FIFA World Cup 2026 tops OTT charts as Zee 5 scores 15 million viewers

MUMBAI: When the rest of the world was kicking off, India was kicking sleep to the sidelines. The FIFA World Cup 2026 has rewritten assumptions about football viewership in the country, with the tournament emerging as the most-watched OTT property in India during the week of 13-19 July, according to the latest Ormax StreamView rankings.

The tournament attracted an estimated 15 million viewers on Zee 5, with nearly 40 per cent of peak concurrent viewership coming from matches played between midnight and 4 a.m. challenging the long-held belief that Indian audiences would not stay awake to watch global football.

The event also delivered a significant boost to Zee 5’s platform performance. Between 1 June and 19 July, the FIFA World Cup drove a 79 per cent increase in watch time, alongside a 55 per cent rise in daily app installs and new subscriptions, making it one of the platform’s biggest live sports successes to date.

The tournament’s reach extended well beyond football’s traditional fan base. According to Zee 5, Tier 2 cities accounted for more than 45 per cent of total watch time, highlighting the sport’s growing popularity outside metropolitan markets.

Viewing habits also reflected changing consumer preferences. Connected devices contributed 53 per cent of match viewing, underlining the growing shift towards premium, large-screen sports consumption in Indian households.

Football’s appeal also cut across languages. While English remained the dominant viewing language, strong engagement in Hindi, Malayalam and Bengali underscored the success of Zee 5’s multilingual broadcast strategy. West Bengal emerged as the platform’s largest football market, followed by Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi.

Beyond viewership, the tournament generated broader engagement across the platform. More than two-thirds of FIFA subscribers went on to watch movies on Zee 5, while half explored original series, demonstrating how live sport can drive deeper consumption across an OTT entertainment ecosystem.

Commenting on the performance, Bavesh Janavlekar, Chief Business Officer, Unite8 Sports, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., said the company had long believed India was home to one of the world’s most passionate football communities despite perceptions that the sport remained niche.

He said the response validated Zee 5’s strategy of making the tournament more accessible through television and digital platforms, multilingual coverage and an experience designed specifically for Indian audiences. Janavlekar added that the platform would continue investing in properties including the Bundesliga, ILT Season 5 and Tamil Nadu Kabaddi to build a broader sporting ecosystem.

The FIFA partnership also forms part of Zee 5’s long-term strategy, with the platform holding rights to FIFA tournaments until 2034. Alongside its sports portfolio, Zee 5 has recently expanded its multilingual entertainment slate across seven languages, featuring collaborations with Jio Studios, Maddock Films and Annapurna Studios, as well as projects starring Varun Dhawan, Bobby Deol, Kangana Ranaut, Sanya Malhotra, R. Madhavan and Nayanthara.

The latest figures suggest that football in India is no longer confined to dedicated fan pockets. Instead, the World Cup has shown that with broader access, regional language coverage and digital convenience, the beautiful game is steadily becoming a mainstream streaming event, even when the final whistle blows before dawn.