MUMBAI: The verdict is out. Pro Kabaddi League has been the most watched non-cricket event in India, television viewership numbers from PKL’s fifth season show.
At the end of Season 5, gross impressions for PKL stood at 313 million with a watch time of 100 billion minutes.
In 2017 season, Pro Kabaddi finals (26.2 million) surpassed PV Sindhu’s Rio Olympics finals (17.2 million), last year’s Pro Kabaddi finals (15.2 million) as well as the Indian Super League finals (15 million) in average impressions.
The summit showdown of Pro Kabaddi 2017 was just behind Indian Premier League (IPL) finals, which witnessed 39.4 million, data provided by Star India reveal.
Commenting on the performance of India’s flagship Kabaddi tournament, Sanjay Gupta, MD, Star India said: “India has truly embraced Kabaddi. This season was all about pushing boundaries. With an expanded league, there were 12 teams competing in more than 130 matches, spread across 13 weeks. The love for Kabaddi cutting across geographies and demographics is self-evident. It is very heartening to see this response from millions of fans across the country, which has emphatically re-established Kabaddi’s position as the most watched non-cricket sport synonymous with the VIVO Pro Kabaddi League.”
For the record, Patna Pirates made it a hat-trick of titles when they thrashed Gujarat Fortunegiants 55-38 to win Pro Kabaddi Season 5.
