India-Pakistan World Cup match becomes most viewed T20 International in history

The mother of all battles, India vs Pakistan is arguably the greatest cricket rivalry in the history of the sport and over the years we have seen many records been consolidated and broken in this much-anticipated match.

This time a new record has been created as the India-Pakistan T20 World Cup match at the Dubai International Stadium on October 24th fetched a whopping 167 million viewers, which is the highest till now in the history of the shortest format of the game.

The previous record was 136 million viewers, which came in in the 2016 T20 World Cup semi-final match between India and eventual winners West Indies.

The T20 World Cup registered a cumulative reach of 238 million till last week which included the Qualifiers and first 12 games of Super 12 stage, Star India said in a release.

“With a reach of 167 million, the highly-anticipated India-Pakistan clash on October 24th, an event that saw the arch-rivals meet at an ICC tournament after two years, is now the most viewed T20I match, exceeding the previous high India-West Indies 2016 ICC World T20 semi-finals,” the release said.

India and Pakistan opened their campaign against each other on October 24 with the Men in Green outplaying their arch-rivals to register a 10-wicket win.

“The India-Pakistan match has created history by clocking a record reach of 167 million viewers, making it the most viewed T20I match till date,” a Star India spokesperson was quoted as saying.

“We have continually strived to grow the audience base for marquee Cricket and this record is a testament to our efforts across high-decibel campaigns, enhanced storytelling, dedicated regional programming, and consumer innovations.”

While Pakistan has advanced to the semifinals, India exited the tournament on Monday.