WATERLOO – Streaming video and audio now accounts for over 70% of North American downstream traffic in the peak evening hours, up from 35% just five years ago, according to data from Sandvine.
In its latest Global Internet Phenomena Report: Africa, Middle East, and North America report, Sandvine found that the top three sources of video traffic on fixed access networks in North America were Netflix (37.1%), YouTube (17.9%), and Amazon Video (3.1%). All three saw an increase in traffic share over the levels observed earlier in the year.
Other highlights from the report include:
– BitTorrent continues to see a decline in fixed access bandwidth share due to the growth of video, and now accounts for only 5% of total traffic in North America. Last year, during the same period, it accounted for over 7%;
– The release of Windows 10 in July did not break the Internet as some predicted. Microsoft’s decision to deploy the update in waves, during off-peak hours, resulted in the release having minimal impact on networks around the globe;
– On mobile networks in the Middle East, Instagram is responsible for over 10% of total traffic. Combining Instagram with traffic from WhatsApp and Facebook reveals that Facebook controls almost 25% of mobile traffic in that region;
– WhatsApp, driven by the recent addition of voice calling, now accounts for more than 10% of downstream mobile traffic in Africa.
“Streaming video has grown at such a rapid pace in North America that the leading service in 2015, Netflix, now has a greater share of traffic than all of streaming audio and video did five years ago,” said Sandvine CEO Dave Caputo, in the report’s news release. “With Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Video, and Hulu increasing their share since our last report, it further underscores both the growing role these streaming services play in the lives of subscribers, and the need for service providers to have solutions to help deliver a quality experience when using them.”
The Global Internet Phenomena Report aims to shine a light on fixed and mobile networks around the world, providing insight into Internet trends and subscriber behavior patterns on networks globally.
