the world’s best players.
- All 10 franchises have established fan bases.
- Matches run in evening prime-time slots.
- Regional-language coverage expands the audience.
- JioHotstar and Star Sports give the league huge distribution.
- The tournament has almost two decades of brand history.
The IPL is not only the biggest league in Indian sport. It has also become one of the world’s largest sports media properties.
2. Women’s Premier League
The Women’s Premier League, or WPL, has become one of the fastest-growing sports leagues in India.
BCCI launched the league in 2023. It started with five franchises and immediately attracted leading Indian and overseas players.
WPL Viewership
WPL audience reach more than doubled within its first three seasons.
The 2025 season reached around 325 million viewers across television and digital platforms.
That was up from about 152 million viewers in the inaugural 2023 season.
The jump shows how quickly women’s cricket has moved into the mainstream Indian sports market.
Why WPL Viewership Is Growing
The WPL benefits from many of the same factors that made the IPL successful.
It has:
- Major city franchises
- Indian national team stars
- International players
- Prime-time matches
- Strong television distribution
- Large digital reach
- IPL-linked franchise brands
Players such as Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues have also become strong commercial names.
For this ranking, WPL sits second based on its recent reported cross-platform audience of 325 million.
3. Pro Kabaddi League
The Pro Kabaddi League, or PKL, remains one of Indian sport’s biggest success stories.
It started in 2014 and turned kabaddi from a largely tournament-based traditional sport into a regular prime-time franchise competition.
PKL is placed third on this list and remains the most-watched non-cricket sports league in India.
Pro Kabaddi League Viewership
Current industry reporting places PKL’s combined television and digital audience at around 230 million viewers, including roughly 190 million TV viewers.
Earlier seasons have also crossed the 200 million mark.
During Season 10, the league had already reached 226 million television viewers before the playoffs began.
That season also generated around 38 billion minutes of TV watch time at that stage.
Why Some Reports Call PKL India’s Second-Most Watched League
While the IPL sits firmly at the top of India’s viewership charts, kabaddi has emerged as the country’s surprise second-favourite, drawing massive television and digital audiences year after year. Fans keeping up with the latest Pro Kabaddi League updates can follow team news, auction moves, and season standings from a competition that has consistently ranked as the second most-watched sports league in India after cricket. Its blend of raw athleticism and fast-paced action has turned a traditional sport into one of the nation’s biggest sporting properties.
Why Pro Kabaddi League Became So Popular
PKL changed how kabaddi looked on television.
The league introduced a strong visual identity and explained rules in a way casual viewers could understand.
Features such as:
- Do-or-die raids
- Super tackles
- Super raids
- Player statistics
- Team rivalries
- Short matches
helped make the sport suitable for prime-time broadcasting.
The league now has 12 franchises and has created well-known players such as Pardeep Narwal, Pawan Sehrawat and Maninder Singh.
4. Indian Super League
The Indian Super League, or ISL, has been India’s leading professional football league for much of the last decade.
It started in 2014, the same year as PKL. The competition helped bring franchise football into mainstream television and attracted international players and coaches in its early seasons.
ISL Viewership
The 2024-25 ISL season recorded a cumulative linear television reach of around 152.9 million viewers, according to media data cited in industry reports.
The following 2025-26 season faced major commercial and scheduling disruption.
That shortened season reportedly reached around:
- 9.39 million viewers on linear TV
- 5.79 million viewers online
Because 2025-26 was not a normal full-length season, the 2024-25 figure gives a better picture of ISL’s regular audience scale.
Why ISL Built a Large Audience
Football already had strong followings in markets such as:
- West Bengal
- Kerala
- Goa
- North-East India
- Bengaluru
- Mumbai
Franchise clubs helped turn that interest into regular league viewing.
Clubs such as Mohun Bagan, Bengaluru FC, Kerala Blasters and Mumbai City have built loyal fan communities.
5. Prime Volleyball League
The Prime Volleyball League, or PVL, has emerged as one of India’s strongest newer sports properties.
Its audience has grown through a combination of television and digital-first distribution.
