📈Market Overview

The cricketing industry has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, driven by an increase in global viewership, heightened engagement on digital platforms, and the expansion of major tournaments.

Viewership and Broadcast Reach

The 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup set new benchmarks for viewership, amassing over 1 trillion viewing minutes globally. This represents a 38% increase from the 2011 World Cup and a 17% rise from the 2019 edition. The final match alone, between India and Australia, recorded 87.6 billion live viewing minutes, making it the most-watched ICC match in history.

India, as a major hub for cricket viewership, contributed significantly to these numbers. The 2023 World Cup saw 422 billion viewing minutes on the Disney Star Network, reflecting a 54% increase from the 2011 edition and a 9% increase from 2019. This surge was also mirrored in other regions, such as the United Kingdom, which saw 5.86 billion viewing minutes, and Australia, with 3.79 billion viewing minutes.

Digital and Social Media Engagement

Digital engagement around cricket has also seen unprecedented growth. The 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup broke digital records with 16.9 billion video views, marking a 158% increase from the previous highest record set during the 2022 T20 World Cup. The tournament's content generated 1.23 billion social media engagements, a 142% rise from the 2022 T20 World Cup and a 155% increase from the 2019 edition.

On platforms like Disney+ Hotstar, peak concurrent viewership during the World Cup final reached 59 million, the highest ever for any cricket match. This trend of high digital engagement underscores the growing importance of online platforms in the cricketing ecosystem/.

Social Media Influence

Cricket's presence on social media is formidable, with major events and player moments driving massive engagement. For instance, videos of Glenn Maxwell's heroic innings against Afghanistan garnered 50 million views, while Virat Kohli's record-breaking performances consistently attract millions of views and interactions.

All these factors ensure that the industry is ripe for an ecosystem like UKC to thrive. The massive global viewership, record-breaking digital engagement, and robust social media presence highlight the growing demand for innovative and interactive platforms. UKC’s blockchain-based ecosystem aims to capitalize on this momentum, offering fans unprecedented levels of engagement and ownership, thereby transforming the cricketing experience.