Since the introduction of Covid-19 measures around the world, we at DE-CIX have seen how these actions directly translate into Internet traffic growth. It is very clear that the Internet plays a vital role in these extraordinary times – and allows us to maintain at least some sense of normality.
While we usually see +10-50 percent traffic peak increase per annum, we now have this figure as the average increase in traffic in just a matter of days. Social media, streaming, online gaming, video conferencing – we have seen huge surges in all of these areas and decided to put together some interesting figures from DE-CIX as well other sources in an infographic.
What day of the week is it?
At the moment, people tend to be online more frequently and for longer. Whereas in normal times there is a big difference in the amount of data traffic between weekdays and weekends, the volume has been levelling out more and more. Video conferencing traffic drops on the weekend, but this is compensated for by entertainment such as streaming and online gaming. This explains the consistently high average data traffic.
High is the new normal
We also see significant changes throughout the day. For example, data traffic is more than 20 percent higher at night between 11pm and 2am and more than 15 percent in the morning between 9am and 1pm. This probably means that many of us stay up late streaming and gaming, and are busy with work and conference calls in the morning.
Since we reached the new world record of traffic at 9.1 Terabits per second in Frankfurt in mid-March, the traffic has stayed constantly close to this record level. The consistently high average data traffic is the new normal in these extraordinary times.
