Viewership records: The incredible pull of Indian cricket
The closing stages of the India-New Zealand match were viewed by a record 43 million, beating the previous peak of 35 million during the India-Pakistan match
As India homed in towards a well-earned victory against New Zealand for their fifth successive World Cup win on Sunday, Virat Kohli flat batted Trent Boult for a six over deep mid-wicket. The word spread that the chase master was masterminding another run-chase. And, he was aiming for another hundred.
As the legend goes, the boy on the street would tell his folks ‘Mahi maar raha hai’ about the free-spirited MS Dhoni and people would gather to watch; how events play out today, the peak concurrent viewing numbers on Hotstar – the live streaming platform of the ODI World Cup - began to spiral up for Kohli.
From 37 million, they became 38 as Kohli drove one past the bowler for a four. With victory in sight, the only remaining point of interest was whether Kohli would get to his 49th ODI hundred and go equal with his idol Sachin Tendulkar. India and Kohli needed 5 runs more. A six would seal it, a four would bring him closer. It was not to be for Kohli.
But the racy action spread over 15 minutes took Hotstar’s peak viewership numbers up to 43 million; New Zealand’s population is a little over 5 million. The new viewership record comfortably went past the previous peak (35 million), from the India-Pakistan match, earlier in this tournament.
Peak concurrent numbers don’t convey the whole story, but they do tell us one thing – when the Indian team is on a winning spree gunning for a world title, be it T20 or ODI, viewers tune in. The International Cricket Council calls India a key market. It’s The Key Market - approximately 85% of ICC’s broadcast revenue (2024-27) comes from here.
In England, ICC’s other key market - there’s no free-to-air coverage available for the World Cup. Australia may be five-time title holders, but only the home games are available for free viewing and cricket isn’t the No 1 sport there.
STAR POWER
Star power is driving viewership more than ever before. Earlier in the year, when it was rumoured that IPL 2023 would be Dhoni’s last IPL, almost all the Chennai Super Kings matches clocked very high viewership.
“It’s not just Virat and Dhoni. With the onset of social media, in sports... world over, viewership and consumption is being dictated through superstars like Ronaldo and Messi in football, Lebron James in basketball and recently Travis Kelce in NFL,” said Yannick Colaco, Co-founder, Fancode.
It's also evident that close matches attract more viewers than those built only on hype and rivalry (India-Pakistan games are fast entering that territory). Third highest on the list of all-time peak digital viewership (32 million) is the 15-overs-a-side rain-affected IPL 2023 final featuring CSK and Gujarat Titans; a last ball thriller.
That all the top five ranked peak viewership moments come from cricket is no surprise. Significantly, they have all come, this year. “It is also a function of greater adoption of live steaming content in India,” said Colaco.
The aggressive digital push was first given by Jio Cinema with its free streaming move for IPL 2023. Disney Star, after losing IPL’s digital rights, to prevent further erosion of subscriber base, took a cue and offered the Asia Cup as well as the ODI World Cup free on digital.
While it’s true that some of the new digital viewers may have migrated from linear TV – the cumulative TV reach of first 11 World Cup matches has reportedly dropped by 8 % - in IPL 2023 TV still commanded greater viewership to digital – 505 million compared to 449 million.
The uptick in digital viewership for India matches has been significant. The previous peak in digital viewership from the 2019 ODI World Cup, came from India’s close loss to New Zealand in the semi-final (25.2 million). It still ranks as 6th on the all-time list. Non-India matches, have been recording peak viewership in the range of 5-10 million.
This chase of India’s cricket consumption numbers also influenced the game’s inclusion in LA28. A panel representing the LA Games at the recent IOC session in Mumbai spoke of the “fast and appealing” T20 format for the Olympics, catering to an “estimated 2.5 billion fans worldwide of the sport” and highlighted Virat Kohl as the “third most followed athlete in the world” on Instagram. A huge majority of those fans are from India or have an Indian connection.
With internet penetration and digital adoption on the rise, newer viewership peaks in cricket may be in the offing, especially if the Rohit Sharma-led India continues its victory march in the knock-out rounds of the World Cup, more headline numbers may not be far away.
