IPL vs WPL: Complete Comparison of Auctions, Salaries, Prize Money, Competition & TRP

The Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Women’s Premier League (WPL) have both captured the attention of cricket fans, but there is a huge difference in terms of scale and structure. From player auctions and salaries to prize money and TV ratings, each and every aspect shows a vast difference between the two leagues.

While the IPL, which began in 2008, has grown into a global sporting event with massive budgets and huge fan following, the WPL, launched in 2023, is still working on its reputation and building its audience globally. This comparison looks at how the two leagues match up in auctions, player pay, prize money, and viewership, giving a clear IPL vs WPL comparison.

While, IPL is the richest cricket league in the world, WPL is growing into the most successful league in women's cricket. Although, there is some way to go, the WPL is quickly growing into a world-class league on its own and will give a tough fight to IPL in the future. Let's have a look at the IPL vs WPL comparison through various factors.

IPL vs WPL Auction

The auctions for the IPL and WPL show the differences in scale and financial muscle between the two leagues. In the IPL, teams typically have a huge purse. For instance, in the 2025 mega-auction, each of the 10 franchises had around ₹120 crore to spend. Teams could retain up to six players before the auction, with retention amounts deducted from the total purse, and the minimum base price for players was ₹30 lakh.

By contrast, the WPL operates on a much smaller scale. In the inaugural 2023 auction, each team had a purse of just ₹12 crore, which is now increased to ₹ 15 crore. Even the maximum retention amount for WPL is placed at ₹3.5 crore for the best women cricketers like Smriti Mandhana, Ashleigh Gardner, and Nat Sciver-Brunt.

Both auctions follow a similar system of teams bidding for players under a purse limit with retention rules and overseas player slots, but the IPL’s auction is much larger, more competitive, and financially intense. The IPL vs WPL comparison in the auction is given below.

IPL vs WPL Salary Comparison

The difference in player salaries between the IPL and WPL is striking. The league attracts the best cricketers in the world every year. In IPL 2025, top players like Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer earned ₹27 crore and ₹26.75 crore, respectively, showing the league’s massive financial scale. In contrast, the highest-paid player in the WPL is Smriti Mandhana, who received ₹3.4 crore during the inaugural auction in 2023, and she has been retained at the maximum retention prize of ₹3.5 crore for the WPL 2026 season.

The gap is even more apparent when looking at averages: the typical IPL player earns around ₹3.5 crore, while the average WPL player earns roughly ₹47.6 lakh, about seven times less. IPL players participate in more matches and have access to additional commercial opportunities, whereas the WPL, being newer, has smaller budgets and fewer games. The IPL clearly offers far higher financial rewards.

IPL vs WPL Prize Money

The prize money in the IPL and WPL has a stark difference, which highlights the scale of the two leagues. In IPL 2025, the champions took home ₹20 crore, while the runners-up earned around ₹12 crore. Even teams eliminated in the playoffs received significant amounts, with Qualifier losers getting roughly ₹7 crore and Eliminator stage teams around ₹6.5 crore.

In comparison, the WPL  offers much smaller rewards. The winning team received ₹6 crore, and the runner-up took home ₹3 crore. Individual awards like the Orange Cap or Purple Cap in the WPL were around ₹5 lakh.

IPL vs WPL Match Fees

In the Indian Premier League, a newly structured match-fee system was introduced ahead of the 2025 season. Players now earn ₹7.5 lakh for every match they play, in addition to their contract or auction price. Over a full league season, a player could earn an additional ₹1.05 crore just from match fees, and each franchise needs to set aside around ₹12.6 crore to cover match fees for their squad.

In comparison, the WPL does not yet have a publicly detailed per-match fee structure like the IPL. In the league’s inaugural season, the lowest-paid players reportedly earned around ₹10 lakh for eight matches, while top players’ earnings were mostly limited to their auction price.

For context, the BCCI has committed to equal match fees for Indian women’s international cricketers, for example, ₹15 lakh per Test, ₹6 lakh per ODI, and ₹3 lakh per T20I for women’s national team players, but in domestic WPL games, compensation per match is not transparent. Let's have a look at IPL vs WPL comparison on the basis of their match fees.

IPL vs WPL TRP Comparison

The IPL continues to dominate in terms of viewership and television ratings. The 18th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) attracted over a billion viewers across television and digital platforms, achieving a total watch time of 840 billion minutes. The final between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) alone accounted for 31.7 billion minutes of viewing across JioStar’s platforms, Star Sports and JioHotstar, making it the most-watched match in the history of T20 cricket.

The WPL, on the other hand, is still a young league, having launched in 2023. Despite this, it has shown impressive growth, drawing about 250 million viewers in its season, with 149 million on TV and 109  million through digital platforms.