The recently concluded ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand has hit the headlines again for the fan engagement it generated over the one-month-long tournament. The marquee competition recorded a whopping 1.64 billion video views across the ICC channels, making it the third most digitally engaging event behind the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.
It was also the most viewed cricket competition in the history of women’s sport. Also, the 2022 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup garnered a 45% increase in total video views compared to the ICC Women’s World T20 2020 that was played in Australia and 16 times more views compared to the 2017 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup that was played in England, which saw 100 million views.
The total video views include live matches and highlights, among others. On Facebook, the number one video was the highlights from the India v Pakistan match. After the game, when the Indian players met Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof’s baby girl Fatima, the fans responded to that heart-warming video in such a way that it became one of the most popular videos from the tournament. It is known that the video of Indian players meeting Fatima was the most popular video on Instagram. Additionally, the Instagram Reels were a big hit among the fans. The video of Australia’s Jess Jonassen’s one-handed catch to dismiss England’s Katherine Brunt was the best performer with 13.5 million views.
Lost in the celebrations of last night’s win for Australia was this really sharp catch from Jess Jonassen to seal the match! #Ashes pic.twitter.com/i9ehLtx4Ic
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) February 3, 2022
The fans not only viewed the videos but also engaged with the same by way of sharing, liking, and commenting. The total fan engagement during the 31-match tournament was 164 million, which was double that of the ICC Women’s World T20 2020. There was also an increase in the app and website users, with a total of 10.3 million. This user base was almost three times that of ICC Women’s World T20 2020. Among these users, 22% were females, which was more than that seen in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 (20%) and ICC Women’s World T20 2020 (13%).
Outside of social media, the 2022 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup was well received by the fans who preferred to watch it on television. The overall cumulative global dedicated TV audience for the event was 104.8 million, with Indian channels delivering a large share of the total audience. The broadcast hours amounted to 10,308, including live coverage, highlights, and repeat programming. There was a significant increase in the broadcast hours to 10,308 from 3,974 in the ICC Women’s World T20 2020. The total viewing hours for the tournament were 215.2 million, up 47.4% from the Australia 2020 event. Apart from English, the broadcast coverage was delivered for the first time in four other languages, namely, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada.
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