Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday shared that the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 has set new benchmarks for attendance, broadcast viewership and digital engagement over the first three days.
According to the apex body, a total of 44,844 fans attended the first three matches of the 12-team mega event, which is now the highest ever for the opening weekend of an ICC women’s tournament, breaking the previous record of 34,680 at last year’s Women’s Cricket World Cup.
The focal point of the immense fan engagement was the blockbuster match between arch-rivals Pakistan and India, which saw a sell-out crowd of 18,814, making it the group with the highest attendance in the history of the ICC Women’s World Cup.
According to the ICC, the previous record for the group-stage match of the ICC Women’s World Cup also belongs to the traditional rival as 15,935 fans witnessed their enthralling encounter at the 2024 edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup in Dubai.
Earlier, on the opening day of the tournament, a total of 14,865 fans thronged Edgbaston to enjoy the West End of the wicket, followed by hosts England’s dominant display against Sri Lanka in the curtain raiser.
Also, India’s leading digital streaming platform attracted 134 million viewers and watched 1.1 billion minutes for the Pakistan-India clash, the highest digital reach of any league-level match in women’s cricket across all formats.
The ICC further shared that the record-breaking response has also spread across its digital platforms, which have garnered more than 753 million views, depicting a 150 per cent increase over the same period for the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup edition.