World Cup final ‘most watched event in Indian TV history’, announces Jay Shah

Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Jay Shah has announced that the final of the ICC 2023 Cricket World Cup between India and Australia on Sunday (November 19th) turned out to be the ‘most watched event of any kind in Indian television history’, registering a mind-boggling viewership of 30 crore. Shah, in his Tweet, also revealed that peak TV concurrency reached a ‘historic high of 13 crore’.

A staggering 30 Crore fans watched the @cricketworldcup 2023 Final on TV making it the most watched event of any kind in Indian television history. Peak TV Concurrency also reached a historic high of 13 Crore (peak digital concurrency was 5.9 Crore, also a world record).
We are… pic.twitter.com/v5YCp0l04D

— Jay Shah (@JayShah) November 23, 2023

The announcement from the BCCI Secretary comes on the back of the International Cricket Council (ICC) revealing that the 2023 World Cup became the most attended ICC event ever, with a total of 1,250,307 fans passing through the gates. 

It shattered the previous record of 1,016,420 spectators at the 2015 World Cup in Australia & New Zealand by nearly a quarter-million. 

The development comes on the back of a lot of apprehension surrounding the future of the ODI format in lead-up to the tournament, with many stakeholders wondering whether the advent of T20 cricket has killed fans’ appetite for the 50-over format, which is twice as long. A low spectator turnout for the first game of the World Cup between England and New Zealand in Ahmedabad added fuel to the fire.