 "A shopkeeper in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, watches the Champions Trophy Group A match between India and Pakistan in Dubai. Reuters")
Sunday’s blockbuster meeting between India and Pakistan in Dubai smashed records, with the fifth match of the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy registering a viewership of 60.2 crore on JioHotstar. The peak concurrency was achieved when Virat Kohli hit the winning boundary to not only seal India’s six-wicket victory over their arch-rivals but to also complete his 51st ODI century.
While the match appeared a foregone conclusion even India lost a couple of wickets late in the chase, it was the anticipation of Kohli scoring only his second international century in over a year that kept users glued to their smartphones – or personal computers and TV sets, whichever device they watched the game on.
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The viewership on JioHotstar – the platform created following the merger of JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar – was 6.8 crore when pacer Mohammed Shami bowled the first over of the match following Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan’s decision to bat.
The numbers kept climbing from thereon, reaching 32.2 crore during the innings break after the tournament hosts and defending champions were bowled out for 241 .
Viewership keeps climbing after India walk out to bat
The number would then continue to climb after India skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill walked out to open the innings, and would surge past the 50-crore mark when Virat Kohli was toying with the Pakistani bowlers in the middle overs, masterminding yet another successful chase.
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The previous record for highest peak concurrency was 3.5 crore that was achieved on Disney+ Hotstar during the round-robin meeting between India and Pakistan in Ahmedabad in the 2023 ICC World Cup. The latest fixture between the two arch-rivals thus had a peak concurrency that was 17 times the number that had been set in 2023.
A total of 225 million people had tuned into the live stream of the match on the erstwhile digital platform while 173 million watched it on the Disney-Star Network and on Doordarshan on TV.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe TV viewership statistics for Sunday’s Indo-Pak clash in Dubai, however, is yet to be announced by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), and is expected to be made available in a week’s time.