Australia’s dominant 4–1 Ashes victory in the 2026 NRMA Insurance series drew massive crowds, record-breaking TV ratings, and historic levels of digital engagement, confirming cricket’s position as the nation’s most watched and attended sport this summer.
Unprecedented attendance across iconic venues
A total of 859,580 fans attended the five-match Test series, making it the third-highest attended Ashes series in Australian history. With an average daily crowd of 47,754 across 18 days of play, the series surpassed last season’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy (41,894 per day) to become the highest-attended series per day in the country.
Individual venue highlights:
-Perth: Record attendance of 101,514, including 51,531 on Day 1 — the biggest single-day Test crowd in Perth history.
-Brisbane: Second-largest Gabba Test attendance of 137,152.
-Adelaide: Record total attendance of 223,638 and a Day 1 crowd of 56,298 — Adelaide’s largest ever for a Test match.
-Melbourne: Historic crowd of 94,199 on Boxing Day — the biggest cricket crowd ever in Australia, surpassing the 2015 ODI World Cup Final. Combined with BBL matches on the same day, the total single-day cricket attendance hit a record 162,408.
-Sydney: All-time SCG record crowd of 211,032 witnessed Australia’s final Test win.
Record-breaking TV audiences on Foxtel, Kayo, Seven and 7plus
The series drew an interim daily average TV audience of 1.763 million – up 20% year-on-year and the highest ever for a Test series in the Foxtel and Seven broadcast era. The viewership was also up 23% on the 2021–22 Ashes.
Highlights included:
- 50 out of 51 sessions averaged over 1 million viewers.
- 11 sessions topped 2 million viewers – a record for a Test series in the simulcast era.
- Boxing Day Test: Averaged 2.186 million viewers – the most-watched Test ever under the current broadcast deal. Session 3 on Day 1 hit 2.468 million viewers.
- West Test: Up 51% YoY, with 2.23 million tuning in to watch Travis Head’s match-winning century.
- Gabba pink-ball Test: Highest-rated pink-ball Test ever in Australia, with 3 sessions over 2 million viewers and 20% YoY growth.
- Adelaide Test: Averaged 1.62 million across five days – up 53% on previous Gabba day Test. Session 2 on Day 5 hit 2.13 million as Australia retained the Ashes.
- Pink Test (SCG): Averaged 1.68 million viewers — up 14% on 2021–22, with Session 3 on Day 3 peaking at 2 million viewers.
Digital engagement reaches historic highs
3.8 million Australians visited cricket.com.au and the Cricket Australia Live app during the series, contributing 62.7 million sessions – up 19% compared to the 2024–25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Key digital milestones:
- Three of the top six biggest traffic days ever for CA platforms occurred during the SCG Pink Test.
- Video views increased 38% YoY thanks to expanded behind-the-scenes content, including the new ‘Extra Cover’ series.
- 1.89 million new followers joined Cricket Australia’s global digital channels.
- 1.63 billion video views were recorded across social platforms.
- A 65% increase in TikTok follower growth and 96% increase in TikTok video views followed a strategic collaboration, including an Ashes Search Hub and exclusive content targeting younger fans.
Live in shopping centres: an Australian-first
In a unique activation, Cricket Australia partnered with oOh!media, Initiative, and Special Group to deliver a national live broadcast campaign. 4,557 digital Out of Home sites across office buildings and shopping centres showed the first over of all five Tests, reaching over 1.18 million Australians with a cumulative 85 minutes of screentime.
CA CEO Todd Greenberg on the success
“We are all enormously proud of the efforts of the Australian team in retaining the Ashes with a dominant display. The enormous crowds and audiences were beyond even our most optimistic forecasts. This series showcased our high-performance program, world-class broadcast partners, and the passion of Australian cricket fans.”
Greenberg added that the summer isn’t over yet:
“With the BBL drawing huge audiences and the women’s multiformat series against India still to come, cricket has truly been everywhere this summer — reinforcing its place as Australia’s national sport.”