Prime Volleyball League Viewership
Season 4 recorded 239 million views across live television and YouTube coverage.
The league also reported:
- 88.2 million cumulative live TV viewership
- More than 151 million YouTube live-stream views
- 1.1 billion total views across content categories and platforms
Around 80% of its digital audience was between 18 and 44 years old.
Why PVL Is Ranked Below ISL
PVL’s 239 million figure looks larger than ISL’s 152.9 million.
But these two figures are not directly comparable.
PVL reports views across TV and YouTube, while the ISL figure represents linear television audience reach.
One person can generate several video views.
For that reason, PVL sits below leagues with stronger published unique-reach data in this indicative ranking.
6. Hockey India League
The Hockey India League, or HIL, returned in 2024-25 after a long break. Its comeback included both men’s and women’s competitions.
Hockey India League Viewership
The 2024-25 edition reached more than 40.8 million viewers in India. The men’s tournament reached around 32.9 million viewers.
The women’s event reached about 15.1 million. Those numbers overlap because some fans watched both competitions, so they should not simply be added together.
The league also recorded more than one billion social-media video views during the season.
HIL’s Digital Growth
The 2025-26 season pushed further into digital distribution. HIL crossed one billion social-media views within just over two weeks of that season.
Its official YouTube channel also recorded more than 80 million views over 28 days during the competition.
Hockey’s national following and India’s recent international success give HIL room to grow.
7. Ultimate Kho Kho
Ultimate Kho Kho brought a traditional Indian sport into the franchise league model in 2022.
Its fast format works well for television because points and action come quickly.
Ultimate Kho Kho Viewership
The inaugural season reached around 41 million viewers across TV and digital in India.
Season 2 later recorded more than 21 million television viewers, according to the Kho Kho Federation of India.
The first season also generated large social-media numbers.
At the time of its launch, Ultimate Kho Kho was described as one of India’s most watched non-cricket sports competitions behind PKL and ISL.
Why Kho Kho Works as a League Sport
The game offers:
- Short bursts of action
- Quick direction changes
- Athletic dives
- Easy-to-follow scoring
- Strong Indian cultural familiarity
The league is still much smaller than PKL, but it has shown that another traditional Indian sport can build a broadcast audience.
8. Ultimate Table Tennis
Ultimate Table Tennis, or UTT, has built a smaller but steady national audience.
The league started in 2017. It mixes Indian players with international table tennis talent.
Ultimate Table Tennis Viewership
The 2024 season reached around 20 million television viewers.
That was about 1.3 times the audience of the previous season.
Total television watch time also grew from around 129 million minutes to 167 million minutes.
An interesting part of UTT’s growth came from regional-language audiences.
Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh contributed a large share of regional-feed viewing.
Why UTT Matters
UTT does not have the reach of cricket, kabaddi or football leagues.
Its value comes from building a consistent audience for a sport that normally receives limited prime-time television coverage in India.
The league also gives Indian players regular matches against overseas opponents.
Other Sports Leagues Growing in India
India now has many smaller franchise leagues trying to build their own audience.
These include:
- Tennis Premier League
- Indian Street Premier League
- Pro Panja League
- Indian Pickleball League
- Indian Racing League
- Global Chess League
- Premier Badminton League
- Pro Wrestling League
Some have strong digital engagement but do not publish audience data that can be compared cleanly with IPL, WPL, or PKL.
Others have had irregular seasons.
For that reason, they are not placed above leagues with clearer recent audience figures.
Indian Street Premier League Viewership
The Indian Street Premier League, or ISPL, is a tennis-ball T10 cricket competition. It deserves a mention because cricket gives it access to a large potential audience.
During Season 2 in 2025, the first 11 matches reached more than 15 million television viewers.
TV reach for live matches was also reported to be 32% higher than during the previous season.
The figure covers only part of the season, so it cannot be used as a complete season comparison.
Which Is the Most Watched Non-Cricket League in India?
The Pro Kabaddi League is the most watched non-cricket franchise sports league in India based on recent audience scale and long-term television reach.
