The Indian Premier League (IPL) has transformed not just Indian cricket but the sport overall ever since it was launched in the summer of 2008, making India the most powerful cricketing nation on the planet in the years that have gone by.
Nearly two decades later, it remains the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s crown jewel, with the two-month T20 carnival having expanded to 10 teams from 8 recently.
The IPL is witnessing bigger scores than ever before, with 200 no longer being a safe total in the world’s biggest T20 league. And the way batters are making mincemeat of bowlers these days, it might not be long before the 300-barrier is finally breached in the IPL.
Despite the IPL’s stature as the world’s premier T20 league remaining unchallenged until now, the BCCI has a major reason to worry. The ongoing 19th season, after all, has witnessed a considerable drop in viewership this season. As per the latest data from BARC India and TAM Sports, the first half of IPL 2026 has registered a 18.8 per cent drop in TV ratings as well as a 26 per cent decline in average viewership.
These numbers suggest that while viewers are tuning into the matches, they aren’t sticking around for too long.
So why exactly is the IPL losing viewers? Here are some of the possible reasons:
Real-money gaming ban to blame?
The Government of India’s had banned real-money gaming platforms last year after the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 was passed in the parliament, which has had a major effect on Indian cricket. Leading platforms such as Dream11 and My11Circle were major contributors towards cricket’s economy around the world with the former having been the lead sponsor of the Indian cricket team until the PROG Act.
The fact that IPL’s viewership decline coincides with the real-money gaming ban tells us that a sizeable chunk of the league’s viewers in the past used to remain engaged with the league due to them investing money on these platforms, hoping to earn a decent bonus at the end of matches.
And with platforms such as Dream11 and My11Circle, which had some of the biggest names in the sport advertising for them, out of the way, these viewers simply have no interest in watching IPL matches this season.
Too much cricket fatigue
There’s also a case to be made of the Indian Premier League becoming longer than ever. The league previously used to have a grand total of 56 matches in the group stage followed by the four playoff fixtures including the final back when it comprised eight teams. With the inclusion of two new franchises in 2022, an IPL season now witnesses a total of 74 matches, with 70 of them taking place in the group stage.
Fatigue, therefore, can be a real thing, especially in the middle of the tournament in the month of April. ICC tournaments usually are organised over the span of a month, with the ODI World Cup – the sport’s showpiece event, slightly exceeding the four-week mark. Other T20 leagues around the world such as the Big Bash League and the Pakistan Super League might slightly exceed the one-month mark, but certainly not as long as the two-month window granted to the IPL.
Have IPL matches become boring these days?
Last, but certainly not the least, one cannot ignore the manner in which bowlers have been reduced to a mockery over the last couple of seasons, with scores as high as 264 being chased by teams these days. There used to be a time when Rajasthan Royals’ chase of the 224-run target set by Punjab Kings in Sharjah nearly six years ago was considered an incredible feat, and a score of 180 used to be considered a good total in the league.
However, with increasingly batting-friendly wickets and shorter boundaries, scores between 200 and 230 are being chased down for fun in the ongoing IPL season, which was also the case to a large extent last year as well as in 2024.
Some Despite boasting of the world’s top players, the increasing frequency of lopsided games will certainly have had a negative effect on the IPL, which in turn might have contributed to the viewership decline.
Source : First Post