Broadband down and mobile up, as World Cup fans switched to mobile and terrestrial television to witness England reach the quarter finals
Despite this week’s sad loss against Croatia, British World Cup fans have stayed dedicated to their team throughout the tournament.
The World Cup has grabbed the attention of the nation, with fans tuning in no matter where they were to see if football really is coming home.
Throughout all the World Cup games, UK mobile operator, EE, has seen broadband internet usage drop and mobile usage surge, with viewers watching on terrestrial television or streaming the match on the go and taking to social to share their reactions.
EE experienced its lowest broadband demand for a year during the game against Colombia. Meanwhile, Facebook demand increased throughout the match, with usage spiking at 188 gigabits of traffic on the EE network every second as Eric Dier slotted the winning penalty and fans took to social media to share their celebrations.
All World Cup games are popular at this stage of the competition, as proven by the rising EE mobile traffic on BBC as the Sweden vs Switzerland game came to a close. But more than three times as many people tuned in to watch the England versus Colombia game.
Around 20% of mobile viewers watched the ITV broadcast match via Sky Go. Mobile viewers dropped the live stream at half time (and in between 90 minutes and the start of extra time,) to go on to social media. The amount of fans watching on mobile shot up as soon as the game went to penalties.
Social media traffic also perfectly mirrored the game, with a peak before kick-off, peak at half time and end of normal time, and a huge surge, particularly for Snapchat, at the end of the penalty shootout as fans uploaded their celebrations to share with friends.
