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Mobile, social engagements take lead in India’s sports consumption boom
India's sports economy is undergoing a digital transformation, with mobile-first behavior and constant social engagement dominating fan interaction. Digital platforms are now the primary source for discovering, consuming, and engaging with sports content, highlighting the significant commercial value of this audience segment.
India's sports economy has entered a decisive digital phase, shaped by mobile first behaviour and round the clock social engagement. The State of Sports 2025 India Edition report from Comscore shows that digital platforms now dominate the way fans discover, consume and interact with sports content.
Comscore estimates the worldwide digital sports audience at 668 million unique visitors, representing 37% of global online reach, with India contributing significantly to this shift. In June 2025, 118 million Indians accessed sports content digitally, and 90% of them did so exclusively on mobile devices. Only 9% accessed sports solely on desktop.
The report also shows that sports fans are commercially valuable, with 70% of India's digital sports audience consuming gaming content, 67% overlapping with tech, 58% with travel and 31% with health.
In terms of traffic, Cricbuzz reaches 53 million unique visitors on desktop and mobile, followed by Dream11 with 26.4 million, ESPN with 14.2 million, NDTV Sports with 6.6 million and Cricket Live Line with 6.5 million.
On social platforms, Star Sports generated 75.2 million total actions across Facebook, Instagram and X, followed by CricTracker with 73.1 million, Sportskeeda with 43.2 million, ESPN Cricinfo with 33.2 million and Cricket Addictor with 16.1 million. Actions in the report include reactions, comments, shares, likes and reposts.
Comscore finds that social platforms have become a primary access point for sports consumption in India. 55% of India's sports audience consumes sports content exclusively on social platforms. 42% accesses sports only on non social digital platforms and just 3% overlaps between the two.
ESPN India illustrates this shift. The publisher reaches 14.2 million users on desktop and mobile, but when its social audience of 25.4 million is added, total reach expands to 36.9 million.
Across age groups, YouTube records shared audience reach of more than 90% among sports viewers aged 15 to 24, 25 to 34 and 35 and above, with Instagram being the second largest platform in all three brackets, followed by Facebook, Snapchat and X.
Social engagement is driven heavily by cricket franchises and individual athletes. Sports and recreation accounts represent 20% of all engagement on Indian social media.
Among sports brands, Royal Challengers Bangalore generated an average of 540,000 actions per post. The Indian Premier League generates 321,000 actions per post and Chennai Super Kings 163,000.
Athletes outperform teams by a wide margin. Engagement with Indian athletes on Instagram grew 56% in the first half of 2025.
Virat Kohli averaged 2.6 million actions per post, Hardik Pandya 1.9 million and Rohit Sharma 1.6 million. Posts by Kohli and actor producer Anushka Sharma routinely extend beyond social platforms into mainstream news cycles. Their follower bases stand at 392.8 million and 109.9 million respectively.
Large sporting events trigger sharp consumption spikes. During the India England T20 series, JioHotstar's mobile audience in India nearly doubled to 27.4 million on the first match day, and time spent on the platform increased 129%.
Globally, the 2025 Super Bowl generated 611 million social actions, with TikTok accounting for 46% of engagement. Wimbledon reached 226 million total social actions in 2025, up from 190 million in 2024 and 159 million in 2023.
Sports audiences also translate to commercial behaviour. The report notes that 96.2% of digital sports visitors also visited retail platforms and 90.7% visited financial services platforms, reinforcing sports as one of the most transaction ready digital audience segments in India.
The 2026 sports calendar includes the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, the ICC Women's T20 World Cup, the FIFA Men's World Cup and new Formula One events in Spain. Comscore's analysis states that social media is no longer an amplification channel but the arena where sports audiences live, engage and transact.
In terms of traffic, Cricbuzz reached 53 million unique visitors on desktop and mobile phones, followed by Dream11 with 26.4 million, ESPN with 14.2 million, NDTV Sports with 6.6 million and Cricket Live Line with 6.5 million, as of June 2025.
ESPN India illustrates this shift. The publisher reached 14.2 million users on desktop and mobile phones, but when its social audience of 25.4 million is added, total reach expands to 36.9 million.
Across age groups, YouTube recorded shared audience reach of more than 90% among sports viewers aged 15-24, 25-34 and 35 and above, with Instagram being the second largest platform in all three brackets, followed by Facebook, Snapchat and X.
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Source: EconomicTimes
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