Christmas was the season to be merry online according to KCom as record levels of web traffic were recorded.
The East Yorkshire-based broadband provider has revealed a huge surge in gaming use during the festive period as people plugged in new consoles, smashing all previous records.
On Christmas Day alone, Xbox updates accounted for 45 per cent of all traffic on KCom鈥檚 full fibre network with a whopping 259 Tebibits (TiB) of data downloads for the games console.
That鈥檚 the equivalent to more than 95,000 Netflix episodes, 1.3 million hours of YouTube videos or more than 59 million standard MP3 tracks.
Traffic from new PlayStation downloads were a close second, ith 224.3TiB of traffic showing how dominant console gaming has become as an online activity in many homes.
Tim Shaw, managing director of KCom wholesale and networks, said: 鈥淭hese are truly mind-blowing numbers that show just show how integral online activities such as gaming and streaming are to our everyday lives now - especially over Christmas when huge numbers of people were at home, unwrapping new games consoles and looking for entertainment on Netflix, Amazon and others.
鈥淲e store 鈥榗aches鈥 of popular content for platforms such as Netflix, YouTube and iPlayer on our own local network, meaning it can be delivered directly to customers without having to pass through slow external networks outside of Hull and East Yorkshire. That means we鈥檙e well placed to deliver services online and give our customers what they want, when they want it, with minimal disruption.鈥
Total traffic over Christmas Day and Boxing Day weighed in at a whopping 4,682TiB, the data equivalent of 40 million hours of streaming music on Spotify.
Streaming shows from providers such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney Plus also proved popular with data being downloaded at a peak of 132Gbps on Christmas Day and 180Gbps on Boxing Day.
Boxing Day was 33 per cent busier online than the same day last year while the record for online streaming came on Wednesday, December 30, when it reached a peak of 404 Gbps as customers settled in front of their TVs to watch post-Christmas football fixtures live on Amazon.
Mr Shaw said KCOM鈥檚 sustained investment in its award-winning full fibre network is now paying dividends as it successfully dealt with the record levels of online activity during the Christmas period.
鈥淲hile many people were tucking into their turkeys and Christmas puddings our KCom elves were working hard behind the scene to make sure everyone was able to do what they wanted online. It doesn鈥檛 just happen, it takes a lot of planning, investment and work to deliver a seamless service.
鈥淭his year we鈥檝e invested 拢3.5 million in increasingly our network capacity to cope with the ever-increasing levels of demand we 鈥榬e seeing 鈥 not just for online gaming but also for streaming services such as Netflix and Disney Plus.
鈥淏ut that is not the end of the story and the demand for online services is only going to keep going up. We鈥檝e effectively seen a doubling of demand over the last 18 months. That鈥檚 why we鈥檙e investing a further 拢5 million this year to make sure our network remains the gold standard for reliable, ultrafast connectivity. We鈥檙e specifically investing in more capacity dedicated to gaming services meaning 鈥榯he pipes鈥 we have connecting our network to the internet allows gamers to get the very best experience we can offer.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 on top of the 拢100 million we鈥檙e investing in expanding our network to new towns and villages across East Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and now, for the first time, North Yorkshire.鈥
Demand will remain strong on the home front with schools closed in lockdown three.
It comes as EE last week added Grimsby and Halifax to its 5G mobile network, joining Leeds, Sheffield, Hull, Huddersfield, Doncaster, Pontefract, Rotherham and Wakefield in the region.
Liz Needleman, BT Group North of England, said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 fantastic that Grimsby is the first place in North East Lincolnshire to receive 5G on EE鈥檚 network, bringing faster speeds and more reliable connections for people in the area.
鈥淎t a time when connectivity has never been more important to stay in touch with family and friends remotely, the arrival of 5G makes this even easier. It will also bring significant benefits for businesses, and those who rely on fast and low latency connections, such as gamers.鈥
