One-day World Cup gives cricket websites massive surge

Sky Sports cricket also saw a spike
Sky Sports cricket also saw a spike

England may have bowed out of the cricket one day World Cup with a bit of a whimper, but the event has caused a global spike in the number of people looking at cricket websites.

It's not exactly earth-shattering news, but ComScore has been looking out for spikes during the tournament – particularly from the cricket-mad and massively populous Indian nation.

It was ESPNCricinfo.com and Yahoo Cricket that benefited from the Indian web surge, with 7 million people frequenting the former inside the week ending 13 March.

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In the UK, it was the Beeb that benefited, with visits to the BBC Sport Cricket page peaking on 11 March during England V Bangladesh, where 597,000 people visited the site. That was 70k more than the England V Ireland thriller managed.

ComScore is now watching with great interest as India take on Pakistan – an Asian grudge match that it likely to attract massive interest online.

"The Internet continues to play an increasingly important role in sports tournaments across the globe as fans turn to the web for real-time updates, results and live-streaming of matches," said Joe Nguyen, ComScore vice president for Southeast Asia.

"We expect to see even greater visitation to cricket-related sites with the upcoming rivalry match between India and Pakistan on March 30, which is sure to be followed with great interest in both countries."

Patrick Goss

Patrick Goss is the ex-Editor in Chief of TechRadar. Patrick was a passionate and experienced journalist, and he has been lucky enough to work on some of the finest online properties on the planet, building audiences everywhere and establishing himself at the forefront of digital content.  After a long stint as the boss at TechRadar, Patrick has now moved on to a role with Apple, where he is the Managing Editor for the App Store in the UK.