ICC Cricket World Cup 2023: A tournament of many firsts

India may have lost the ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 to Australia, but the tournament left an indelible mark on the cricketing landscape. Apart from its share of nail-biting finishes, there were also a few memorable firsts, from Rohit Sharma becoming the first player to score seven centuries in World Cups to Virat Kohli beating his idol Sachin Tendulkar’s record to become the first player to score 50 ODI centuries.

Records weren’t just broken on the pitch, Disney+ Hotstar broke the peak concurrency record for a fifth time this tournament with 59 million peak concurrent viewers tuning in to watch the finals between India and Australia. That helped the platform surpass streaming records set at the beginning of the tournament with the peak concurrency of 35 million viewers during the India-Pakistan match. This was broken repeatedly over the course of the World Cup—43 million peak concurrent viewers during the India-New Zealand match, 44 million during the India-South Africa match, and 53 million during the semi-final between India and New Zealand.

“With a staggering 59 million concurrent viewers tuning in on Disney+ Hotstar for the final—almost twice as high as any peak concurrency record set before the tournament—the unwavering support of Indian cricket fans has consistently propelled us to new heights in live sports streaming,” said Sajith Sivanandan, President and Head of Disney+ Hotstar.

History was also created during the semi-finals in terms of innovation in streaming. The steaming platform pioneered new technologies during the tournament. Recently, Disney+ Hotstar, in collaboration with the International Cricket Council (ICC), added MaxView, a technological innovation that allows cricket fans to watch the game in vertical mode (9x14 portrait view) for the very first time in the history of cricket streaming. “This feature facilitates a one-handed viewing experience, aligning with the way most users consume content. MaxView is a brand new, bespoke opt-in feature. Other surrounding features, such as the live feed tab, scorecard tab, have also been made available in vertical mode, along with vertical ad formats,” Sivanandan said. From an advertising perspective, too, it was a big win for broadcaster Disney Star, which is estimated to have raked in anywhere between Rs 3,000 crore and Rs 3,200 crore in ad revenues in the tournament.

@PLidhoo