Women’s World Cup 2023 Final Causes 16% BT Internet Traffic Surge

Broadband ISP BT (EE) claims that the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 has driven spikes of up to 16% in their UK data traffic as people streamed the Lionesses’ on-pitch action live, rising to a peak of 866TB (TeraBytes) during Sunday’s final against Spain – as many viewers streamed it via the BBC and ITV platforms.

The figure of 866TB was said by BT to be a tournament record and more than seven times the amount of data used to stream England’s opening game vs Haiti (118.5TB). By comparison, the semi-final clash against Sam Kerr’s Australia saw the second-highest levels of data traffic, with BT customers using 500TB of data to stream the match. During the game against the Matildas, BT customers used more fixed data streaming the game than they did using Facebook and TikTok.

England’s penalty shoot-out victory over Nigeria (aka – Super Falcons) then delivered the third-highest data usage (494TB). The match saw broadband traffic spike by 15.8% compared to an average day. Finally, England’s tight group stage match vs Denmark, which they needed to win to ensure passage through to the knockout rounds, saw BT’s fixed data traffic increase almost 8% during the match period, with customers using 237TB of data.

Anecdotal information from other broadband ISPs suggests that there was indeed a slight to mild uplift in traffic on Sunday. But it’s worth noting that many people will have been able to watch the match via traditional broadcast TV, since it fell on the weekend.

We also had a look at peak aggregate traffic across the London Internet Exchange (LINX), which topped around 6.978Tbps (Terabits per second). But peak traffic on Sunday’s – measured since 30th July 2023 – has typically hit around the 6.84Tbps to 6.93Tbps range, thus the new peak wasn’t radically above the recent normal.

Prior to the final, BT also monitored the hometowns of the England squad for increases in broadband data use as families and communities came together to support their local Lionesses. By comparing ‘normal’ demand over the channel that each game was streamed on, to demand during each game, BT revealed the percentage increase in data usage used to stream their tournament games.

The 13 hometowns with the biggest maximum increases were:

Chloe Kelly – Ealing 95%
Ella Toone – Tyldesley 87%
Rachel Daly – Harrogate 79%
Lauren James – Richmond-upon-Thames 78%
Mary Earps – Nottingham 77%
Alessia Russo – Maidstone 76%
Millie Bright – Sheffield 75%
Jess Carter – Warwick 74%
Keira Walsh – Rochdale 69%
Georgia Stanway – Barrow 65%
Lucy Bronze – Berwick-upon-tweed 64%