Chennai Super Kings emerges as the biggest sports franchise in India: Survey Report

Chennai Super Kings have been found to have the highest fan base in India for any team across sports with 40.9 million fans, found a survey. It has been understood that the reports are taken on the basis of gender, age, NCCS, pop strata, and states. Among all the sports, cricket leads the chart with 124.2 million fans while kabaddi, wrestling (including WWE) and football fight out for the second position with fans ranging between 23-28 million.

India has traditionally not been a football-loving country, but there have been huge sets of followers in India for Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, two of the greatest footballers in the modern-day. Messi’s previous club Barcelona seemed to have found a place in India as well with a huge fan base of 3.9 million fans. In terms of viewing reports, 44% of Indian sports fans watch live sports only on TV, and 36% are using both traditional and digital media, while the remaining 20% are watching exclusively on digital platforms.

Meanwhile, this survey was conducted by the consulting firm Ormax Media. Coming back to Chennai Super Kings, the love for MS Dhoni in the country is irresistible and it has played a big part in CSK gaining a lot of fans. With four IPL titles under their belt, CSK are the second-most successful franchise in IPL history and have failed to make it to the playoffs just once since the inaugural edition. No wonder, the reports show CSK’s loyal fan base of 22.5 million people is almost the same as the entire fan base of football in India.

India is predominantly a single-TV nation where a lot of sports viewing is passive: Ormax Media CEO

Ormax Media CEO Shailesh Kapoor mentioned that the viewership details do not depict the accurate representation of the fan base. Instead, the numbers are taken to understand the data and profile of the ‘real’ sports fans. He added that the report will act as useful material for sports leagues, teams, and broadcasters to formulate their brand and communication strategies.

“Viewership numbers, especially from television, are not an accurate representation of the fanbase of any sport, as India is predominantly a single-TV nation where a lot of sports viewing is passive in nature. Through this report, we aim to fill in the need gap for reliable data on the size and the profile of the ‘real’ sports fans, who are actively watching and engaged with the sport. The report can provide useful material to sports leagues, teams and broadcasters for their brand and communication strategy initiatives,” Shailesh Kapoor, Founder & CEO, Ormax Media told as quoted by Hindustan Times.