Sunday’s clash between India and South Africa at the ongoing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 achieved yet another landmark for the tournament. The first innings of the match drew 4.4 crore (44 million) concurrent viewers, setting a new global streaming record.
The new viewership numbers broke the tournament host streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar’s own recent concurrency record of 4.3 crore (43m) during the match between India and New Zealand on October 22. The previous record, in turn, had broken the record of 3.5 crore (35m) viewers created during the India vs Pakistan match earlier in the tournament.
This back-to-back record-breaking streak comes on the back of Disney+ Hotstar offering free streaming of the ongoing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup and the recently concluded Asia Cup to mobile users in India. This was after rival service JioCinema streamed the IPL tournament for free to consumers earlier this year.
“Making the Asia Cup and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup available to a wider audience, we believe, will help us grow the overall ecosystem,” Sajith Sivanandan, head of Disney+ Hotstar said at the time.
Sunday’s match between India and South Africa also saw Virat Kohli equaling Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most hundreds in one-day internationals. The achievement came on Kohli’s 35th birthday.
India’s 8th match of the 2023 World Cup against South Africa was played at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens.
