Telecoms giant BT has kindly provided ISPreview with some internet traffic statistics from the first UEFA Euro 2024 football match between England and Serbia, which took place at 8pm on Sunday (16th June 2024), as well as the opening match between Germany and Scotland on Friday 14th (8:30pm).
Matches that take place outside a traditional holiday period, and during normal working hours, tend to drive a larger increase in usage, as people often attempt to stream such content while at work via their Smartphones, rather than view it via a traditional TV broadcast. However, the opposite is often true when outside of working hours, since people are more likely to tune-in via a traditional living room TV and terrestrial signal.
Suffice to say that most of the ISPs we’ve spoken with only saw a small increase in overall usage from the aforementioned UEFA Euro 2024 matches, which is unsurprising as they both occurred while most people were at home. But the latest data from BT’s fixed broadband network still manages to include some interesting stats.
The data below shows the impact that both matches had on BT’s UK network, as well as the number of fans who streamed the match live, how much data was streamed at the time of both matches and in what parts of the UK.
England vs. Serbia
Unique customers: 1.39 million, with a peak of 298,000 viewers.
Data usage: BBC’s streaming drove 982.1 TB (TeraBytes) of data, marking a 186% increase compared to an average week, with a peak of 1.15Tbps (Terabits per second), an increase of 182%.
Total network traffic: 15,664 TB of data, peaking at 18.5 Terabits per second.
Top content providers during the match: BBC ranked 3rd, following Netflix and YouTube, with Facebook and Amazon completing the top five.
Significant increases in network traffic in various regions, particularly in London and South East of England, indicating high concentration of football fans in these densely populated regions, glued to their screens and streaming the match
Scotland vs. Germany
Unique customers: 571,000, peaking at 247,000 viewers.
Data usage: ITV’s streaming drove 1,250 TB of data, a 341% increase compared to an average week, with a peak of 1.44 Terabits per second, an increase of 336%.
Total network traffic: 15,104 TB, peaking at 17.6 Terabits per second.
Top content providers during the match: ITV ranked 3rd, following Netflix and YouTube.
As expected, Scotland saw significant traffic spikes, especially in major cities. Additionally, parts of the North West and Midlands also showed notable increases, suggesting widespread interest in the match.