The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup concluded last night with the final match between India and Australia. The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad saw an audience of 92,453 fans but people all over the country witnessed the match online on Disney+ Hotstar. The streaming platform recorded 5.9 crore viewers during the Cricket World Cup finals.
Disney+ Hotstar record viewership for Ind vs Aus match
- Disney+ Hotstar set a new record not just for the streaming platform but for the tournament as well with 5.9 crore viewers watching the match live.
- This was confirmed by Sajith Sivanandan, Head, Disney+ Hotstar India, who was quoted as saying, “With a staggering 5.9 Cr concurrent viewers tuning in on Disney+ Hotstar for the final—almost twice as high as any peak concurrency record set before the tournament—the unwavering support of Indian cricket fans has consistently propelled us to new heights in live sports streaming. It has been a privilege matching their zeal with our innovation.”
- Prior to this, the semi-finals between India and New Zealand also witnessed a staggering 5.3 crore viewers on Disney+ Hotstar.
Disney+ Hotstar was the official streaming partner for the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, and the Asia Cup 2023 . It even streamed the tournaments for free on its mobile app. Watching the matches on a bigger obviously meant getting the subscription. Jio had also launched new prepaid plans with free Disney+ Hotstar subscription for World Cup 2023. Excitel had also introduced a new Rs 499 World Cup plan.
The new viewership record is a big win for Disney+ Hotstar considering how it lost IPL rights to Jio Cinema. This led to a drop of 4.6 million subscribers for Disney+ Hotstar, which was primarily due to lower sports viewership particularly the IPL matches. JioCinema bagged digital rights for IPL that took place earlier this year. There are even talks about Disney selling Hotstar and its TV business in India with Jio being one of the top contenders.
