ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 draws record response on opening weekend

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 across the first three days.

According to the apex body, a combined total of 44,844 fans attended the first three matches of the 12-team mega event, which is now the highest for the opening weekend of an ICC Women's tournament, surpassing the previous record of 34,680 set at the Women's Cricket World Cup last year.

The focal point of the overwhelming fan engagement was the blockbuster fixture between traditional rivals Pakistan and India, which was witnessed by a sell-out crowd of 18,814, making it the highest-attended group fixture in ICC Women's World Cup history.

As per the ICC, the previous record of the highest attendance in a group-stage match of the ICC Women's World Cup also belonged to the traditional rival,s as 15,935 fans witnessed their enthralling meeting 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 flocked into Edgbaston to enjoy a West End performance of Wicked, followed by hosts England's dominant victory over Sri Lanka in the curtain raiser.

Furthermore, India's renowned digital streaming platform attracted 134 million viewers and delivered 1.1 billion minutes of watch time for the Pakistan-India clash, marking the highest digital reach for any league-stage match across all formats in women's cricket.

ICC further shared that the record-breaking response also spanned to its digital platforms, which have accumulated more than 753 million views, depicting a hike of 150 per cent from the same period of the 2024 edition of the Women's T20 World Cup.