The Hundred launched in 2021 as the only cricket league in the international game to use the 100-ball format. Some claimed the contest is akin to “influencer sport”, although others – such as former England captain Nasser Hussain have praised the most recent edition of the competition.
Data from YouGov SportsIndex shows that, over the course of this year’s competition (21 July – 16 August), Buzz – a measure of whether the public have heard anything positive/negative about a competition – rose from 3.2 to 5.9 (+2.7), while Awareness scores jumped from 36.8 to 41.7 (+4.9). Impression scores were relatively static, moving from 7.6 to 7.7 (+0.1).
But what if we take a broader view and look at The Hundred’s perceptions relative to other cricket tournaments?
Data from the last day of the competition’s 2026 edition shows that it still lags behind England Test Cricket and T20. If we look at Buzz, The Hundred’s scores sat at 5.9; behind T20’s 6.3, and ahead of Test Cricket’s 3.2. For other metrics, it performed less favourably. Quality scores, which track whether events are staged to a high or low standard, are at 9.9 compared to scores of 13.2 for T20 and 20.5 for test cricket. There has been some criticism of the event from a presentational perspective. Reputation scores, which measure prestige, are twice as high for the other competitions (T20: 12.1; Test: 19.4) as they are for The Hundred (4.9). There is a similar gap when it comes to Consideration (Hundred: 6.8; T20: 9.6; Test: 12.9).
It’s worth putting this performance in context. It is a six-year-old competition competing with more than a century of test cricket and more than 20 years of T20. The gaps between The Hundred and other forms of the sport are also not necessarily insurmountable at this stage. Still, if we look at Index scores from the past five years – which measure overall brand health – we can see a score of 4.8 in 2021, a low of 2.2 in November 2021, a peak of 8.6 in June of this year, and a most recent score of 5.5. None of this is devastating; nor is it spectacular. It may take a few more wickets before The Hundred is accepted as part of the cricketing mainstream.
This article originally appeared in City A.M.