Pakistan-India World Cup match becomes most watched T20I in history: ICC

Gulf Today Report

With nearly 10,000 hours of live coverage across TV and digital platforms in 200 countries, the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup delivered a record viewership globally, the cricket's global governing body said.

The India-Pakistan encounter at this year's ICC Men's T20 World Cup garnered a record television reach of 167 million to become the most viewed international match of the format, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said in a statement.

The highly-anticipated match had seen Pakistan writing history, beating India for the first time in a world cup fixture. In the thrilling contest, the Green Shirts had inflicted a chastening 10-wicket defeat on their arch-rivals India.

Prior to this fixture, the India-West Indies semi-final match from the 2016 edition of the T20 Men's World Cup held in India was the most viewed contest of the format.

The tournament returned after five years and saw an increased viewership and consumption in India, Pakistan, UK, Australia and the strategic market of USA.

The event, the biggest ever cricket tournament to be staged in the UAE and Oman, broke viewership records in several regions, including garnering a record television reach of 167 million, and a record consumption of 15.9 billion minutes in India on the Star India Network, for the highly-anticipated India-Pakistan clash.

The encounter is now the most viewed T20I match in history, exceeding the previous high of the India-West Indies semi-final match from the 2016 edition of the ICC event held in India.

The overall TV consumption for the full tournament in India was recorded at 112 billion minutes, this despite India's early exit from the tournament.

Meanwhile, digital consumption for the tournament saw an explosive growth on Disney+ Hotstar in India, adding significantly to the overall television viewership in the market.

"We are pleased with these outstanding global viewership numbers, that demonstrate the power of T20I cricket to attract a huge audience across the globe on linear and digital platforms," ICC CEO Geoff Allardice said in a release.

"It reinforces our belief that there is a significant opportunity and appetite to grow the game in our strategic growth markets including the USA, so more fans can enjoy it, more kids are inspired by it and sponsors and broadcasters want to be a part of it," he added.

In the UK, viewership for the India-Pakistan match grew by 60 per cent on Sky UK whereas the overall viewership for the market went up by 7 per cent.

In Pakistan, the event was being broadcast by three players for the first time namely PTV, ARY and Ten Sports, which led to further growth in viewership by 7.3 per cent compared to the 2016 edition of the event.

In Australia, the viewership increased by 175 per cent on the Fox Network. In the USA, which the ICC recently named as one of the focus markets for the sport, the tournament was the most viewed cricket tournament ever on ESPN+.

The ICC's partnership with Facebook was a driver for the significant increase in video views, with a total of 4.3 billion views across all channels for the tournament, compared to 3.6 billion views, which were garnered for the 2019 edition of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup.

The consumption across ICC's digital assets also grew, recording a total of 2.55 billion minutes. ICC's social media channels also saw a significant growth in engagement at 618 million across those platforms, which is a 28 per cent jump since the 2019 edition of the Men's Cricket World Cup.