The Indian Premier League is up and underway with a lot of excitement and thrill in its kitty. The 16th season of IPL has returned to its old-school home-and-away format after three years of the long wait. Fans have turned up in big numbers.
In the first match of the season, defending champions Gujarat Titans faced off against four-time champions Chennai Super Kings led by none other than MS Dhoni. The match broke many records, from attendance to viewership.
This highly anticipated clash was attended by more than 1,20,000 people, which was expected, but what no one expected was a record viewership. A record 140 million people tuned into the Star Sports Network during this game, which was the highest-ever viewership for the game.
It has recently been confirmed by the Broadcast Audience Research Council that there were 140 million viewers for the opening match of the 16th Indian Premier League, which represents a 47% increase in consumption to 2022 and a 39% increase in TV ratings.
As well as TV ratings, Jio Cinema, the streaming partner for the IPL, also reached new heights during the first match of the competition.
Jio Cinema registered a massive 1.47 billion total video views and 50 million app downloads. The per-match time watch also witnessed a 60 per cent increase to an average of 57 minutes.
Gujarat Titans took the honours in the match
With regards to the clash, Gujarat managed to pick up where they left off a year ago. With four balls to spare, the defending champions chased down the target of 179 runs set by the Chennai Super Kings.
The only star for Chennai was Ruturaj Gaikwad, who scored 92 runs from 50 balls in an impressive inning. Despite the brilliance of Gaikwad, the Chennai Super Kings lineup failed to compliment his brilliance, and in part, English all-rounder Ben Stokes was one of the biggest disappointments in the Chennai Super Kings lineup.
There was no problem in chasing down the target and Gujarat Titans won by four wickets with ease.
The biggest cricket carnival in the world has kicked off with a bang, and it is expected that the viewership numbers will be in a huge spotlight in the coming days.
Given that IPL's broadcasting deal is the second biggest in world sports, it will be interesting to see how the numbers turn out for the broadcasters as the season progresses.
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