The recently concluded 2016 Betfred World Snooker Championship that was held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield was watched by an estimated 210 million viewers on China's national broadcaster CCTV5, the world snooker governing body said on Wednesday.

The annual prestigious tournament winded up on Monday with current world No. 1 Mark Selby of England winning the highly regarded title for a second time, after getting the better of China's Ding Junhui 18-14 in the final.  The 29-year Yiing, Jiangsu native Ding became the very first Asian player to reach the final stage of the sport's biggest tournament.

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Ding's accomplishments and his winning run in the tournament was closely followed by the 210 million Chinese viewers, who tuned in to the competition.

According to a Xinhua, the final's afternoon session, which was played on Sunday and Monday, was watched by more than 42 million people in China. The Englishman and the Chinese player's finals showdown recorded the highest sports audience for a post-prime time TV program this year

The event drew a total global audience of over 300 million viewers.

During the event, a total of 183 hours of snooker action was televised by the BBC - an increase of 36 hours more from last year's telecast. The tournament attracted a peak audience of 3.9 million viewers and recorded an average audience of 853,000 viewers - an increase of 14.8 percent compared to 2015.

Eurosport, which broadcasts to 99 different countries across the world, recorded 46.5 million distinct European viewers - an increase of 4.5 percent from 2015.

The Betfred World Championship was also broadcast live and delayed in the Middle East and North Africa, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Mongolia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia.

TagsDing Junhui, Mark Selby, world snooker 2016, world snooker rankings, 2016 betfred world snooker championships