The eighth iteration of the Women’s Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa breaks numerous viewership records in 2023.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has verified that the Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 held in South Africa was a resounding success, with broadcast and digital platforms breaking viewership records.

Notably, the eighth edition of the women’s premier event was conducted in South Africa between 10 and 26 February, and the dominant Australians won a record sixth title in the final match against the hosts.

The tournament was the most viewed women’s ICC event to date, surpassing 190 million global viewing hours, a 44% increase from the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia. In addition, the most-watched match in India was against archrivals Pakistan, which garnered a total of 32.8 million live viewing hours across the Star Sports network and Disney+ Hotstar.

Geoff Allardice, the chief executive officer of the ICC, conveyed his delight at the competition’s record-breaking attendance.

“The broadcast and digital numbers for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 are another example of the outstanding progress being made to accelerate the growth of women’s cricket. As a strategic priority for the sport, we are working diligently to attract fans and new audiences to our ICC Women’s events, as reported by the ICC’s Geoff Allardice.

In addition to this, video views on the ICC’s digital channels increased by 26% across all channels. This included the T20 World Cup 2023 receiving 1.39 billion video views, compared to the 2020 edition held in Australia, which garnered 1.1 billion.

Despite India’s absence from the event’s summit match, the total live viewing hours across television and digital platforms increased by 57% compared to the 2020 edition. As reported by the ICC, the World Cup viewership numbers broke all previous records with a 790 percent increase in fans tuning in to witness the tournament.

The engagement of the audience during the event indisputably supports the claim that the development of women’s sports has accelerated dramatically. The ICC will attempt to break these records during the 2024 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.