NEW DELHI: The ICC Men's T20 Cricket World Cup final match between India and South Africa on Saturday attracted a peak viewership of nearly 5.3 crore on the Disney+Hotstar OTT platform.
Although impressive, this figure fell short of the record audience of 5.9 crore that tuned in to watch the ODI final match between India and Australia on November 20, 2023, despite India's loss in that encounter, reported PTI.
The 5.9 crore peak concurrency for the India-Australia match still holds the record for live streaming of any cricket match, according to industry experts.
In the knockout match played between India and Australia in the T20 Cricket World Cup on June 24, the peak concurrency reached 3.9 crore.
Disney Star, which has exclusive broadcast and media rights for both linear and digital platforms, also telecast the final match live on the Star Sports network. However, the television viewership numbers will only be released a week later by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).
Karan Taurani, SVP of Elara Capital, noted that while the final match played on Saturday may not have surpassed the record set by the India-Australia match, an interesting observation was the sustained viewership of 4 to 4.5 crore viewers throughout the nail-biting finish.
There was a longer time frame of having 4 to 4.5 crore viewers, which was not there in the India-Australia final match played last year, he added.
Furthermore, even during the post-match ceremony, the viewership numbers remained impressive, ranging between 2.5 to 3 crore viewers.
