Virgin Media Find Tuesdays are the Biggest for UK Broadband Usage

Network data from broadband ISP Virgin Media has revealed that Tuesday is the UK’s new “big night in“, with evening peak (between 8-10pm) internet traffic pushing higher than on any other day of the week – usually driven by online video gaming (mostly big update/patch downloads) and TV sports events (streaming).

When asked, some 34% of British survey respondents separately admitted that their weekday social plans depend on sporting fixtures, with major Tuesday matches – like Man City vs. Real Madrid last month – accounting for some of the busiest evenings on Virgin’s network. Tuesday traffic is also driven by gamers, with it being the “most common day of the week” for big gaming launches and patches for popular games such as Call of Duty and Fortnite. It’s worth nothing that “Patch Tuesday” is also a common day for Microsoft to release security updates for their software (usually on the second Tuesday of every month).

Brits were also found to be prioritising their downtime early in the week, with 44% keen to balance out busy weekends and 67% skipping weekday socials to save money. Post-pandemic, 51% of people say they’re less spontaneous after work, two thirds (67%) stay in to conserve their social battery and 71% admit to staying at home before an office day to preserve energy.

However, Virgin Media didn’t provide any hard network data (stats) to support their claim, and nor did they include any details about how the consumer survey was conducted or its methodology. So take with a pinch of salt.