Cricket as a game hit a six in the USA with incredible T20 World Cup engagement in a country, which is known more for baseball, rugby and NBA, cricket’s global governing body ICC has said.

With record attendance, website and app hits, ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 has witnessed an unprecedented increase in interest across platforms.

The USA leg of the Men’s T20 World Cup saw riveting cricketing action, including the home team’s stunning upset win in Dallas and an incredible India vs Pakistan nail-biter in New York.

And the cricketing fever managed to reach the fans in the USA, who turned out in extraordinary numbers for the action-packed first round of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. In the USA alone, 190,000 fans attended matches that captivated the country and set the stage for cricket’s continued growth in North America, the International Cricket Council said in a media statement.

Chris Tetley, ICC Head of Events, was delighted at the unprecedented levels of interest the game witnessed in the USA, hitting the headlines of top media outlets and setting a firm base for cricket’s future rise.

“We are absolutely delighted with how the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup has gone in the USA and the unprecedented level of interest in cricket in the country,” Tetley said.

“The extraordinary levels of media coverage in the USA was also great to see from Good Morning America to the front page of the New York Times, the event was covered by all mainstream media in the USA which bodes well for our long term strategy in the USA.

“With the USA being a priority area of the global growth strategy, we couldn’t be happier with how the World Cup has been received on our first step into the biggest sports market in the world and we will look to build on this over the next four years towards the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 and beyond,” he added.

Of the three venues in the USA, Grand Prairie in Texas saw enthusiastic support with an attendance of over 22,000 across the four matches; the highlight being the Nepal fans who turned out in big numbers. The USA fans also had a lot to cheer as they saw their side secure a historic win against Pakistan.

The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York, the largest venue in the World Cup, lived up to its billing by hosting the largest crowd in USA history for international cricket when it saw arch-rivals India and Pakistan face off on June 9. A recorded 34,028 people turned up to see the Men in Blue overcome Pakistan by six runs in a low-scoring thriller. It closed its run with a true celebration of cricket between India and co-hosts, the USA (31,722).

In total, almost 165,000 people attended the T20 World Cup games in New York.

The US leg of the event concluded in Broward County, Florida where Pakistan played against Ireland in front of over 4,000 enthusiastic fans, many of whom had endured several days of unprecedented rainfall, and the resulting three washouts.

The ICC digital platforms witnessed historic figures in the region, with 2.7 million USA-based users recorded visiting the ICC website and app. This was a 370 percent rise from the number recorded for the entire ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. Of those viewers 52 percent are new fans coming to the ICC platforms.

The fan zones on Roblox were also a massive hit, with the ICC mascots Blaze and Tonk being joined by young fans on more than 10 million occasions.