It’s a two million drop from its first year

The Hundred cricket Isa Guha

The Hundred drew 14.1 million viewers to Sky Sports and the BBC this summer, 31% of which were women. 

This was a drop of two million on last year’s edition, when 16.1 million were reported to have tuned into the competition. There was also a drop in new viewers, which may be expected considering some new viewers from last time may have been converted into more regular cricket viewers. This time round 42% hadn’t watched any other ECB cricket this year, compared to 57% in 2021. 

This does not take into account the viewers who watched The Hundred on other platforms than linear TV. The tournament was also shown on BBC iPlayer, Sky Sports’ YouTube channel, and Sky Sports’ TikTok account. In addition, the ECB claims ‘millions’ watched online clips to catch up.

Away from TV, in-person attendance stayed strong, with the 271,000 attendees a new world record for a women’s cricket competition. Over 500,000 attended in total.

Bryan Henderson, Sky Sports director of cricket, said:“We couldn’t be happier with The Hundred after two years. Since its inception, the competition has reached more than 13.5m people across Sky Sports platforms and the aim of bringing cricket to new fans is proving successful as our audience over the last two years is younger and more diverse than other formats of the game, with more women watching than ever before.

“Our award-winning coverage has again been well received, with our on-screen team proving incredibly popular for both new and existing cricket fans. We’re incredibly proud of implementing further innovations into our coverage to give the viewer even more insight into the game through technology such as helmet cam and power rating, while player avatars have once again proven popular.

“We’re thrilled to continue working with The ECB as we keep bringing this competition to cricket fans old and new until at least 2028.”

Exec producer at BBC Cricket Stephen Lyle added: “We are really proud of our extensive coverage of The Hundred, on TV, radio and online this summer. To be able to bring new audiences to the world of cricket and see increased levels of engagement in local areas is integral to our offering at the BBC. It has also been a pleasure to witness breakout players star alongside world class talent and we can’t wait to see where The Hundred goes next.”

Meanwhile, the ECB has appointed Contented as its official digital and video partner. Contented will create content for the ECB’s digital channels, in-stadia screens, commercial partnerships, communications work, and CRM. It had already been working with the ECB on The Hundred, but will now take a wider role.