ISRO's record viewership during Chandrayaan-3 landing wins praises from YouTube CEO

YouTube's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Neal Mohan congratulated ISRO for shattering the record of highest number of concurrent viewers during its Chandrayaan-3 Moon landing livestream. According to YouTube, ISRO clocked in a whopping eight million viewers during its livestream when Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander made the historic landing on the Moon's South Pole.

"This was so exciting to watch - congratulations to the whole team at @isro. 8M concurrent viewers is incredible!" Mohan wrote in a post on X.

This was so exciting to watch - congratulations to the whole team at @isro. 8M concurrent viewers is incredible! https://t.co/PM3MJgkPrE

— Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) September 14, 2023

Mohan reposted a video by YouTube India which announced the achievement in a post on X on September 13. The company also shared a short compilation video of ISRO officials celebrating the landing of the Vikram lander.

ISRO's livestream began at 5:20 pm IST on August 23 and ended about an hour later after the landing took place at 6:04 pm. As millions tuned in, ISRO broke the record set by YouTuber Casimiro who clocked in more than six million views during the FIFA World Cup quarterfinals match between Brazil and Croatia in 2022. 

The Chandrayaan-3 landing made India the fourth nation to touchdown on the lunar surface and the first to land in the lunar south pole. The mission was designed to last 14 Earth days or one lunar day when the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover it rolled out would be powered by sunlight. Since darkness has taken over the lunar south pole, payloads of the lander and the rover have been put in sleep mode. ISRO will attempt to recover the instruments once the sun rises again at the landing site and if they survive the harsh conditions with temperature as low as -200°C.