Disney+Hotstar, the official streaming partner of the T20 men's World Cup being played in the United Arab Emirates, attracted 12 million viewers at its peak to the high-octane India-Pakistan faceoff in the cricket tournament in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, but viewership fell off towards the end of the match as Pakistan coasted to a comfortable win with a clinical batting performance.
Within minutes of the start of the match, as India batted first, viewership on the platform went past the peak of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The final of the IPL, played earlier this year, clocked a peak viewership of 7.6 million, the highest in the tournament's 14th season.
During the India-Pakistan match, viewership on the streaming platform in the first two balls soared from 4.1 million to 5.9 million. And in the first over, when India lost its first wicket, that of opener Rohit Sharma, nicknamed Hitman, viewership reached 8 million and by the seventh ball, it was up to 8.5 million.
India was under pressure in the third over when opener KL Rahul walked back to the pavilion after being bowled by Shaheen Afridi. Suryakumar Yadav hit a six and upped the game both for the Indian team as well as Disney+Hotstar. By the third over, the number had shot up to 9.1 million and in the first 15 balls it had gone up as high as 9.7 million.
It was higher than the first IPL match of season 13 between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, which had registered a peak viewership of 8.7 million viewers.
The nail-biting first half of the India-Pakistan match clocked 10 million viewership in the 15th over and touched the 11 million mark when skipper Virat Kohli hit a four in 15.4 overs. Kohli scored a half-century by the 16th over, taking the viewership on the over-the-top platform to 12 million.
Disney+Hotstar had hit a record viewership of 12 million in the 12th edition of IPL during the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians which was later broken by the final match of the same season with 18 million viewership.
While the India-Pakistan match did not set any new records, in terms of viewership, it did come close to one of the highest numbers Disney+Hotstar has attracted so far.
The second half of the match could not hold the 12 million mark and viewership dropped to 9 million in the first three overs during Pakistan’s chase. By the last over, viewership had dropped to 7.8 million when Pakistan won the match against India by 10 wickets, with an unbroken first-wicket partnership between Mohammed Rizwan and skipper Babar Azam.
Along with viewership, Disney+Hotstar has seen strong interest from advertisers in the streaming of the T20 World Cup. It is estimated that the platform has booked ad revenue to the tune of Rs 300 crore.
Disney+ Hotstar, which has the streaming rights for both IPL and the T20 World Cup this year, made about Rs 800 crore last year. It is estimated this figure will go up to Rs 1,000 crore in 2021.
