ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 Breaks Fan Engagement Records
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has revealed record breaking digital and broadcast viewing numbers for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020.
The highlights of the report with regards to ICC’s digital channels include 1.1 billion video views across ICC’s digital channels and 5.4 billion viewing minutes in India alone, making it the most watched ICC women’s event ever and the second most successful ICC event behind the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in 2019.
The broadcast figures of the final, that saw Australia best India, are just as impressive as the 86,174 fans who watched the event live at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on International Women’s Day, making it the second highest attended women’s sporting match ever.
ICC chief executive, Manu Sawhney, said the success of the event highlights the growth of women’s sport, and women’s cricket in particular, around the world.
“These quite outstanding broadcast and digital numbers demonstrate the power of women’s cricket to aggregate a huge global audience and engage fans,” Sawhney said.
“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.
“We have built on the record-breaking success of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 and continue our focus on deepening engagement with existing fans and bringing new fans to the game with relevant, engaging content that goes beyond match highlights.
“Cricket fans want competitive cricket with context and the world’s best players did not disappoint in Australia earlier this year,” he said.
The average live TV audience for the final in Australia was 1.2 million on subscription television, which sees the event become the most watched women’s cricket match ever and the sixth-most watched cricket match ever in Australia.
In India, fans watched 1.78 billion viewing minutes of live match action on TV for the final alone, with an average live audience of 9.02 million, totalling 59 times more than figures of the final of the 2018 edition of the competition.
The ICC has also reported engagement of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 totalled 81.5 million online with 2.8 billion impressions on the ICC’s digital channels.
The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 will now be the benchmark for future women’s cricket events, as the ICC looks to expand even further on the success of the competition and make women’s sport more in the spotlight than ever before.
