The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 is setting record-breaking numbers as hundreds of millions of fans engage with the biggest Cricket World Cup ever on linear TV and digitally.

There has been 123.8 billion viewing minutes clocked on linear TV, a 43 percent increase over 2019 and a total of 364.2 million viewers till two days back for live broadcast of the World Cup, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said in a statement, adding that the data has been sourced from BARC India for 2+U+R, including Doordarshan.

Disney+ Hotstar witnessed a world record across any format of cricket for a peak concurrency of 43 million during India vs New Zealand.

The event that runs from October 5  to November 19 has seen fans in India through global broadcast partner Disney Star consuming more Men’s Cricket World Cup cricket than ever before, while in-venue attendances were up 190K compared to 2019, the ICC said.

The live broadcast for the first 18 tournament matches has clocked up 123.8 billion viewing minutes which is a 43 percent growth compared to the previous edition in England and Wales in 2019.

The World Cup has also witnessed an incredible 364.2 million viewers tuning in to the live broadcast of the first 18 matches of the tournament, with fans enjoying the very best of cricket in one day, combined with the unique Indian passion for the sport and the national pride of all competing nations creating an unrivalled global sporting occasion.

The monumental clash between India and Pakistan played on October 14 in Ahmedabad witnessed a peak live concurrency on television of 76 million and 35 million concurrent viewers on digital.

India’s clash against New Zealand in Dharamsala on October 22 eclipsed the record for highest digital concurrency set by the India vs. Pakistan clash when it witnessed 43 million concurrent viewers on Disney+ Hotstar during the final overs of the match. This was the highest peak across any format of cricket ever on digital.

ICC Chief Executive, Geoff Allardice said: “We are delighted to see the interest and engagement in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 through the unbelievable audience numbers on Star Sports and Disney+ Hotstar. The World Cup has captured the imagination of the public across India with records tumbling and hundreds of millions of fans enjoying the pinnacle event of the one-day game more than ever before.”

Sanjog Gupta, Head, Sports, Disney Star, said: “Marquee cricket continues to demonstrate unparalleled capacity to aggregate audiences across platforms and the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 has set new viewership benchmarks on Star Sports and Disney+ Hotstar.

“With the Indian team’s strong performance, the fluctuating fortunes of top teams, and a competitive points table, we expect a further increase in the momentum of the tournament. Disney Star is committed to serving sports fans and will continue to delight viewers around the world with its coverage of the global event.”

Meanwhile, last week the ICC also stated that the World Cup, which has placed fans at the centre of the action, has recorded 6.64 billion video views across ICC channels at the halfway stage of the competition compared to 6.58 billion for the total video views for the entire Australia event a year ago.

Compared to the equivalent stage in the Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 a year ago, there has been a 127 percent increase of video views for India 2023 content and 314 percent growth compared to the last edition of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup hosted by England and Wales in 2019.

The Men’s Cricket World Cup, which is a true celebration of the best all-round cricket experience, has given fans the opportunity to engage with the game like never before, especially on Meta channels, with more than four billion views on Facebook and 2.5 billion views on Instagram. Reels have played a significant part with fans viewing numbers double the average that was seen for Australia 2022.

As part of a mission to grow the game, the Meta Super 50 Creator Campaign has seen significant engagement numbers. The ICC has collaborated with partner Meta to give exclusive behind the scenes access to matches for creators to produce content in a local language and style with the project generating more than 100m views, including Kagiso Rabada giving tips for using the local Mumbai trains.

The new and improved digital experiences have seen fans deeply engaging with Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 content, with posts on Meta channels averaging 60,000 engagements per post, a 33 percent increase on Australia 2022. The best performing content to date is ‘Four Years and One Cricket World Cup apart’ with 69.7 million views.

The first of its kind vertical video highlights experience on the ICC website and Official CWC 2023 app has been extremely popular with users, with more than 43 million fans visiting both platforms and spending more time than ever with pages per session and average session time both up 50 percent from the previous year.

ICC Head of Digital, Finn Bradshaw said in a statement: “We are delighted that at the halfway point of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 it is already the most digitally engaged ICC event. Prior to the start of the event, we had committed to producing a bigger and better digital offering and we are thrilled that hundreds of millions of fans across the world are engaging and enjoying the Men’s Cricket World Cup across ICC’s channels.”

Fans inside the venue have been able to enjoy the true celebration of the best all-round cricket experience with a total of more than 542,000 fans attending matches up to the mid-way point in the event, which is 190,000 more than at the equivalent stage in 2019, the ICC claimed.