The combination of top flight football and the release of a new video game pushed Virgin Media O2 to the busiest day on record on its broadband network.
At its peak between 8 to 10pm, Virgin recorded an average 24.77Tbps.
Viewers could view Arsenal v Manchester City in the Premier League – only available via streaming on Prime Video or Champions League coverage on BT Sport. In addition to the live football, Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 released Season Two (file size 22.1GB) of the popular Battle Royale game at 5pm with gamers rushing to download the latest update. Some gamers took advantage of the pre-download feature as well, with many downloading the patch throughout the day.
Jeanie York, CTO of Virgin Media O2 said: “We have once again seen records smashed on our network with football fans and gamers using our ultrafast speeds on Wednesday to enjoy some midweek entertainment. This rising demand and the continued importance of connectivity is why we keep investing and innovating to ensure that we deliver for our customers.”
Virgin Media O2 has seen records continue to be broken following a shift in household digital behaviour following the pandemic.
However, it also provides an indicator to what networks need to do to maintain service as consumers move from broadcast to streaming.
