World Cup 2023: ODI tournament in India shatters broadcast, digital records

The ODI World Cup in October and November was the biggest ICC event in history, the global body shared in a press release. The 50-over tournament, played entirely in India, shattered numerous broadcast and digital records. The 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup breached the 1 trillion barrier for total viewing minutes on broadcast. It was an increase of 38% from the 2011 edition (also held in India) and by 17% compared to the previous World Cup in the United Kingdom in 2019. The tournament finale between India and Australia, held at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, 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. India played a giant role in these staggeringly huge 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. There was growth outside the country too, 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. In total, 9.1 million people tuned in to watch the ODI World Cup, a three-million rise from 2019. Pakistan achieved unprecedented viewership, recording a total of 237.12 billion viewing minutes of live content. Disney+ Hotstar’s decision to live stream the World Cup for free in India resulted in the record for peak concurrent viewers being broken four times, with the final attracting cricket’s highest concurrent audience ever. Things were equally blistering on the digital front. An astonishing 16.9 billion views made it the most digital-engaged ICC event ever. The 2023 World Cup surged past the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia with a massive 158% increase.

Individually, a fun reimagination of Glenn Maxwell’s resurrection from pain against Afghanistan garnered a whopping 50 million views. Virat Kohli’s video of his hug with Sachin Tendulkar attracted 40 million views on Instagram after breaking his ODI centuries record (78 million views). Kohli’s effort with the ball also drew plenty of engagement on social media. His scalp of Scott Edwards contributed 39 million video plays on Instagram. ICC recorded staggering 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.