ICC Cricket World Cup 2023: A wish of a billion hearts

Geographically, the sub-continent dominates social media activity - out of the top 20 entities covering cricket globally, a staggering 13 are from India (65%), and 4 are from other Asian countries like Bangladesh (10%), Pakistan (5%) and Afghanistan (5%). Blackcaps, the official social media account of New Zealand cricket, stands out by ranking seventh with an impressive 2.8 million actions. The chart below shows the breakdown of media percentage share their targeted geographical markets, followed by a table detailing their rankings on social media.

Source: Comscore Social, content mentioning “Cricket” and “CWC23”, ranking based on total actions across Facebook, X and Instagram, total views include YouTube, 26 October, 2023

Looking at the top 5 social media accounts covering cricket and their engagement numbers.

Source: Comscore Social, content mentioning “Cricket” and “CWC23”, across Facebook, X and Instagram, 26 October, 2023
*Total number of actions, i.e., reactions, shares, comments, repost, favorites, and loves.

But when it comes to content, the Indian Cricket Team is having a dream run on the socials. Securing all the top 4 social posts mentioning “CWC23” on Instagram.

Source: Comscore Social, content mentioning “Cricket” and “CWC23”, on Instagram, 14 November, 2023

The World Cup is keeping players busy on the field and off it as well. Big name cricketers are roped in to promote everything from furniture to steel.

With a wide range of brands that he endorses, Virat Kohli is the biggest needle mover in the advertising world.

The list doesn't stop there, if you look at the list of cricketers creating a buzz, a new challenger emerges on the block – Shubman Gill. The 24 year old has quickly become the buzz of the town, becoming the ambassador for big brands like Zoom Cars, Gillette, BeatXP and Casio.

The following table shows five cricketers and the interactions they have amassed during from October 2022 to 2023.

Source: Comscore Social, IN-Influencers: selected Indian cricketer, across Facebook, Instagram and X, October 2022-2023.
*Total number of actions, i.e., reactions, shares, comments, repost, favorites, and loves.

The economy of content creation specifically for cricket has boomed over the last few years. Now cricket fans are spoilt by numerous cricket-based websites, podcasts, and YouTube channels, etc., covering everything from the team selection to pitch condition to drama outside the field.

Hotstar being the official broadcasting partner for India, naturally scores highest when it comes to unique website visitors with Cricbuzz and ESPNcricinfo taking the 2nd and 3rd spots.

Looking at website data from the UK and Australia, it’s a slightly different story. UK is dominated by ESPNcricinfo media. Down under, Cricket.com.au enters the top 3. The Aussie website is well known among the fandom across the world for their great coverage of the game.

When looking at the demos of the leading sites by market, it is noticeable that there are gender differences. We can see that cricket in the UK has the most male-dominated cricketing following, with almost 80% of visitors to CricInfo being male. Hotstar, the most visited cricket site in India, has the most balanced visitor set, with a 60/40 male/female split. Cricket.com.au in Australia sits in the middle with a little over two thirds of visitors being male.

When it comes to views consumption, the contrast is even more stark – 83% of page/video views on CricInfo in the UK are by men – compared to less than 60% of page/video views on Hotstar in India.

With India being the host nation of the World Cup tournament, perhaps interest has been piqued across the gender divide, whereas for England in particular it seems a male dominance prevails. Advertisers and potential sponsors for the tournament should take note that not all cricket fans are created equally!

As the ICC Cricket World CUP 2023 approaches Sunday’s grand final, only the winner of South Africa vs Australia stands in the way of India – the host nation – fulfilling the hopes and dreams of over a billion fans by bringing home the trophy.

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