ICC World Test Championship: India-New Zealand Final Was The Most Watched In The Series

Cricket is considered one of the biggest sports in the world. This also makes it one of the most-watched ones. Throughout the year, we get to see different series being played by various countries. Just recently, we got to enjoy the ICC World Test Championship. This was the first time ICC was hosting such a series. It started back in 2019 with the Ashes series and concluded recently with the match between New Zealand and India. However, some new stats have come to the surface that has left everyone speechless.

The World Test Championship

Cricket matches always manage to get a lot of viewers throughout the world, with most of them coming from the countries that are being represented in the match. However, there are times when people from other countries are also interested in a match between two other countries. As for the ICC World Test Championship, it managed to attract viewers from all over the world.

The first reason was that this was the first time ICC was hosting such a championship. We have only seen the ICC 50-50 World Cup and the T20 World Cup so far. Therefore, the World Test Championship was surely something new for people and they just didn’t want to miss out on it. The second reason was that almost every major team participated in the championship, and all fans tuned in to see their favorite teams play.

Viewership of the Final

Recently, ICC claimed that the final of the ICC Test World Championship that took place between India and New Zealand was the most-watched match of the entire series. That’s right, the total cumulative global dedicated audience was reported to be 177 million. As for the live viewership, it managed to hit 130.6 million. As per the official date, a total of 89 countries contributed towards the viewership.

However, the most interesting thing is that India contributed most towards the viewership. It was reported that 94.6% of the viewership was from India. Both Star Sports and Doordarshan broadcasted the match live and Indians tuned in through them. The smart thing Star Sports did was that along with English, it produced feed in various local languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and so on.

Viewership from New Zealand

ICC also claimed that the stats from New Zealand were amazing. Even though the country’s population is really small compared to India’s, around 200,000 people still watched their team play against India in the grand final of the inaugural Test Championship. Since the time was different in New Zealand, these 200,000 people had to either stay up all night or wake up early to watch their team play.

In any case, it’s interesting to see that the final match of the ICC World Test Championship managed to attract such a big audience. It isn’t a surprise that the final was the most-watched of the entire series considering regular matches don’t get as much hype as the final. Now that the first World Test Championship has concluded with New Zealand taking home the trophy, fans are now looking forward to the next one that will begin in August 2021 and conclude in July 2023.