After five years of building new franchises, Northern Superchargers became Sunrisers Leeds, while the most dominant men’s side switched from Oval Invincibles to MI London, and Manchester Originals became the Super Giants.
Welsh Fire, Birmingham Phoenix, London Spirit and Trent Rockets kept their names and their kits pretty similar, while Southern Brave traded their green and black for navy and red.
Overall in terms of attendances this year, it was a slow start before a gradual recovery.
And the varying level of change at each team was reflected in the numbers at the eight different venues.
Numbers at Headingley and Old Trafford – where the teams have been completely rebranded – have dropped, while Southampton’s Utilita Bowl – home of Southern Brave – bounced back from a slow start.
Brave’s first men’s game drew a crowd of 8,452 compared to 12,549 for the equivalent fixture in 2025, although the caveat for this year’s match could be that it was on the last day of the school term.
Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens, the smallest of the host grounds, enjoyed record crowds for both its men’s and women’s Fire teams, drawing 11,796 fans for their fixture against MI London.
Timings play their part when looking at individual games, too – for example, Cardiff had two midweek 11:30 BST starts for their women’s team, while their record crowd came on a Saturday night.
The two London teams were predictably at the top of the table, including the derby fixture between Spirit and MI London drawing a crowd of 27,721 – a record for any group stage match in the tournament’s history.
But without a London team in either the men’s or women’s Eliminator, The Oval was not close to selling out on Friday, with 10,271 in for the women’s and 20,124 for the men’s.
Tournament director Vikram Banerjee told BBC Sport he thinks 2026 has produced a “better edition” than last year and “one of the best” in The Hundred’s history.
“The quality now is second only to the IPL, by a clear distance in both the men’s and women’s games,” said Banerjee.
“Our broadcast numbers are looking good, our online audiences are generating great numbers, and we’re growing. We’re doing great stuff, so I think it has been our best year.”
Banerjee added the crowd figures are just “one measure” and instead pointed to building “fandom” and “engagement” numbers, where the tournament was the most viewed season across The Hundred’s own social media channels.
