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Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today revealed that yesterday afternoon’s FIFA World Cup 2026 match between England and DR Congo (2 – 1) fuelled the “biggest mobile traffic event ever recorded” on their mobile network, which saw mobile data (broadband) traffic peak 20.38% higher than the prior peak (during the Arsenal vs PSG UEFA Champions League Final) and 27.67% above a comparable pre-tournament week.
The 5pm kick-off naturally coincided with the journey home from work for many, while BBC iPlayer saw traffic surge up 380% compared to a typical weekday afternoon as supporters streamed the match on their phones. O2’s network data also revealed an interesting behavioural shift during the match. After DR Congo took the early lead, activity across apps including TikTok, WhatsApp and Tinder increased, as fans turned to their phones for a distraction. But once the second half got underway and England grabbed an equaliser, usage across all three apps fell as supporters locked back into the action.
However, it’s worth putting that “biggest mobile traffic event ever recorded” claim in the correct context, because demand for data is of course constantly rising and internet connections are forever getting faster, thus new peaks of usage are being set all the time by every provider.
Just for some added context, Ofcom revealed toward the end of 2025 that the average monthly data usage per connection is now 583GB (GigaBytes) across all fixed broadband technologies (up from 531GB in 2024), which rises to an average of 738GB for full-fibre connections (actually down a bit from 766GB).
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