According to a survey, Chennai have become India’s largest sports franchise. The team has a fan base of 40.9 million fans, out of those, 22.5 are the loyal ones. Notably, the yellow army and football have the same fan following in India. The report explains that a loyal fan is someone who is emotionally attached to a team, and discusses the game and its results on online media and with their peers in a physical mode.
The report further says that cricket has the largest fan following with 124.2 million fans in the country. These numbers are not surprising as the game has left behind every other sport in India by a long way. Talking about other sports, Kabaddi, Wrestling including the WWE, and Football are closely contesting with each other for the second spot with 23 to 28 million fan bases each. The survey has also covered various football leagues around the globe.
Barcelona FC has a fan following of 3.9 million fans in India, which is the highest. Football’s modern-day legends, Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, have featured in the top 10 most popular sportspersons in India. The list also includes seven cricketers, as well as India’s badminton star PV Sindhu. Meanwhile, Shailesh Kapoor has said that the viewership numbers, especially from TV, are not accurate as India is a country that prefers one TV in one home. Kapoor added that the report can provide useful information for strategic initiatives.
“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,†said Shailesh Kapoor, who happens to be the Founder & CEO of Ormax Media
