The ‘beautiful game’ in India
- By Sarah Potter
We all know that cricket is the number one sport across India, with the Indian Premier League attracting top players from home and abroad, and the national team having an overflowing trophy cabinet. But what about football – how do Indians see the world’s most popular sport?
The Indian Super League is India’s top division professional football league. Founded in 2014 with eight clubs, this year saw 14 clubs competing for the trophy. It attracted a unique viewership of 157.2 million – which represented an uplift of +18% over the previous season. The mega-merger between India's two sports broadcasting behemoths, Jio and Star, at the end of 2024, opened up a whole new market for ISL, and audiences are expected to rise accordingly.
To find out fans’ views, YouGov surveyed 1,034 respondents in India who said they followed football in some way. We asked why football appealed to them, how they followed the sport, how committed they were to the Indian Super League and whether they thought football would grow in popularity in India in comparison to other sports.
More than half (56%) said that football was one of their top interests (men – 61%, women – 51%), and 77% of them said that they followed the ISL. Nine in ten (89%) say a key reason for following football is that the matches are entertaining and exciting – with half (52%) feeling this strongly.
Fans find the sport ‘entertaining and exciting’
YouGov’s data reveals deep demographic differences when it comes to attitudes to football in India. While four in ten (39%) Millennials strongly agree that the game is ‘relatable’, this falls to just a fifth (21%) of Baby Boomers. Similarly, while a quarter (26%) of Gen Z fans say weekly matches keep them engaged, but only one in seven (15%) of Baby Boomers feels the same.
51% of Millenial fans and 43% of GenX fans find the game ‘easy to understand’. More women (49%) than men (43%) strongly agree that football is ‘great family entertainment’.
Our data suggests that football leagues in India could benefit significantly by engaging Millennials – especially females – through existing interest groups. By understanding younger audiences better, particularly the reasons they may find it more challenging to follow matches compared to older generations, rightsholders could better know how to “sell” the sport to these audiences.
Traditional TV still a popular way to follow football across all generations
When it comes to viewing football, Millennials are most likely to attend football matches in person (27%) and follow the sport on social media (70%) whereas Baby Boomers are more likely to follow their teams in print/ online and TV News (65%). Watching the match/ highlights on TV remains high across all generations, with Gen X leading at 74% and Gen Z trailing, but still more than half (54%) engage with the sport in this way.
In the five years since COVID, sports media consumption trends amongst ISL fans in India have seen gradual shifts rather than radical changes. Print is down and social media is up, digital streaming is edging closer to equalising with traditional TV, and radio has remained stable throughout. Out of home viewing (either at someone else’s house or in a public place) has seen steady growth. Social media, having overtaken TV, is emerging as the primary way to reach and engage with football fans, particularly amongst the younger generation.
Committed fans
YouGov’s data finds that on the whole, fans are very loyal, with 31% saying they watched the majority of matches, and a further 34% stating that they watched all of their favourite teams’ matches. Baby Boomers proved most likely to have only watched the semi-finals and Final at 22%, whereas just 3% of Millennials only watched the Final stages.
Support for local and young talent
One of the key factors (31%) that would encourage people to follow the league in future was the ISL supporting more Indian players and young talent (31%), almost double the number who said the same of more well-known players (16%). Just over a quarter expressed a desire for having a local team in their state to support (27%), and a similar proportion wanted more regional-language commentary options (25%).
Football has a bright future
Among fans surveyed, football (90%), Kabaddi (77%) and Tennis (73%) were the top three sports that were expected to grow in popularity in the next three years, with only 26% and 30% respectively thinking that new sports Padel and Pickleball would become more popular. Women indexed higher than men for strongly agreeing that popularity would increase for all sports except Wresting, Kabaddi and Pickleball, suggesting that women have potential to engage with the ISL with the right engagement approach.
Millennials indexed higher than other generations for all sports, indicating a more positive outlook for sport as a whole. Baby Boomers had the lowest expectations that some of the non-traditional Indian sports would grow, at 9% for Basketball, 4% for Cycling, 6% for Pickleball and just 2% for Padel.
Methodology:
YouGov polled 1,034 Indian sports fans in May 2025. The survey was carried out through YouGov Surveys. Data is weighted by age, gender, education level, region, and social grade.
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