Current reporting places the league at around 230 million combined television and digital viewers.
PKL has also crossed the 200 million TV-viewer mark in previous seasons.
No other active non-cricket Indian franchise league has shown the same consistent audience size over multiple seasons.
IPL vs Pro Kabaddi League Viewership
| Metric | IPL | Pro Kabaddi League |
|---|---|---|
| Sport | Cricket | Kabaddi |
| Started | 2008 | 2014 |
| Teams | 10 | 12 |
| Recent Reported Audience | 1.2+ billion | Around 230 million |
| Main Position | No. 1 overall | No. 1 non-cricket |
PKL does not compete with the IPL on raw reach.
Its success is important because it proved that an Indian non-cricket sport could create a large national franchise audience.
WPL vs Pro Kabaddi League Viewership
| Metric | WPL | PKL |
|---|---|---|
| Sport | Cricket | Kabaddi |
| Started | 2023 | 2014 |
| Recent Reported Audience | 325 million | Around 230 million |
| Position in This List | 2nd | 3rd |
PKL still has a longer history and stronger non-cricket league record.
WPL benefits from cricket’s much larger existing viewer base.
Why Viewership Numbers Are Difficult to Compare
A simple table can make sports league rankings look more exact than they really are.
Broadcasters and leagues use several different measurements.
Audience Reach
This counts the number of people who watched for a minimum qualifying period.
One viewer should generally count once.
Cumulative Viewership
This can refer to the total audience accumulated across multiple broadcasts or matches.
The definition can differ between reports.
Video Views
One person can create many views.
A fan watching several matches or clips may be counted multiple times.
Watch Time
This measures how long people watched.
A league with fewer viewers but longer average viewing can perform well on this metric.
Peak Concurrency
This measures how many people watched a digital stream at the same time.
It is useful for individual matches but does not show full-season reach.
Because these measurements are different, a 200 million “views” figure should not automatically be treated as larger than 150 million unique viewers.
Why Cricket Still Dominates Sports Viewership in India
Cricket has advantages that newer sports leagues cannot quickly reproduce.
It has:
- Generations of fan loyalty
- National team stars
- Massive media investment
- Strong advertiser demand
- Regional-language broadcasts
- Large stadium audiences
- Daily sports-media coverage
- Long-established rivalries
The IPL then adds city franchises and overseas stars to that existing cricket audience.
The WPL now benefits from the same cricket ecosystem.
That is why two cricket properties occupy the top two positions in this list.
Why PKL Is Important for Indian Sports
PKL showed that a league does not need cricket to build a mass Indian audience.
Before PKL, many traditional Indian sports struggled to attract regular prime-time television coverage.
Kabaddi changed that.
Its success helped strengthen the case for leagues in:
- Kho kho
- Volleyball
- Hockey
- Table tennis
- Wrestling
- Arm wrestling
The IISM reference on India’s sports-league ecosystem also identifies PKL as one of the strongest commercial and sporting properties outside the IPL.
TV vs Digital Sports Viewing in India
Indian sports consumption is moving toward a mixed TV and digital model.
Television remains important for mass reach.
At the same time, mobile streaming and connected TVs are growing quickly.
In 2025, around 118 million Indians accessed sports content digitally in June alone, according to industry research cited in media reports.
Around 90% of those digital users accessed sports through mobile devices.
That shift is important for newer leagues.
A competition no longer needs a huge television-only audience to build a national fan base.
Prime Volleyball League is a good example because YouTube played a major role in its recent growth.
Conclusion: The IPL remains in a category of its own with more than 1.2 billion viewers in 2026
IPL remains in the top position. WPL’s rapid growth has pushed women’s franchise cricket into the next tier.
The Pro Kabaddi League remains the strongest non-cricket league, with an audience of around 230 million across television and digital.
Below them, football, volleyball, hockey, kho kho and table tennis continue to build audiences through a mix of television, streaming and social media.
As digital sports consumption grows, the order below the IPL can continue to change quickly. That makes viewership methodology just as important as the headline number when comparing India’s biggest sports leagues.
