Cricket In The US - The Next Big Thing? Here Is What Reddit Thinks

Cricket Viewership in the US [X]Cricket Viewership in the US [X]

India is known as a cricket crazy nation, where it has transcended from a mere game and attained the heights of a religion. For a long time, Cricket was limited within 10-12 nations, but in the last few years, the game has spread its wings and is gaining popularity around the world. 

While it has been cricket for India, the US has taken up baseball and has not shown much interest in this game. However, the governing body of cricket, the International Cricket Council wanted to tap the US market and the first step towards this was the organisation of the All-stars series in 2015 involving some of the legends of the game like, Shane Warne, Sachin Tendulkar, etc. 

After this things were gradually taken up the notch and it ultimately culminated in US having their own T20 League - Major League Cricket (2023) and them co-hosting the T20 World Cup 2024 with West Indies.

Cricket Audience in The US 

If we take a look at cricket market in the US then as reported by profluence.com there has been talk of $850 million in private investment into cricket, with an initial $120 million allocated. If we see the current following of cricket in the country, then there are around 3.37 million cricket fans in the US, which is about 1% of the population. This number is expected to grow six times by 2025.

Speaking in general terms, $ is one of the most powerful economies in the world. So, if Cricket prospers in the country it will bring more riches into the game. However, there are challenges as Cricket will have to face stern challenge with the following of sports like - American Football, Basketball and Baseball.

Cricket Viewership in the US

Cricket's prosperity in a country like the US will depend a lot on the viewership it gets. The more the viewership more the sponsorship it will draw. As per reports from ICC cricket, the ODI World Cup 2023 with 395 hours of live coverage became the most broadcast Cricket World Cup, with 14% rise in coverage hours from 2019. The final was the most watched match with 48 million live viewing minutes,  which was 47% more than the second most watched match which was the India vs Pakistan game. Interestingly, Nine of the 10 most watched games in the US featured India. 

Besides that fact, that cricket has a promising future in the US, the studies suggest that a lot depends on the Indian or rather the combined cricket crazy part of the Asian population residing there. 


See what Reddit Says about Cricket's chances in the US

"We have the 'Big 4' which are American Football, Basketball, Baseball, and Ice Hockey in that order with Soccer/Football trailing as a distant 5th. All of these sports have a storied history in America and Soccer is the global game so it’s always going to be there."


"Give it a few years for all the Bluey loving kids to start playing cricket. Not even joking. A kids dog family cartoon will have more influence on cricket's uptake in the US than anything else. I recommend watching the Bluey cricket episode (and Bluey in general)."


"ICC and BCCI wants to milk indian cricketers in USA by selling $1000 tickets. All others matches tickets are available at $25 not indian matches prices are deliberately kept high.Even NBA, baseball prices aren't that high."


"There's more South Asian heritage people in the US than there are New Zealanders in New Zealand. Cricket in the US will be just fine."


"I'm American, European mutt, not a drop of cricket upbringing. I started watching cricket via a Melbourne Stars match on youtube after reading a comment that "cricket is too confusing for Americans to understand". It wasn't, I loved it immediately, and started getting friends and coworkers into it sharing my Willow subscription. White ball led to an appreciation of red ball, and now I schedule time around test matches I want to see through."