The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has revealed that 17.8 million fans in the UK watched the men’s and women’s Ashes series, either live on Sky or via the BBC’s highlight shows.
Confirmed:
- Combined Ashes viewership was up 14 per cent on the 2019 edition. The Ashes saw 17.8 million tune in over the men’s and women’s series this summer, an increase of 14% on the 15.6 million in 2019.
- Average viewer of the men’s Ashes watched nine hours and 51 minutes, a third longer than 2019
- Sky’s average viewership of the men’s series increased by nearly 50 per cent on 2019
- Pay-TV broadcaster achieved a record peak and average viewership for its Test cricket coverage
- BBC hit record listening numbers for its radio coverage of the Ashes on the BBC Sounds digital platform
- More than 609 million video views were recorded across digital channels for content from both the men’s and women’s series combined
- Total attendance for the men’s and women’s series reached record high at 655,000
- Average attendance for the men’s series was at 23,734, while the total audience was 545,000, an eight per cent rise on 2019
- Sky’s cricket coverage continued to perform post-Ashes with Southern Brave’s opening win in The Hundred Women peaked at 217,000 viewers, up six per cent on last year’s opener
- The Trent Rockets’ win during the first game of The Hundred Men’s drew a peak audience of 405,000 viewers, increasing on the 2022 opener by 82 per cent
- The opening match of the third season of The Hundred on the BBC and Sky Sports saw an average audience of 927,000 for the men’s game and 473,000 for the women’s fixture. The men’s audience peaked at 1.49m, while the women’s peak was 787,000.
An average audience of 1.17m tuned in on day five, with a combined average of 877k across all five days of the edge-of-your-seat Edgbaston classic, making it the most watched Ashes Test on Sky Sports ever, and beating the famous final Test in 2009 (717k).
The peak audience of 2.12m came on day five, when viewers saw Australia snatch a two-wicket victory over Ben Stokes’ side on a closely contested final day.
Across digital platforms, the Sky Sports App had 11.7m page views vs 1.5m at the 2019 Ashes, with skysports.com recording 3.9m page views vs 2.7m in 2019.
Digital streaming of the action saw 1.8m views, and there were more than 20m views of Ashes content across Sky Sports‘ social channels.
Third Test, Womens Test etc
- Third Womens T20 game on 8th July averaged 285,000 viewers
- T20 series has seen a 135 per cent jump in viewing figures from the 2019 edition
- Viewership for the Women’s Ashes Test was up almost 400 per cent on the 2019 match
- Third men’s Ashes Test at Headingley scores average viewership of 965,000, the highest ever for a Test on Sky.
- Men’s Test also drew a peak audience of 2.05 million
- The average audience for the men’s Ashes stands at 878,000, a 45 per cent rise on the last series
