MUMBAI: The Indian Premier League tops YouGov’s 2022 Sports Buzz Rankings in India for the second year in succession (no surprises there) with a Buzz score of 50.8.
Even in its 14th season and interrupted by COVID outbreaks which forced it to relocate to the UAE – the IPL continues to hold Indians in its thrall, creating a lot of positive Buzz.
YouGov SportsIndex measures the public’s perception of sports brands on a daily basis across a range of metrics. The rankings in YouGov’s 2022 Buzz Report are based on the Buzz scores, which measures whether respondents have heard something positive or negative about a brand recently.
As India recorded its best-ever performance in the Olympics with a haul of seven medals, including a gold, it’s unsurprising to see the Olympics coming a close second (49.2) and making a new entry in this year’s rankings. In fact, IPL only just pips the games by a margin of 1.6 points.
Even though India failed to qualify the knockout stage, the ICC Cricket World Cup managed to secure the third-place (45.9), but its buzz score recorded a slight decline (of -0.4) compared to last year. FIFA World Cup also noticed a decline in its year-on-year score and moved down one place to fourth (28.3).
On the other hand, India’s indigenous football league- the Indian Super League managed to hold on to its fifth position (20.4), further cementing itself in the country’s sporting landscape. The Pro Kabaddi League, however, recorded a drop of three places to seventh compared to last year’s rankings (from 23.1 to 17.9).
In the sixth spot is the Wimbledon Championship with a buzz score of 18.0 and the Australia Open takes the tenth (13) place.
Finally, completing the top ten list for India is the Asian Games and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), securing the eighth(15.3) and ninth place (13.3), respectively.
Highlights
*Despite Covid interruptions & phase 2 of IPL moving to UAE, the league became the country’s buzziest sports event in 2021
*With India’s best-ever haul of 7 medals, the Summer Olympics came a close second, making a new entry in this year’s list
*India’s indigenous football league ISL managed to retain its fifth rank
*Both ICC Cricket World Cup & FIFA World Cup drop down one place to third and fourth, recording a slight decline in their year-on-year buzz scores
