The ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025, which was held in Pakistan & Dubai, has set a record viewership in India, becoming the highest-rated multi-nation cricket competition in the country’s history.
The tournament outperformed the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 by 23%, showcasing the sport’s growing popularity in India. With a total viewing time of about 250 billion minutes, comprising 137 billion minutes on Star Sports and 110 billion minutes on JioHotstar, the tournament’s success was fuelled by several memorable matches, most notably the grand final between India and New Zealand on March 9 in Dubai.
The final saw a high concurrent viewership of 122 million on TV and 61 million on JioHotstar, setting a new record for digital cricket viewership.
The final was the second highest-rated ODI in TV history, outside of World Cup events, with 230 million viewers and 53 billion minutes of watch-time across broadcast and digital platforms.
The India-Pakistan league-stage match in Dubai was a major highlight of the event, with the crowd glued to their seats and becoming one of India’s most-watched ODIs. The high-stakes event drew more than 26 billion minutes of television coverage, exceeding the India-Pakistan match from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, which received 19.5 billion viewing minutes. The Champions Trophy match had a 10.8% higher television rating, with 206 million people watching live on TV.
ICC Chair Jay Shah, said, “The Champions Trophy made an amazing return after eight years and the viewership numbers from India have been overwhelming, in particular the final between India and New Zealand. The incredible viewership numbers highlight the mass appeal that cricket has in India and how taking ICC events to audiences in different languages can significantly boost fan engagement. The success of the Champions Trophy marketing strategy is evident, creating excitement in existing and new fanbases, complimented by highly exciting cricket throughout the event.”
The tournament’s record-breaking attendance can be attributed to JioStar’s comprehensive broadcast, which reached audiences across the country in many languages. Matches were carried live on Star Sports and Sports 18 in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada, with JioHotstar offering an unprecedented 16 feeds, involving nine language options including Marathi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, and Haryanvi, as well as specialised multi-cam and Indian Sign Language feeds.
Jio Star’s CEO, Sports, Sanjog Gupta, said, “This accomplishment is a result of the combined strength of the widest, most deeply penetrated multi-platform destination for sports, the fan-focussed story-telling approach of the JioStar ‘mega-casts’ and our superior technological capabilities. The interest in the tournament was fuelled by a one-of-a-kind cohort-based marketing effort which built diverse apertures for the tournament in order to recruit at scale, differentiated audience segments with distinct persuasions across devices. India’s unbeaten, title-winning campaign, further fuelled the passion of the fans and drove the spike in viewership for the Final.”