new delhi it was a sunday blockbuster with over 18 crore viewers tuning into the indiapakistan t20 world cup match on the digital streaming platform disney hotstarthe match was telecast on star sports in india for television but viewership numbers will be released only a week later by the television audience measurement body broadcast audience research council barcit was also screened in theatres of pvr and inox which reported large visitors coming to watch the match at their cinema hallson disney hotstar app which streamed the match live it was the highestever viewership at 18 crore beating the previous record of 14 crore recorded between the two teams at the asia cup a source saidthere were 36 lakh live views when the first ball of the match was bowled by indias bhuvneshwar kumarwhen the pakistan innings ended there were 11 crore viewers live on the app and this increased to 14 crore viewers during the innings breaka total of 40 lakh viewers watched when indias chase started with the numbers rising to a record 18 crore when the match finished in indias favour as former captain virat kohli led to a 4 wickets winsimilarly the multiplex operators inox leisure and pvr which are showing the matches live on the screens of their cinema halls have also witnessed phenomenal responses from the viewersinox leisure ceo alok tandon said the response that we got for this match across all the 90plus cinemas across the country has been phenomenal identical to a blockbuster movie the electric environment in the auditoriums was much like what someone witnessed in the stadiumspvr joint managing director sanjeev kumar bijl said the response to the game has been strong at pvr cinemaswe have played this game on 122 screens in 51 cities across the country and the response has been strong all over the charm and excitement of watching live sports on a big screen as a collective experience continues to gain strength in india he saidkaran taurani svp of elara capital said it is a positive trend and now lots of sports viewership is coming on digital streamingnow sports have emerged as important for the video consumption market and every platform needs some kind of sports as lots of eyeballs do come heretournaments of national interest and indiapakistan matches are watched with a lot of passion if you look at the growth in terms of viewership share on digital its phenomenally high he saidhowever he also added that such numbers may not be repeatable as the match was nailbiting and went up to the last ball but its a positive trend as lots of viewership is coming on digital platformshowever he also added that the viewership of traditional media such as tv is stable and has no decline because people want to watch live content on tv and digital as per their convenience