Champions Trophy breaks viewership records in India; ICC releases numbers

The ICC Champions Trophy 2025, won by India, has broken major viewership records in the country as its TV ratings surged to the highest-ever for a multi-nation cricket tournament, eclipsing the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 by 23 per cent, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Friday (March 21).

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"The live broadcast of the event received an astounding total watch time of 137 billion minutes on Star Sports and 110 billion minutes on JioHotstar. The enormous numbers were a result of a blockbuster final between India and New Zealand in Dubai on 9 March that touched a peak concurrency of 122 million live viewers on TV and 61 million on JioHotstar, a record for Digital viewership in cricket," ICC said in a media release.

India vs New Zealand final viewership

The final also became the second-highest rated ODI in TV history (outside of ICC Cricket World Cup matches) with 230 million viewers tuning in for the live broadcast with 53 billion minutes of watch-time across TV & Digital platforms, it added.

The high-profile league encounter between archrivals India and Pakistan became one of the most watched ODI matches ever in India, clocking over 26 billion minutes of watch-time on linear TV as per figures released by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).

The chartbuster achieved an impressive 10.8 per cent higher television rating than the India-Pakistan match in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 played in Ahmedabad that had registered 19.5 billion linear viewing minutes compared to 26.5 billion minutes in the Champions Trophy match.

India vs Pakistan match numbers

The match, played to a packed house in Dubai on 23 February, was witnessed by a record 206 million people on linear TV as India continued their dominance over Pakistan in global ICC events with superstar Virat Kohli carving a memorable six-wicket win for the eventual champions.

The remarkable viewership numbers are largely because rights holders JioStar had ensured wide coverage with channels taking the action live to homes across the country in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada on Star Sports and Sports 18 channels.

On digital channels, the tournament was streamed live across a record 16 feeds including nine languages - English, Hindi, Marathi, Haryanvi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, four multi-cam feeds, Indian Sign Language feed and the Max View feed on JioHotstar.

Fans and viewers were deeply engaged with the high-stakes tournament through captivating programming in the lead-up and through the tournament, ICC said.