Dubai: The International Cricket Council on Monday claimed record viewership of the 2020 Women's T20 World Cup in Australia with the event the clocking 1.1 billion video views through the governing body's digital channels.
The numbers are considered to be 20 times more than previous edition in 2018.
In a release, the ICC said the tournament held in February-March recorded 10 times more video views than the previous most successful women's cricket event, the 2017 ODI World Cup.
Australia emerged as the champions of the 2020 Women's T20 World Cup In both cases, India finished runners-up but their presence contributed significantly to the viewership.
"These figures (for 2020 T20) World Cup make it the second most successful ICC event ever after the World Cup 2019 and that trend continued via broadcast with the final achieving record viewership worldwide," said the ICC.
"India's success in making it to the final boosted audience interest, with total viewership for the knockout stages recorded at 423% higher than 2018.
"India live viewing hours were 86.15m which is 152% higher than the 2018 tournament, driven by India's success and the broadcast of select India matches by Star Sports, in five languages (English, Hindi, Tamil, Telegu and Kannada) in India," it said.
Australia defeated India in the finals of the 2020 Women's T20 World Cup In Australia, live viewing hours were 473 per cent higher than the 2018 tournament at 13.45m. The final between India and Australia recorded an average audience of 1.2m viewers, making the event the most watch women’s cricket match in Australian broadcast history.
In South Africa, live viewing hours were 647,000 which is "40% higher than 2018".
South Africa's semi-final loss to Australia was the most watched match of the tournament with 39,000 average audience, said the ICC.
"This is 54% higher than the most watched match in 2018, which was South Africa v England group stage match with 25,000 average audience."
Despite the time zone challenge, UK live viewing hours were only 8% lower (at 5.32m) than the 2018 tournament, where England made the final.
England's opening group match against South Africa was the most watched match with 259,000 average audience.
ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney: “We are delighted with these outstanding global viewership numbers that demonstrate the power of women’s cricket to attract huge audiences across the globe. 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 enjoy it, more kids are inspired by it and sponsors and broadcasters want to be a part of it.”
