Hotstar sets record with over 19 million concurrent viewers for India-New Zealand match

A few cricket enthusiasts claimed that the views peaked as high as over 20 million users

Published: Jul 11, 2019
Hotstar sets record with over 19 million concurrent viewers for India-New Zealand match Image: Shutterstock

While India was knocked out of the World Cup after losing the match against New Zealand, the close competition between the two teams kept viewers glued to Hotstar. It looks like the digital platform has made a new record.

Hanish Bhatia, Senior Analyst – Counterpoint, confirmed that the match between India-New Zealand that also decided the first finalist of the 12th edition of the ICC World Cup recorded around 19 million concurrent viewers.

“Concurrent view” is referred to the number of viewers who are watching the stream at each second. Hence, the number fluctuates as viewers join and leave the stream.

This is higher than the global record the streaming platform had set of 18.6 million concurrent viewers during the finale of VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019.

In fact, a few cricket enthusiasts who have been catching up the World Cup matches on Hotstar said that the views peaked as high as over 20 million users. However, this couldn't be confirmed.

The Indian team's effort to chase the high score set by New Zealand resulted in increased number of viewers every minute during the match. From 14.8 million users to 25.3 million users, the viewership nearly doubled in less than 30 minutes especially during Dhoni's innings.

During the India-Pakistan match on June 16, Hotstar had recorded 100 million daily active users, making it the highest-ever single day reach for the platform.

The streaming giant also registered record-breaking concurrency of 15.6 million, the highest-ever for an ODI match, marking a 1.7x increase in average concurrency compared to any other India match.

But it looks like the over the top platform (OTT) has surpassed this record too with the first semi-final match during the ongoing ICC World Cup.

For the India-Pakistan match 66 percent of the 100 million users came from towns beyond the big metro cities.

During the IPL, Hotstar registered an excess of 300 million unique users and also witnessed a 74 percent increase in watch-time as compared to 2018.

The season also observed an overall 45 percent growth in non-metro viewership, with some of the highest growth coming from cities like Coimbatore, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi and Salem.

Whether the World Cup will turn out to be a record-breaking tournament for Hotstar just like IPL, the wait is until July 14 when the final World Cup match will be played.

Cricket is emerging as one of the most important properties for Hotstar.

Hence, the 12th edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup is being streamed across six languages - English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.

Hotstar has also retained its social layer of KoiYaarNahiFar with the Watch ‘N Play feature to create an engaging cricket-watching experience for all the Hotstar users.

The feature enables friends to come together irrespective of their location, allowing them to make their voices heard by chatting about the match and their Watch ‘N Play experience, not only with their friends and family but also with experts and celebrities.

Original Source: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/sports-trends/hotstar-sets-record-with-over-19-million-concurrent-viewers-for-india-new-zealand-match-4192671.html

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