History beckons as #CWC23 smashes digital records at halfway point

A record-breaking 6.64 billion video views have been registered – a stunning 127% increase compared to the same stage of last year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022, and a whopping 314% increase more than the 2019 edition of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.

In fact, the ongoing tournament has already surpassed the total video viewership figures for last year’s event in Australia, with the 6.58 billion views achieved in the entirety of that tournament already passed.

In the most digitally-engaged event in cricket history, Meta’s platforms, Facebook and Instagram, have seen 4 billion and 2.5 billion views respectively.

Content on Reels played a significant part in this increase with fan-viewing numbers having doubled the average that was seen for the T20 World Cup in 2022.

“We are delighted that at the halfway point of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 it is already the most digitally engaged ICC event,” ICC Head of Digital, Finn Bradshaw said.

“Prior to the start of the event, we had committed to producing a bigger and better digital offering and we are thrilled that hundreds of millions of fans across the world are engaging and enjoying the Men’s Cricket World Cup across ICC’s channels.

“The one-day format allows us more time to deeply connect with fans and we look forward to working with our partners over the next few weeks to provide even more exciting experiences and access to the biggest Cricket World Cup ever.”

As part of their collaboration with the ICC, Meta's platforms have raked in big numbers.

Their platforms saw 60,000 engagements on average per post, a 33% increase over Australia 2022, with the best-performing content – ‘Four Years and One Cricket World Cup apart’ – raking in 69.7 million plays so far.

ICC and Meta’s collaboration for the largest creator campaign in ICC's history has also resulted in the event being covered extensively and to broader audiences than just cricket fans.

The content, produced in local language and style, continues to be a big hit with the project generating hundreds of millions of views, with content such as this piece involving South Africa speedster Kagiso Rabada giving tips for using the local trains in Mumbai and popular creator RJ Karishma’s vlog from India’s win over Pakistan being enjoyed by millions of people. RJ Princy Parkh’s fun piece with Blackcaps star Kane Willamson has been seen by more than 100 million people alone!

ICC also boasted some significant numbers on its owned-and-operated platforms, with a first-of-its-kind vertical video highlights experience on its website and the official CWC 23 app attracting 43 million fans. The fans spent more time than ever on these pages, with pages per session and average session time both up 50% from the previous year.

Captain’s Call, a new pre-match strategy challenge that uses blockchain technology from ICC’s partner NEAR, also saw hundreds of thousands of users signing up to test their cricket knowledge against their friends.

The ICC digital record follows a streaming world record set by Hotstar and Star Sports during India’s clash against New Zealand on Sunday, 22 October, when a peak concurrency of around 43 million viewers was registered during the final overs of the match.

It saw Hotstar break its own record for the highest number of concurrent viewers – the 35 million set during the India-Pakistan clash on October 14 earlier in the event.

With half of CWC23 still to be played, more Digital records look set to be smashed.