Dream11's “99% never lost more than ₹10,000”: stats as storytelling

#Stats - the most powerful #Storyteller! They can shape #perceptions instantly!
Recently, the #Dream11 founder said: “99% of Dream11’s 260 million users never won or lost more than ₹10,000 in their lifetime.”
At first glance, it feels harmless. One might think: Why did the government take such a harsh step if 99% of users aren’t impacted?

But let’s flip it, that remaining 1% = 26 lakh users.

Now imagine this headline:
“26 lakh people have won or lost more than ₹10,000 on Dream11.”
That number doesn’t sound so harmless anymore. Especially in an ecosystem where the 'house' usually wins, meaning a large portion of these 26 lakh users likely lost a good amount of money.

That’s the magic (and danger) of #statistics, they don’t lie, but they can be framed to tell very different stories! People use percentages and absolute numbers interchangeably to suit their narrative!
Some of the common examples -
- #Inflation: Govt says “inflation is 5%” but for someone in a metro city, rent goes up 10%, groceries 15%, and fuel 7%. The average hides the pain of specific groups!
- #StockMarkets: “#Nifty gave 12% CAGR over 10 years.” Great, unless you entered in 2024 and have seen flat returns since!

Have you come across other examples where stats were used to shift the narrative completely?