Why Cricket Struggles to Secure a Permanent Spot at the Esports World Cup

Cricket at the EWC table: door cracked, but the economics don't add up yet

According to the Hindustan Times, conversations on the floor of the Esports World Cup 2026 in Paris are circling the same question Indian mobile fans have been asking for years: why is cricket missing from a 24-title lineup at Porte de Versailles? The honest answer from Chief Games Officer Fabian Scheuermann is that cricket as a sport is irrelevant to his decision. What matters is cricket as a product — and right now, no publisher has built one that travels.

The three filters every title must clear

Scheuermann laid out the gating criteria plainly: global audience, fan engagement, and commercial value, layered with a fourth condition — the digital game itself must generate worldwide viewership, not just local dominance. The EWC is content with its current ceiling of 24 to 25 titles, meaning any addition is a subtraction somewhere else. For cricket, that bar is the real obstacle. Big Ant Studios' Cricket 26 is the most credible live project, but even the most generous read of its market footprint doesn't yet match the multi-region depth that BGMI, PUBG Mobile, or Mobile Legends bring to the tournament floor. Licensing baggage left over from EA's abandoned series hasn't helped; the publisher's exit from the category created a vacuum that the genre is still struggling to monetise at scale.

The India paradox

Here is the strategic knot the EWC is unwilling to cut with PR. Scheuermann called India "one of our most important growth markets" and acknowledged that a cricket title on the roster would likely hand the country "an easy gold medal." His framing was pointed: a tournament where one nation crushes everyone isn't a product, it's a parade. Global broadcast partners won't underwrite it, sponsors won't renew on it, and the second-year retention curve collapses. Conversely, an Indian squad winning in a cricket esport where regional depth exists — Pakistan, Sri Lanka, England, Australia, South Africa ecosystems actually competing — is a vastly more licensable property. The prize money narrative works only if the underdog story works.

What to watch next

The runway question for Indian stakeholders is ecosystem-building, not lobbying. Any serious pitch to the EWC committee needs to come with concurrent grassroots circuits in at least three non-ISH markets, a publisher willing to bankroll a multi-year competitive circuit, and viewership data from outside the subcontinent. Big Ant's partnership footprint, Cricket 26's post-launch retention numbers, and whether any Indian publisher — SuperGaming, nCore Games, or a Tier-1 mobile studio — enters the category in 2026–27 will be the real signals. Until then, cricket remains the most commercially obvious title the EWC has refused to add, and that refusal is less a snub than a sober ROI calculation.