The Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 in India was the biggest-ever ICC event, breaking records on broadcast and digital.
The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 breached the 1 trillion barriers for total viewing minutes on broadcast, which included new technological innovations such as the vertical video feed. The edition witnessed an increase of 38% from the 2011 edition in India and by 17% compared to the previous World Cup in the United Kingdom in 2019.
The big final between India and Australia lived up to its billing by becoming the most-watched ICC match with 87.6 billion live viewing minutes globally, growing 46% from the last time the hosts reached the final in 2011.
The host country India contributed significantly to the staggering numbers with 422 billion viewing minutes on the Disney Star Network alone, resulting in a whopping 54% increase from 2011 and 9% from 2019.
The surge in female viewership played a role in the overall growth, climbing from 32% during the 2011 edition to 34% in the current year. This shift underscored the widespread enthusiasm surrounding the host country’s tournament.
Outside of India too, there was significant growth in broadcast numbers, most notably in the United Kingdom and Australia. The UK witnessed 800 hours of live coverage, resulting in over 5.86 billion minutes of live viewing. Australia contributed 3.79 billion minutes of viewing from 602 hours of live coverage, marking an increase of 92% from 2011.
Due to Australia’s performance in the competition, 9.1 million viewers of the 2023 World Cup turned in, an increase of three million over the previous year.
Pakistan, India’s neighbor on the subcontinent, had an unparalleled number of watchers, with 237.12 billion minutes of live video seen.
Due to Disney+ Hotstar’s decision to stream the World Cup for free in India, the event smashed four records for peak concurrent viewers, with the final drawing the largest concurrent viewership in cricket history.
Match | Peak concurrent viewers |
India vs Australia (Final) | 59 million |
India v New Zealand (Semi-Final) | 53 million |
India v South Africa | 44 million |
India v New Zealand (Group match) | 43 million |
India v Pakistan | 35 million |
It was the most digitally engaged ICC event ever, with an incredible 16.9 billion video views, continuing the record-breaking trend on the digital front.
The 2023 World Cup, which took place in Australia, surpassed the 2022 T20 World Cup by a staggering 158% margin for the title. There was a plenty of stuff to be consumed, ranging from preview shows for “It Takes One Day” to behind-the-scenes glimpses that were unique.
A humorous redo of Glenn Maxwell’s recovery from injury in Afghanistan received an incredible 50 million views on social media. Not to be outdone, Virat Kohli broke his record for most ODI hundreds (78 million views) with a video of him hugging his hero Sachin Tendulkar on Instagram, garnering 40 million views.
During the competition, the “wrong-footed, ins winging menace” Kohli also claimed a wicket, with his dismissal of Scott Edwards garnering 39 million views on Instagram.
16.3 billion videos were seen across Meta channels thanks to ICC and Meta’s collaboration, which featured the Meta Creator Squad India and revealed an entertaining, previously undiscovered side of the players before and throughout the competition (9.7 billion on Facebook and 6.6 billion on Instagram).
With 97.5 million unique visitors across online and app platforms, the event had a record-breaking number of attendees—a 29% increase over the 2019 edition. The website had a 96% rise in page views to 704 million in the run-up to the Men’s T20 World Cup in 2022.
