Although the 14th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) got postponed mid-way due to surge in Covid-19 cases in the tournament’s bio-bubble, the matches of the cash-rich league scripted history as its games once again shattered some previous viewership records.
The 27th match of the IPL 2021 between arch-rivals Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) became the most-watched IPL mid-season match ever in BARC history with 11.2 billion minutes of consumption.
Meanwhile, the high-octane clash also became the most-watched match of season 14.
Significantly, the Rohit Sharma-led MI had pulled off a nail-biting win as they defeated the Yellow Brigade by four wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
Also, the IPL 2021 surpassed the overall reach to 367 million versus 357 million in 2020.
Earlier, Star India network, the officialbroadcaster of the tournament, had announced that it had clocked 323 million total impressions for the opening match of IPL 2021.
Also, the tournament opener between defending champions MI and Royal Challengers Bangalore received a tremendous response as it was bigger than opening matches of all other IPL editions.
Significantly in a major disappointment for cricket fans, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was forced to postpone the 14th edition as there was an upsurge in the positive covid-19 cases among players and support staffs.