iWorld
On JioHotstar, RCB weren’t just champions—they were the whole show
Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s viewership numbers were as dominant as their cricket, smashing record after record on JioHotstar
MUMBAI: Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s first IPL title was a long time coming. But it turns out fans didn’t just storm the streets of Bengaluru. They stormed every screen in the country.
According to data shared on X by @ragav_x, RCB pulled in a staggering 315.12 million views per match on JioHotstar, the highest average viewership of any team in the tournament. Not close. Not competitive. Simply untouchable.
The total haul was equally gobsmacking: 5.04 billion views across the season, accounting for 14.1 per cent of the entire tournament’s viewership. In a ten-team competition, one franchise soaked up more than one-seventh of every eyeball that watched.
The big-match domination was even more telling. Of the 12 games that crossed 300 million views, RCB featured in seven. Of the four matches that crossed 400 million views, RCB played in all four. Every single one. That is not a coincidence. That is a phenomenon.
It all added up to RCB appearing in seven of the top ten most-watched matches of the season. Their opponents almost didn’t matter. The red and black jersey was the draw.
Cricket produces stars, but very rarely does it produce a club with this kind of commercial gravity. RCB may have waited 18 years for a trophy. But when they finally got there, half of India was watching.
