ICC Women's T20 World Cup: Record audiences tune in for opening weekend of 2026 tournament live on Sky Sports

The opening weekend of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 was the most watched ever of any ICC T20 Women’s tournament on record with 3.3 million viewer hours on Sky Sports.

Friday's opener between England and Sri Lanka also drew the highest average on record (393k) for the T20 tournament with a peak audience of 510k watching a Danni Wyatt-Hodge-inspired England victory.

As part of Sky's commitment to making the tournament available to the biggest possible audience, including select games shown free-to-air and on the Sky Sports app, the opening game was also streamed on YouTube with nearly 75k people watching whilst the live blog on Sky Sports.com delivered over 90k views.

The tournament kicks off a standout summer of women's cricket on Sky, including an historic first-ever women's Test match at Lord's between England and India starting on 10 July, alongside The Hundred's return later in the month. July will also see the Vitality Blast Women's Finals Day.

Sky Sports continues to be the home of the best women's sport, with a bumper 2026 of live coverage including the ICC Women's T20 World Cup, the Netball Super League Grand Final, the US Open, and the Solheim Cup. Viewers can also enjoy expanded coverage of the Barclays Women's Super League from the 2026/27 season, year-round action from the WTA Tour, every golf Major, MVP boxing events and much more.