The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced that the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 received 6.58 billion video views throughout all ICC platforms, breaking the Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 record by 65% and becoming the most digitally engaged ICC event in history.
It also had strong TV broadcasting figures around the world, particularly in host countries Australia and the United Kingdom as a result of England’s accomplishment, illustrating the power of cricket and ICC events to bring together a massive global audience and engage new and existing fans.
The impressive online numbers represent the ICC’s dedication to bringing fans closer to the event, whether that meant displaying Australia through the ‘Big Time Preview Shows’ or collaborating with collaborating Members to take enthusiasts inside the dressing room, such as this Babar Azam speech following India’s defeat, or into a nets session with Rohit Sharma.
The ICC’s collaboration with Meta included the launch of the Reels Squad, which featured high-profile Indian creators reaching tens of millions of cricket – and non-cricket – audiences with intriguing skits showcasing key players. This one-of-a-kind content included a Hindi video featuring Kagiso Rabada that received 28 million views. The collaboration with Meta resulted in more than 6.1 billion video views from fans throughout the ICC’s Facebook and Instagram pages, representing a more than 50% increase over the 2021 event.
The Men’s T20 World Cup had 78.4 million visitors on web and app platforms, an all-time high and a 57% raise over last year’s edition. The ICC’s investment in providing new digital experiences to enthusiasts, such as live fielding positions information via Sportradar, a 360-degree visualisation of the tournament’s biggest sixes, and a vertical video experience powered by AI-generated match highlights, drove these numbers.
In terms of broadcasts, the overall average global committed TV audience for Australia in 2022 was 1.28 billion. The event was witnessed for a total of 3.95 billion hours, which include 365 million hours on digital streaming platforms. From the previous Men’s T20 World Cup in 2021, live streaming consumption has risen by 149 million viewing hours, indicating a shift in customer habits and how they consume live coverage.
Coverage throughout major markets saw the most viewership match of the tournament, India versus Pakistan, rack up 256 million viewing hours in India. When particularly in comparison to the most latest ICC men’s event in Australia, average live linear TV viewership in India increased by 4%, owing to multi-language coverage on the Star Network and Hotstar in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada.
Audiences in the United States and Australia could obtain the Star Sports Hindi feed via Willow TV and ESPN+, respectively. ESPN’s additional regional language endeavours brought the live broadcast to Brazil in Portuguese for the first time, and ATN provided Pashto and Dari language feeds to Afghan fans.
The number of unique viewers increased by 45% in the United Kingdom, from 6 million for the 2021 event to 8.7 million for the 2022 edition. This was fueled by England’s good performance, with all games obtaining specialised coverage on Sky Sports and the final airing on free-to-air television by Channel 4. Finally, amidst not qualifying from the Super 12 stage of the 2022 edition, there was a 455% increase in linear TV viewing hours in the host nation Australia, especially in comparison to their triumphant campaign in 2021, which was broadcast by Fox Sports and Channel Nine.
Star Sports‘ original marketing initiative ‘Bahut Hua Intezaar’ used a novel outlook ahead of India versus Pakistan game to participate in and create additional interest among Indian fans. The ‘Don’t Miss A Thing’ initiative by Fox Sports used Australian cricket heroes from the past and present to reassure fans that every game would be displayed live with no ad breaks all over Fox Cricket in the host country.
The tournament was widely dispersed by 21 different linear broadcasters and streaming platforms to regions throughout the world, backed up by ICC TV’s world feed production. Star Sports created their own wrap-around shows in five languages, while broadcasters in Australia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the United Kingdom created customised studio programmes to cater to their audiences.
ICC, Chief Executive, Geoff Allardice, said, “We are thrilled to announce the record-breaking viewership and engagement numbers for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. The innovative approach to content creation, collaboration with the competing teams and use of cutting-edge technology delivered through this event provided new and existing fans with comprehensive coverage of the event on the platforms most relevant to them.
“These outstanding numbers demonstrate our fans’ appetite for ICC events and the depth and breadth of the global reach that cricket enjoys across the world.”