MIES (Switzerland) – As an exciting new season prepares to burst into action, it promises to be another incredible year for FIBA’s 3×3 basketball having re-enforced its position as one of the most thrilling urban sports worldwide during 2025.
Connecting with fans across all continents and delivering ever increasing value for partners, hosts, broadcasters and stakeholders, FIBA’s 3×3 basketball events strengthened its presence at the intersection of sport, entertainment and youth culture.
The 2025 season featured 17 stops on the FIBA 3×3 World Tour, alongside 19 Challengers and 15 events on the FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series, which continued its upward trajectory – reinforcing the commitment to elevate women’s basketball globally.
National team competitions remained as strong digital drivers, led by the FIBA 3×3 World Cup 2025, alongside continental and youth events. Meanwhile, the inaugural FIBA 3×3 Champions Cup introduced a new elite competition to the annual 3×3 basketball calendar.
FIBA’s 3×3 basketball Managing Director, Alex Sanchez, stated: “We are immensely proud to be able to reflect on 3×3 basketball’s best year so far and hitting unprecedented heights in these key metrics – something that highlights its ever-expanding reach. This clearly demonstrates how we continue to unlock the incredible potential of 3×3 basketball and deliver against our strategic objective of making 3×3 basketball the most thrilling urban sport in the world.
“Having recorded all-time high levels of engagement, broadcast coverage and record media value, we will now continue our journey of growth. We remain fully focused on expanding the global footprint of 3×3 basketball in 2026 and this is exciting news for players, fans, broadcasters, commercial partners, private promoters, National Federations and our other stakeholders.”
The new season 2026 will feature many highlights to look forward to throughout the 2026 calendar. These include the likes of the FIBA 3×3 World Cup in Poland during June, the latest FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series and the FIBA 3×3 World Tour which will culminate in the highly anticipated Final during December.
Record media value and broadcast expansion
Media impact and sponsorship visibility proved to be the defining highlight of the season. During 2025, 3×3 basketball generated an estimated 220-290 million US dollars in total media value for sponsors, driven by social media exposure, earned media coverage and television visibility. The figures also served to underline the growing return on investment delivered by 3×3 basketball’s integrated media ecosystem.
Broadcast distribution also reached new highs, with 3×3 basketball securing partnerships that spanned all five continents. Competitions were aired across 234 territories worldwide, significantly expanding the discipline’s growing global footprint.
This was no better demonstrated than an eye-catching 48 percent increase in linear television coverage of the FIBA 3×3 World Cup 2025 compared to the 2023 edition – a new peak of 418 broadcast hours having also been attained.
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