The live broadcast on television of the men’s cricket world cup final between India and Australia saw more than 30 crore (300 million) viewers tuning in to watch it, making it the highest-viewed match ever, Disney Star said yesterday.

The tournament crossed a viewership of over half a billion viewers for the first time as 518 million (51.8 crore) TV viewers tuned in for the live broadcast, said Disney Star, the official broadcaster of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in a statement citing BARC data, according to a PTI report from New Delhi.

The live TV broadcast for the tournament garnered 422 billion minutes of watch time making it the most watched ICC Men’s World Cup in the history of the event, it added.

“Over 30 crore fans tuned in to the live broadcast on TV of the final between India and Australia, making it the highest viewed match ever,” the company said, adding that the peak concurrency on TV for the final match at 13 crores (130 million), surpassing the previous highest peak concurrency in the tournament with India versus Pakistan at 7.5 crores(75 million)  and India versus New Zealand at 8 crores.

Peak concurrency is the highest number of viewers during a live broadcast. India lost to Australia by six wickets in the final match.

Further, the company said its streaming arm, Disney+ Hotstar, broke its own record five times through the tournament to witness a peak concurrency of 5.9 crores  (59 million) for the final.

“…it has been extremely encouraging to see growth across both, the linear and digital mediums, thereby increasing the fan base of cricket. This is a testament to the uniqueness of the India market where linear and digital continue to grow alongside each other. This successful tournament has set the stage for a promising future in our association with the ICC,” Disney Star Country Manager & President K Madhavan said.

Disney Star has exclusive broadcast and media rights for both linear and digital platforms.