World Cup 2023 smashes broadcast and digital records

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 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. 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.

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 and 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.