The Pakistan Super League (PSL) has released its digital figures at the halfway stage of the 2026 season, claiming PSL 11 garnered 1.1 billion views and more than 2 billion minutes watched after 22 matches.
But a comparison with last year paints a far less flattering picture.
PSL X had reached the same 1.1 billion views mark in 2025 after only 12 matches. This time, it needed 22 games to get there, signaling a sharp fall in average viewership per match.
Last year, the league was averaging roughly 91.7 million views per game at that point. This season, the average is down to 50 million. That is a drop of around 45 percent despite the tournament being sold as the start of a bigger and better era.
The decline comes in a season that was supposed to expand the competition. The original plan was for an eight-team tournament spread across six venues, with Peshawar and Faisalabad due to host PSL matches for the first time. Instead, the event was cut back to just Lahore and Karachi before it got going.
Fans were not allowed into stadiums, tickets had to be refunded, and the multi-city feel the league had promised disappeared almost overnight.
The board linked the decision to the fuel crisis and the wider Middle East situation, but the impact on the league’s appeal has been difficult to miss. At the same time, the IPL has continued on its usual scale with full crowds and no comparable disruption.
The scheduling has also looked uneven.
Peshawar Zalmi played their first match on March 28 and their second on March 31, which was abandoned without a ball being bowled. Their third game did not arrive until April 8.
That imbalance became even more obvious later, when Peshawar then played four matches between April 8 and April 13. For viewers, it made the competition feel rushed in parts and strangely flat in others.
The player issue has not helped either.
One of the clearest examples was Blessing Muzarabani, who ended up being banned for two years after the board said he failed to honor agreed terms and moved towards a conflicting arrangement.
The episode did more than create controversy. It again exposed how difficult it has become for PSL to hold its overseas talent when the IPL is running at the same time.
All of that has fed into a season that has struggled to generate the same momentum as last year.
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