Most Successful Tournament In ESPNcricinfo History
Cricket fans around the world followed the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup over the past six weeks, as Australia hosted, and ultimately, won the coveted title. The tournament proved to so popular with global cricket fans that it recorded ESPNcricinfo’s most successful tournament in the site’s 21-year history across web, mobile web and apps – shattering all previous records logged by the world’s leading cricket website.
“The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was a milestone event for ESPNcricinfo,” said Russell Wolff, executive vice president and managing director, ESPN International. “We are excited to see not only record-breaking global traffic across digital platforms, but also the growth of the sport. ESPNcricinfo has long established itself as a trusted source for news, insights and commentary, and we look forward to continue serving cricket fans worldwide.”
Through 44 days of match play, ESPNcricinfo averaged 5.8 million daily unique visitors and logged a total of 4.2 billion minutes, 2.3 billion page views, 506 million visits and 47 million video starts. At any given minute during the tournament, ESPNcricinfo had an average of 67,000 users on ESPNcricinfo digital platforms.
Video, in particular saw enormous growth, with a 345 percent increase in daily video views compared to during the ICC Twenty 20 World Cup just a year ago.
At its peak on March 26 – the day of the Australia vs. India semifinal match – ESPNcricinfo logged 13 million unique visitors, 123 percent higher than the tournament average and surpassing the previous record of 12 million set by the Bangladesh vs. India quarterfinal.
Compared to the 2011 tournament, ESPNcricinfo was up 48 percent in daily unique visitors globally across platforms. Specifically in India, the West Indies, Australia and U.S., average daily unique visitors were up 58 percent, 70 percent, 31 percent and 19 percent, respetively, while it more than doubled (up 115 percent) in New Zealand. Additionally, the 2015 Cricket World Cup was up 121 percent in daily unique visitors compared to the average day over the past year and 36 percent higher than the average day during the 2014 Twenty20 World Cup.
Additionally, in the U.S. alone, ESPNcricinfo generated significant audience growth on mobile devices and in video starts. For the 2015 tournament, daily unique visitors logged from the ESPNcricinfo mobile Web and app were up 53 percent compared to the 2011 tournament, 214 percent more than the average day over the past year and 108 percent higher than the average day during the 2014 Twenty20 World Cup. Across all platforms, daily video starts on ESPNcricinfo in the U.S. were up 884 percent compared to the average day over the past year and 501 percent more than the average daily of the 2014 Twenty20 World Cup.
Other highlights:
• Most Popular Page – The ESPNcricinfo homepage was the most popular destination on the site with 270 million page views, a 23 percent share of total page views overall
• Top Videos – full match highlights of the India vs. South Africa’s group stage match was the no. 1 individual clip with 199,000 video starts, while Match Point’s short form video clips generated 11 million video starts during the tournament, a 24 percent share of total video starts
• Top Story – the biggest Cricket World Cup news during the tournament was “Wahab v Watson, the fury and the folly” with 670,000 page views.
