Women's World Cup final more popular than Game of Thrones season premiere

Cricket - Women's Cricket World Cup Final Preview - India Nets & Press Conference - London, Britain - July 22, 2017 India's Mithali Raj during the press conference Action Images via Reuters/John Sibley - RTX3CHPM

The 2017 ICC Women's World Cup final between India and England held at the Lord's Cricket Ground on July 23 was the most watched women's sporting event in India so far.

The thrilling final which saw India lose by nine runs was watched by nearly 19.6 million people, according to data by broadcaster Star Sports.

The data was by television ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) was calculated across six Start Sports network channels.

The overall viewership of the match was at a record high of 126 million worldwide. which is equivalent to the number of people who watched the 2017 Indian Premier League final in May.

The entire tournament attracted as many as 156 million views. This means one in every eight Indians watched the world cup at some point.

To put the world cup final numbers into perspective, here are viewership numbers of some of the other widely watched events globally:

Rio Olympics women's badminton final (17.3 million)

According to a report in the Mint, 17.3 million people watched the women's singles badminton final at the Rio Olympics in 2016. The match featured India's PV Sindhu who lost to world number one Carolina Marin of Spain.

Game of Thrones Season 7 premiere (16 million)

The season seven premiere of the popular fantasy drama television series Game of Thrones was watched by 10.1 million people on TV and around six million online streaming platforms, according to a report in The Verge.

American Idol (average 13.9 to 17.6 million)

The average viewership for the popular American reality show ranged from 13.9 million to 17.6 million from 2003 to 2011.

Sachin Tendulkar's last match (average 1.7 million)

The cricket legend's last match was on an average watched by 1.7 million people on television.

However, the numbers are dwarfed by the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka which was watched by 21.4 million during the winning moment.