As brands sharpen their digital playbooks around the Indian Premier League, influencer marketing is fast emerging as a major spending avenue, with outlays expected to approach ₹700 crore in 2026, according to a new analysis by creator intelligence and collaboration platform Qoruz.
The report, which maps creator activity, engagement behaviour and brand investments across IPL seasons from 2023 to 2025, indicates that influencer-led campaigns have grown from an estimated ₹250 crore in 2023 to nearly ₹550 crore in 2025. Based on current trends, Qoruz expects the segment to cross the ₹700 crore mark in the upcoming season, implying an average annual growth rate of around 40% over the four-year period.
The study positions influencer marketing as an increasingly important slice of the overall IPL digital advertising market. Total digital ad spending around the tournament stood at an estimated ₹3,200–₹3,800 crore in 2025 and is projected to rise to ₹3,800–₹4,400 crore in 2026. Within that pool, influencer-led campaigns are expected to account for roughly 16–18% of total digital spends during the next season.
Qoruz says this rise is not being driven by spending alone. Audience engagement with creator-led IPL content has also expanded sharply, climbing from about 1.4 billion interactions in 2023 to nearly 2.6 billion in 2025—an increase of close to 86% in just two years.
A major contributor to this surge has been the rapid rise in creator participation. The number of creators publishing IPL-related content has increased from roughly 645,000 in 2023 to nearly 1.2 million in 2025, and is expected to exceed 1.5 million in 2026. As the pool widens, audience attention is becoming more distributed instead of being concentrated among a handful of celebrity influencers.
In terms of platform mix, Instagram continues to dominate IPL creator activity, accounting for around 52% of all related content. YouTube follows with 28%, while X contributes 12% and Facebook makes up the remaining 8%.
The report also breaks down which creator communities are generating the strongest engagement during the cricketing spectacle. Sports creators contribute the largest share at 32%, closely followed by arts and entertainment creators at 30%. Meme creators account for 18%, underlining the growing role of humour, banter and rapid-response content during the tournament. Fashion and beauty creators together contribute 8%, while travel and food creators add 6%. The remaining 6% comes from other segments such as lifestyle, health and niche-interest categories.
On the spending side, brand budgets remain weighted towards larger creators, though mid-tier and smaller influencers continue to command meaningful engagement. According to Qoruz, A-list creators attract about 32% of influencer budgets, while mega creators receive around 25%. Macro creators account for 18%, micro creators for 15%, and nano creators collectively make up the final 10%.
Sector-wise, FMCG brands account for the highest share of influencer collaborations during the IPL at around 32%. They are followed by e-commerce and retail at 17%, entertainment and OTT at 16%, and consumer tech and telecom at 15%. Fintech and payments brands contribute around 10%, while automotive players account for 6%. The remaining 4% is spread across categories including travel, wellness and others.
The analysis suggests that shifts in advertiser participation are also reshaping the market. While some traditionally high-spending sectors have moderated their activity, stronger participation from FMCG, e-commerce, entertainment and fintech brands is helping sustain the momentum in influencer-led campaigns.
“IPL is no longer just a broadcast moment, it’s an economy in motion,” said Praanesh Bhuvaneswar, Co-Founder and CEO of Qoruz.“It’s one of the few moments where demand for attention is guaranteed, but supply of attention isn’t. Everyone shows up, but not everything gets seen. What’s changing is that value is now being created in places that didn’t exist a few years ago. IPL isn’t just being watched anymore, it’s being participated in, and that’s where attention is fragmenting and resurfacing across creators.”
Qoruz also points to changing campaign design as brands seek better returns from creator partnerships. Rather than concentrating spends on a few well-known faces, marketers are increasingly distributing campaigns across multiple creator tiers to maintain visibility and engagement throughout the tournament window.
“IPL is one of those moments where the internet behaves exactly like cricket fans do,” said Aditya Gurwara, Co-Founder and Head of Brand Alliances at Qoruz.“Everyone shows up early for the hype, reacts loudly during the match, and then spends the next hour discussing what just happened. Our data reflects that too. About 34% of creator engagement happens before the match even starts, around 16% during live reactions, but nearly 50% comes after the match, when creators and fans start breaking down moments, celebrating wins, or roasting friends. For brands, that post-match window is where a lot of the real conversation happens.”
Overall, the findings underline how influencer marketing is becoming a more prominent layer within IPL-linked digital advertising. Although broader digital media channels still account for a larger share of spending, creator-led campaigns are expanding much faster, signalling a structural shift in how brands compete for consumer attention during one of India’s biggest annual media events.
