The Hundred breaks records and reaches new audiences

Cricket's new competition The Hundred has entertained millions of new and existing cricket fans – with a total of 16.1m people watching some of the action on TV.

A sell-out crowd at Lord’s this weekend saw Oval Invincibles being crowned the first women’s The Hundred champions and Southern Brave taking the men’s title. The competition has already proven itself to be drawing in new supporters to cricket. Of those watching the action on Sky or the BBC, 57% hadn’t watched any other live ECB cricket in 2021.

Viewing of this weekend’s showpiece finals day peaked at 1.4m for the women’s game, with the men’s game drawing a peak crowd of 2.4m. Meanwhile, 510,000 tickets were sold and issued for the competition, with grounds across the country posting sell-outs and 19% of all tickets sold being for children. Analysis shows that 55% of ticket buyers for The Hundred had not bought a ticket for cricket in this country previously.

The competition has also blazed a trail for the women’s game. Across the competition, it has been the highest attendance for a women’s cricket event globally ever. 267,000 have been there for the women’s games, smashing the previous record of 136,000 who watched the women’s T20 World Cup in 2020.