Fans around the world have been captivated by the opening weekend of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, with supporters packing stadiums and digital engagement soaring, the International Cricket Council said yesterday, adding digital engagements till now have shown a 53 percent spike compared to the previous edition of the tournament.

After the first six thrilling matches across India and Sri Lanka, the ICC’s digital channels have seen a huge increase in engagement compared to the first two days of the 2024 tournament, highlighted by the 647 million video views across all platforms, which is an increase of 53 percent, ICC said in a statement.

The ICC app has enjoyed an 83 percent spike in users since 2024, while there has also been 16 percent more people using the ICC website across the same period.

The biggest growth has been seen from fans outside the Full Member countries. Nepal, who pushed England hard during their Group C clash on Sunday (Feb 8), leads the way in terms of individual country increases, with users from the southeast Asian country up a staggering 442 percent.

There have also been 196 percent and 49 percent jumps in users from the UAE and the USA, respectively, showcasing the tournament’s ability to grow the sport globally.

India’s victory over the USA at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium saw the highest attendance over the weekend with 24,997, with four of the five other matches seeing more than 15,000 people through the gates.

An improved accessibility to tickets through the pricing strategy and an early announcement of the match schedule has also seen very encouraging numbers in the crowd turnouts for the Group Stage of the 20-team tournament being played across eight venues, the ICC statement said.

The total attendance across the opening weekend was 107,781, building on the combined 48,000 people who watched the warmup encounters between India and South Africa (43,000) and India A vs USA (5,000).

The uptake also stretches across to streaming figures with the total views on ICC.tv up by 296 percent, including a 192 percent increase in unique users.

The ICC’s commitment to making this the most accessible ICC tournament ever has paid dividends with engagement from the non-traditional territories of Japan, Germany, South Korea, France, Malaysia, Italy and the Netherlands now accounting for over a quarter of total views on ICC.tv.

This growth has been powered by the introduction of non-English commentary on ICC.tv for the first time with the Nepali feed for England v Nepal and the Hindi feed for India v USA being the top two streamed matches.

(Image and chart courtesy ICC website)