Australia retained the Ashes with an unassailable 3-0 series lead after winning the third Test by 82 runs in Adelaide on Sunday, December 21.
After recovering the Ashes in 2017-18, Australia has now retained them in five consecutive series. This means they will have held the urn for more than nine years when the following series takes place in England in 2027.
The total attendance of 223,638 was the most ever for an Adelaide Oval Test, exceeding the previous record of 199,147 in 2017-18. It was also the highest Test match attendance in Australia, outside of a match at the MCG.
The Day 1 attendance of 56,298 was the greatest for any single day of cricket in Adelaide. Audiences across Kayo Sports, Foxtel, Seven, and 7plus Sport were at their peak as Australia closed in on victory on Day 5, with an intermediate average of 2.11 million viewers.
The last session of Day 5 was the sixth session of the series to average more than two million viewers, and the twelfth session of Test cricket to do so by 2025. Cricket Australia’s digital channels experienced high interaction, with 1.34 million Australians visiting cricket.com.au and the Cricket Australia Live app throughout the Adelaide Test.
These users contributed 11.6 million sessions, a 25% increase over the third Test of last year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Fans rushed to cricket.com.au and the Cricket Australia Live app for high-quality video coverage, with views from Australian users up 151% compared to last year’s third Test against India.
During the Test match, Cricket Australia’s social media channels received 232 million video views, demonstrating the series’ global appeal.
“To retain the Ashes in just eleven days is an amazing accomplishment and testament to the superb preparation and performance of the players, coaches and selectors and the efforts of all those across Australian Cricket supporting the team. As always, the atmosphere at for the NRMA Insurance Adelaide Test was brilliant with the record crowds providing a fitting stage for the Ashes retention and this was reflected in the huge viewing audiences,” Todd Greenberg, Cricket Australia CEO said.
“We’re particularly delighted with amazing support of the South Australian Government who have embraced the Christmas Test theme and added a new dimension to what was already a bucket list fixture on the global cricket calendar,” he added.
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