Hotstar has registered a record 18.6 million concurrent viewers during the Vivo IPL 2019 final #KoiYaarNahiFar held on May 12, 2019. The company has revealed that it had set new benchmarks globally. The final match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings has a set a record of 18.6 million concurrent users bypassing the previously set record of 12.7 million visitors between the same team.
Hotstar has not only recorded over 300 million users but also witnessed a 74% increase in watch-time as compared to last year. This hs positioned the streaming app service the number one in the digital sports viewing in India.
Hotstar has streamed the matches on a completely new technology stack that used 10x lesser compute, while handling more than 2.5x times traffic. The aim was to provide streaming with enhanced rendering quality at lower bit-rates than ever before. Hotstar enabled advertisers to target refined cohorts of Hotstar’s 300 million audiences, which allows ad targeting at an unprecedented scale.
As part of the #KoiYaarNahiFar campaign, Hotstar rolled out a first-ever social cricket-watching experience to bring people together irrespective of their location. The company pushed a clutter-breaking marketing campaign to provide an intuitive marketing experience.
Commenting on the development, Varun Narang, Chief Product Officer, Hotstar disclosed that the company has an innate belief in delivering a game-changing viewing experience to our consumers through ideas that challenge the status quo. Narang added that achievements of this season made Hotstar the most preferred sports destination for the country. He said that the company will continue to break global records and set new benchmarks with each passing year.
Hotstar also rolled out Watch N Play game, which enabled cricket viewers across the country to invite their friends and family. They watched matches together while simultaneously participating against each other in the game. The #KoiYaarNahiFar campaign garnered massive resonance with an unparalleled top of mind awareness level of 84 percent.
That said, the interactive social layer added on before the tournament attracted as many as 64.4 million users who directly engaged on the platform’s Watch N Play social functionality. The users answered 1.2 billion Watch N Play game questions and delivered over 5.9 billion emojis and 43.5 million comments.
The Vivo IPL 2019 kicked started on March 23 and ended on May 12, 2019. The tournament was live streamed on Hotstar in eight languages. With the closure of Vivo IPL 2019, the online streaming company is currently gearing up to welcome ICC World Cup event, which commences on May 30, 2019.