ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020 most watched women's cricket event in history

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday announced record viewing figures for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020, which became one of the most-watched women’s sporting event in the history with cricket continuing to set fresh benchmarks on and off the field.

The event had already racked up 1.1 billion video views through the ICC digital channels – 20 times the views from the previous editions in 2018 and 10 times the previous most successful women’s cricket event, the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2017.

The latest revelations make the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 the second most successful ICC event after the Men’s World Cup 2019. 

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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. 

India’s success in the tournament boosted audience interest with total viewership for the knockout phase recorded at 423 per cent higher than 2018. Live viewing hours shot up 152 per cent at 86.15m. 

Whereas in South Africa, the live viewing hours were 647,000 – 40 per cent higher than in 2018. South Africa’s defeat to Australia was the most-watched match in the tournament with 39,000 average audiences.

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In the UK, where time zone was a major challenge, the live viewing hours dropped only by eight per cent at 5.32m than the 2018 tournament, where England made it to the final. 

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.”