Rohit Sharma versus Mahendra Singh Dhoni has emerged the biggest rivalry of the Indian Premier League 2021 thus far. The Mumbai Indians game against Chennai Super Kings has created a broadcast audience record for sports in India.
As the IPL 2021 season began, broadcaster and sponsors would see the utmost value in the Mumbai Indians versus Royal Challengers Bangalore encounters. And why not! Team India skipper Virat Kohli and his deputy in the Test match format Rohit Sharma were to be against each other. Equal excitement was also expected in the encounters between two most successful teams in the IPL history – MI and CSK.
It was the Mumbai versus Chennai game, the 27th of the season, which has created a new record for Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) ratings for any sports event. The encounter, according to BARC, has garnered 11.2 billion minutes of broadcast consumption across the Star Sports network channels.
Mumbai Indians had pulled off a exciting four-wicket win over Chennai at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
In terms of the audience numbers, it though remains the second most-watched match of the Season.
The IPL 2021 has meanwhile also surpassed the overall peak reach to 367 million. Last year it was 357 million.
The opening match this year, according to host broadcaster Star India, had registered 323 million total impressions. The match between the RCB and MI has had the biggest broadcast opening for a season opener across all the 14 seasons.
The massive second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic had compelled the BCCI to suspend the IPL 2020 indefinitely after a number of players across different teams as well support staff, team management and ground staff were reported positive for the Covid-19 virus.
