India's Champions Trophy final match goes past 6.1 crore concurrent viewers, makes a new world record

India's win at the ICC Champions Trophy surges views on streaming platform to 84 crore.

India erupted in joy as Rohit Sharma and his boys lifted the Champions Trophy after beating New Zealand in Dubai to win their first 50-over ICC title in 12 years. The March 9 final game also set a new record on streaming platform JioHotstar, shattering global records with over 6.1 crore concurrent viewers, according to their LinkedIn post.

This marks the highest number of people watching a live event simultaneously, the platform added.

The ICC Champions Trophy final match has broken the previous record held by ICC World Cup 2023 which recorded 5.9 crore concurrent viewers.

The Champions Trophy finale's over 90 crore views on the streaming platform, is way higher than the 60 crore for the India-Pakistan game earlier in the tournament.

While the views began to rise dramatically as India started the 252-run chase with a bang, New Zealand's inning, too, had the viewers hooked. New Zealand had won the toss and chosen to bat.

Views on the over-the-top (OTT) platform are not unique and include multiple views by the same person.

Towards the end of New Zealand's innings, the views touched 39.7 crore. Indian bowlers restricted the Kiwis who patiently built their innings to put up 251 on the board. Kuldeep Yadav bowled a sensational spell to dismiss Kane Williamson and Rachin Ravindra. Varun Chakaravarthy continued his impressive form, playing a crucial role in India's disciplined bowling effort.

Also read: India in finals of Champions Trophy is already a winner for broadcasters as ad rates rocket

Skipper Rohit Sharma and vice-captain Shubman Gill made a strong start to the chase. “Hitman” Sharma took the attack to the Kiwi bowlers but Gill's dismissal closely followed by that of Virat Kohli kept viewers on the edge.

After a slight wobble, India kept the momentum going. The views touched 78 crore when India needed 40 runs from 36 balls in the 44th over. As KL Rahul hit a much needed six, the views shot up to 78.5 crore.

The next six, from Hardik Panday, brought India closer to the trophy and lifted views to 79.6 crore. Soon after, Panday was caught and bowled by the tall Kyle Jamieson. India still needed 11 runs from 15 balls and as tension mounted, so did the views — to 82.2 crore.

Views surged to 83.2 crore when India needed five runs from 11 balls and climbed to 83.8 crore when Ravindra Jadeja hit the winning boundary. India’s victory took the viewership numbers to 84.5 crore.

The Men in Blue who didn’t lose a single game kept the audience hooked, with views seeing a spike in key matches.

While the India-Pakistan match, the biggest cricket rivalry,  on February 23 recorded 60.2 crore views, India's semi-final against Australia got 66.9 crore views.

Also read: India's stellar show against Pakistan in ICC Champions Trophy records 60 crore views

The India-Pakistan match on Star Sports TV channel was watched by an unprecedented 20.6 crore viewers, which made it the second most watched cricket match in BARC's (Broadcast Audience Research Council, a television audience measurement firm) history, outside of the World Cup matches, according to data shared by Star Sports.

The India versus Pakistan match in the Champions Trophy 2025 surpassed the previous 50-over India versus Pakistan face-off in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup India 2023. Ratings (TVR) for the match held in Dubai were 11 percent higher than the 2023 ODI World Cup game in Ahmedabad. Virat Kohli became the fastest cricketer to accumulate 14,000 ODI runs in that game, which clocked a staggering 2,609 crore minutes of TV watch-time.

The India-Pakistan game also led to an increase in ad rates with 10-second slots going for as high as Rs 50 lakh.

For the final, rates were estimated to be upwards of Rs 40 lakh for a 10-second slot and digital rates as high as Rs 725 CPM (cost per mille/thousand impressions).

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