Indians love sports. But what are the most watched sports in India?
Indians have a craze for Television. On any given day, in any house, all you can see is either a bunch of old ones watching the “Soap†they cannot afford to miss or the “Sports†they would give their life for. Would you like to know which is India’s second most followed sport? Of course, the first one is pretty obvious. Go ahead and find out!
1.Car/Bike Racing
Surprising isn’t it? Yes! We have Racing on our list of top 7 and Indians seem to love it. It just tipped off Badminton by a very small margin and statistics say there are around 20 million viewers in India.
Formula 1 in particular has really picked up in India since the 2000’s. It is very evident that Indians love and appreciate various cars as well as bikes.
2. Hockey
Once rumoured to be the “National Game of Indiaâ€, Hockey was a huge hit in the sub-continent and later lost its importance after the decline of India’s performance overseas. All thanks to the “Hockey Indian League (HIL)†for bringing back the essence of the game to our country. This tournament recorded a viewership of around 41.4 million in India.
3. Tennis
Individual sports are often considered to be less interesting than Team sports, where a lot of adrenaline is involved. But Tennis can rip your nerves off any moment and that’s why its viewership has always increased over the years. Around 40% of India’s population is found to be full of Tennis enthusiasts.
4. Kabaddi
Le panga! Le panga! Le Panga! All hail the “Pro Kabaddi Leagueâ€. It notched a viewership around 10.1 million in the first week and went on to record a 435 million viewership in 2014, making it the second most followed league in India.
Over the last few years, Kabaddi really has picked up and Indian fans can’t get enough. Not only is Kabaddi popular in the Tier 1/2 cities in India, but it is popular even in the villages. In fact, many villagers play this sport too.
5. Wrestling
This never gets old. Wrestling has never failed to entertain people since forever. All the smackdown and saw action has roped around 100 million followers in India to date.
Today, India is producing some of the finest wrestlers out there, in both the men’s and women’s category. In India Wrestling is also known as Dangal or Kushti.
6. Football
So Soccer, Oops, Football is the second most followed sport in India. The 2014 World cup was watched by 100 million sports fanatics in the country and after Indian Super League ( ISL) made its way, Football became deep rooted into India’s sports culture. ISL had a viewership of around 170 million during its first season.
Indians absolutely love Football and go crazy when there is a major tournament taking place. 1 out 3 Indians watch Football and have their favourite teams.
7. Cricket
It is no surprise that Cricket is one of the most watched sports in India. Indian fans go crazy for Cricket. Cricket has become that one thing where friends and family meet up to watch together.
Hands down and without any surprise, the nation’s most followed, watched, revered, and loved sport is none other than Cricket. The entire country gets involved whenever there is a cricket match on TV, no matter what time of the day it is. Every year, the Indian Premier League (IPL) records around 500-600 million views.
Conclusion
India is a sporting nation. Not only do the love to play sports, but also they love to watch sports regularly.
How many sports out of this list do you follow regularly? Also, Let us know about your favourite sport in the comments.
