Women's T20 World Cup brings in record digital numbers

Only last year’s men’s World Cup eclipsed the 1.1 billion video views during the tournament, which was ultimately won by Australia in front of a record crowd for a women’s cricket match in the country

The Women’s T20 World Cup brought in 1.1 billion video views across the ICC’s digital channels, the second-highest number ever over the course of an ICC event.

Only last year’s men’s World Cup eclipsed the figure reached during the tournament, which was ultimately won by Australia in front of a record crowd for a women’s cricket match in the country.

The video viewership was 20 times greater than the number delivered in the previous edition in the West Indies in 2018, and a tenfold rise on the previous best for an ICC women’s competition – the 2017 World Cup won by England.

As well as 86,174 spectators attending the final in person at the MCG – the previous record at the ground for a women’s cricket match was just 7,028, there were 1.78 billion viewing minutes watched of live final coverage.

That figure is 59 times more than the final of the previous edition in 2018 between Australia and England, and comprised 35 per cent of the overall viewership for the tournament.

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ICC chief executive Manu Sawhney said: “These quite outstanding broadcast and digital numbers demonstrate the power of women’s cricket to aggregate a huge global audience and engage fans.

“This undoubtedly consolidates our position as one of the leading women’s sports in the world and we want to build on the momentum from this event and create a long-term sustainable foundation for the game.

“It reinforces our belief that there is a significant opportunity around the women’s game and collectively we must promote it further so more fans can watch it, more kids are inspired by it and sponsors and broadcasters want to be a part of it.”

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In India, the live average audience during the final was 9.02 million, despite the comprehensive defeat suffered by Harmanpreet Kaur’s team. That topped off an overall tournament figure of 5.4 billion viewing minutes in the country – a threefold increase on the 2018 edition, when India crashed out to England at the semi-final stage.

In Australia, the average audience for the final was 1.2 million, making it the most watched women’s cricket match and the sixth-most watched cricket match ever on subscription television in Australian broadcast history.

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