World Netball Records 55 Million Global Audience Reach Across Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games

World Netball has announced that the netball competition at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games generated a record-breaking reach of over 55 million viewers across global broadcast and digital platforms.

The announcement follows official attendance figures from Glasgow 2026 confirming that netball was the highest-ticketed sport of the Games, issuing 122,972 tickets at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow.

An independent post-event audience report commissioned by World Netball and delivered by media analytics firm GSIQ revealed that the nine-day tournament generated 8,207 total hours of linear broadcast coverage across 35 international markets and 45 television channels, representing more than four times the broadcast footprint recorded at Birmingham 2022.

Linear broadcast viewership reached 40.5 million people, led by a free-to-air (FTA) audience of 10 million in Australia on Network Seven. Significant regional growth was achieved across Asia, with broadcast audiences surging by 107 per cent in India and 83 per cent across the broader Indian subcontinent.

World Netball president, Dame Liz Nicholl DBE, highlighted the value of the Commonwealth Games in expanding the sport’s global commercial footprint ahead of the Netball World Cup Sydney 2027.

“The Commonwealth Games is a key part of the World Netball international event calendar as it helps us showcase our world class sport to new global audiences.”

“It is fantastic to see we have once again achieved our goal of reaching more people, more often and broken records on our own digital channels.

“Thank you to everyone that showed up both in person and online to make this possible,” Nicholl said. 

On-Court Drama & Digital Engagement Surge

The tournament featured significant athletic milestones and dramatic results that drove unprecedented engagement across World Netball’s digital channels:

• Historic On-Court Upsets: Fourth-ranked Jamaica defeated top-ranked Australia 46-45 in the semi-finals, marking the first time in Commonwealth Games history that the Australian Diamonds failed to reach the gold medal match. Tonga achieved a ninth-place finish in their debut Games, while hosts Scotland narrowly missed an upset against Jamaica, falling by two goals.
• Record Social Media Reach: World Netball’s owned social platforms achieved a total reach of 15.3 million across 6,944 posts, marking a 4,557 per cent increase compared to Birmingham 2022.
• Digital & Channel Growth: Official World Netball platforms generated over 600,000 total content interactions and gained 18,000 new followers (a 593 per cent increase over B2022), alongside registering 486,372 total website page views on the official CWG digital hub.

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