As the Cricket World Cup 2023 began, there started a debate around the dwindling popularity of the 50 over format because of unsold tickets. However, the latest data released by Star Sports, the broadcasters for the World Cup, suggests otherwise. There has been a significant growth of 22% in viewership from the last World Cup in 2019. The data that has been made available for the first 11 matches of the world cup evidently dismisses the claim of declining popularity.
The data received from the BARC reveals that over 268 million viewers had watched the world cup over television during the first 11 games. This number is very high when compared to the last World Cup played in England. The peak viewership recorded in the first 11 matches was during the India vs Australia match. The data for the India Vs Pakistan match hasn’t been made available yet but it is safe to say that it is much higher than any other game played in this world cup.
The increase in viewership has been recorded on streaming platforms as well. Disney+ Hotstar created a new record peak audience of 3.5 crore people during the India vs Pakistan game. This comes as good news for Disney which has been losing subscribers ever since JioCinema became a serious contender in the streaming business. The Star India Sports network has also been incurring operational losses.
