Hotstar gets record 8.26 million concurrent viewers on SRH versus CSK

Streaming platform Hotstar and Akamai Technologies, the cloud delivery platform, claimed to have catered to a record 8.26 million concurrent viewers on May 22 during the first qualifier match of Vivo IPL 2018.

The match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings is said to have attracted an 8.26 million peak concurrent viewers tuning in simultaneously to witness the match, which looks like a first across the world. Over four hours, more than 26 million viewers tuned into Hotstar to watch the match.

The previous record is believed to have been established by YouTube when Felix Baumgartner’s space jump in 2012 saw a peak of just over 8 million concurrent viewers tuning in to watch the event.

Hotstar’s steady march into the record books started in 2017, when it recorded a peak concurrency of 4.8 million simultaneous viewers during the India-Pakistan ICC Champions’ Trophy final match, the highest in APAC at the time. The opening week of Vivo IPL 2018 upended this record with 5.5 million concurrency recorded on April 10, followed by the next peak of 7.1 million on April 25. The peak seen during the ICC Champion’s Trophy Final was nearly doubled during the Vivo IPL 2018 match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings. 

Ajit Mohan

Ajit Mohan, CEO, Hotstar, said, “Four years ago, when we started streaming IPL, 8 million viewers would have been a big deal for the whole tournament. Crossing 8 million simultaneous users is a testimony to the power of Vivo IPL and evidence of the abiding passion of cricket fans. It is not just about the scale, however. It is about reinventing the sports experience online and constantly raising the bar. Our objective is to create the future of social TV. And we are proud that the tech that we are building is expanding the frontiers of online video.”

Parimal Pandya, Vice-President, Media, APJ, Akamai Technologies, said, “Over the past year and a half, Hotstar has broken several online viewing records at the regional level. A contributing factor was technology from Akamai playing a role in bringing down the latency drastically so users can enjoy the live action almost as well as people watching it on their television. This is a clear indicator of the fact that, driven by technology from Akamai, live sporting action can be enjoyed on a smartphone which is the new frontier for audience engagement and growth.”

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