Digital streaming: Indians used one exabyte of data in watching cricket

Indians, according to estimates by telecommunications companies (telcos), consumed a staggering 1 exabyte/EB (1 billion gigabyte) of data, streaming the much-awaited final between India and New Zealand in the Champions Trophy on their devices — making it one of the highest globally for a standalone event lasting just five to six hours.

 

In the global sports sweepstakes, the biggest data guzzler has been the FIFA World Cup 2022, when the total data consumed to stream the matches across the world was estimated at 15 EB — but over 64 matches. Industry estimates suggest the average per match was around 0.2-0.3 EB, with the final consuming even more.

 

The total data consumption across the world for the 2024 Olympics is estimated at an average of 0.9 EB per day. In contrast, during the Champions Trophy final, the bulk of the data usage was in India, apart from West Asia, among others.

 

In the non-sporting arena, industry estimates suggest that the biggest data-consuming event is China’s Singles’ Day, the world’s largest online shopping festival, which peaks on November 11. According to estimates, it sees consumption of 1–2 EB on that day due to the online buying frenzy, along with processing orders, social media engagement, livestreaming, and more.

 

The cricket frenzy from just one match can be gauged from the fact that while India won to lift the trophy, Indians, on average, consumed a total of 21.5 EB of data per month in 2024, growing at 23 per cent over 2023. A single final game in March accounted for around 5 per cent of the month’s total data consumption.

 

Among telcos, Reliance Jio accounted for 50 per cent of the data consumption, hitting 0.5 EB just for the match. The popularity of the viewing was reflected in the fact that peak concurrent viewership on JioHotstar for the final reached 61 million. The total minutes of viewing was 110 billion minutes on JioHotstar, closing in on television (TV), which saw 137 billion minutes.

 

The growing shift of viewership from TV to digital online platforms is reflected in a study by Kantar, which found that over 24 per cent of internet users (around 286 million) are cord-cutters who consume content exclusively on digital platforms. Another 50 percent (599 million) are concurrent users —watching content on both TV and digital platforms — and 26 per cent (305 million) consume content only on traditional linear TV.