Champions Trophy 2025 becomes most-watched edition in history

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced that the 2025 Men's Champions Trophy, hosted by Pakistan, has broken all previous viewership records to become the most-watched edition of the tournament.

According to official figures, this year’s tournament garnered a massive 368 billion global viewing minutes - a 19 per cent increase compared to the last Champions Trophy held in England and Wales in 2017. The event also set a new record for fan engagement, reaching 308 million viewing minutes per over, the highest ever for any ICC tournament.

While political tensions between India and Pakistan stirred pre-tournament controversy, the event proceeded smoothly. Owing to these tensions, India played all of its matches in Dubai instead of the host country, Pakistan, under a hybrid model that allowed the tournament to continue without disruption. While this arrangement was criticised, it did not affect the tournament's popularity.

India won their third Champions Trophy title, adding to their previous victories in 2002 (shared with Sri Lanka) and 2013.

In the hybrid format, all the matches were hosted in Pakistan, except for the Indian team's fixtures, which were held in the UAE due to political and security concerns.

Under this agreement, all upcoming global events scheduled to be hosted in Pakistan and India between 2024 and 2027, including the Women’s ODI World Cup in India (2025), and the Men’s T20 World Cup co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka (2026), are expected to follow a similar hybrid model.