BBL 10 most-watched tournament in league history, confirms Cricket Australia

An average audience of 1.4 million watched Sydney Sixers beat Perth Scorchers in the final, making it the fourth most-watched match in BBL history

BBL 10 was the most-watched tournament in the league’s history, Cricket Australia has revealed.

The total audience for the 61-match tournament, which ran from December 10 to February 6, was 44.82 million – a 5.9% increase across all platforms compared to BBL 09. 

Saturday’s final, which saw Sydney Sixers defend their BBL crown with victory over Perth Scorchers, ranked as the fourth most-watched Big Bash game in history with an average audience of 1.4 million. This represents a 15% increase on the BBL 09 final, while the total viewers reached across Seven and Foxtel during the match exceeded 3.1 million.

The five-game playoff series – featuring Sixers, Scorchers, Brisbane Heat, Sydney Thunder and Adelaide Strikers – also reached record audiences (5.64m) while the tournament retained its title as Australia’s most-watched league on a per game basis. The average audience per match was 735,000, with 675,000 watching on TV (up 9,000 on BBL 09) and 60,000 viewers on streaming platforms (up 109%).

Records were also broken on field. Averaging 168.1 runs in the first-innings, it was the highest-scoring BBL tournament while it also saw 643 sixes hit (a 6.5% increase on BBL 09) and nine 90+ scores  - the most in a single season.

Despite crowd and travel restrictions due to Covid-19, 522,140 fans attended matches during the tournament, including nearly 30,000 spectators for the final at the SCG.

^{Sydney Sixers celebrate with the trophy after defeating Perth Scorchers by 27 runs to win their third BBL title}

Commenting on the success of BBL 10, Cricket Australia’s head of Big Bash Leagues, Alistair Dobson, said: "The KFC BBL has the best fans in the country, and we are grateful to the record number of Australians who tuned in to watch our tenth season.

"Bringing joy to our fans was the driving force for everyone across the league and clubs all season and we thank every one of them, whether they watched on TV or a device, listened on radio or attended at the stadium.

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"We trust they enjoyed the incredible action on display in KFC BBL|10 and we can’t wait to welcome them back next season, hopefully in a more relaxed public health environment.

"I would also like to take the opportunity to once again thank all state and territory governments, KFC BBL clubs including all players and staff, match officials, broadcast partners Seven, Foxtel, Kayo and SEN, commercial partners KFC ,BKT, Toyota, Sanitarium, Bupa, venues and curators and our own people who made this extraordinary season happen. Your commitment to the success of the Big Bash in unprecedented times cannot be overstated."