World Cup 2023 smashes broadcast and digital records
The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 breached the 1 trillion barrier 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 billions 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.
The Cricket World Cup trophy was lifted for a record sixth time by Australia.
Australia's success at the tournament also meant that 9.1 million people tuned in to watch the 2023 World Cup, a three-million rise from 2019.
India's sub-continent neighbour Pakistan achieved unprecedented viewership, recording a total of 237.12 billion viewing minutes of live content.
Disney+ Hotstar's decision to stream the World Cup for free in India resulted in the record for peak concurrent viewers being broken four times in the tournament, with the final attracting cricket’s highest concurrent audience ever.
| 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 |
A peek into the ecstatic Aussie dressing room as the trophy makes an appearance.
The record-breaking trend continued on the digital front as well with an astonishing 16.9 billion video views making it the most digital-engaged ICC event ever.
The 2023 World Cup upstaged the 2022 T20 World Cup for the tag with a massive 158% increase from the tournament in Australia. From ‘It Takes One Day’ preview shows to exclusive behind-the-scenes vision, there was no shortage of content to consume.
On social media, a fun reimagination of Glenn Maxwell's resurrection from pain against Afghanistan garnered a whopping 50 million views. Virat Kohli wasn't to be left too far behind, with the video of his hug with idol Sachin Tendulkar attracting 40 million views on Instagram after breaking his ODI centuries record (78 million views).
The 'wrong-footed, inswinging menace' Kohli picked up a wicket as well during the tournament, with the scalp of Scott Edwards contributing 39 million video plays on Instagram.
ICC’s partnership with Meta, which included the Meta Creator Squad India showed a fun, never-seen-before side of players before and during the tournament, brought in 16.3 billion video plays across Meta channels (9.7 billion on Facebook and 6.6 billion on Instagram).
The event witnessed a record-breaking number of users on both web and app platforms, reaching 97.5 million unique users, marking a 29% surge from the 2019 edition. The page views on the website soared to 704 million, reflecting a 96% increase to the 2022 Men's T20 World Cup.