• The highly anticipated release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III resulted in Virgin Media O2 seeing its busiest spike on record for network traffic
  • On Wednesday 8 November, the day that the new game was available to preload, Virgin Media O2’s broadband network hit 25.1Tbps at peak (8-10pm) – a new record
  • The spike was a 22% increase on the peak traffic seen during this last week’s return of Fortnite’s original map

On Wednesday evening, Virgin Media O2 experienced the largest spike ever on its broadband network driven by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.

On Wednesday 8 November, the day that the latest update in the Call of Duty dynasty was made available for gamers to preload, Virgin Media O2’s broadband network hit 25.1Tbps at peak, a 1.4% increase on the previous record set in February this year.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III’s launch easily surpassed the network spike seen from last week’s return of Fortnite’s original map which peaked at 20.5Tbps, 22% lower than Modern Warfare’s peak.

There is no doubt that the sheer size of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III played a part in driving this new record, with the file size standing at a whopping 234GB. With the game being made available to preload at 5pm, gamers rushed online and caused a record peak for Virgin Media O2’s network in the evening.

Big gaming events such as this one continue to dominate the rankings when it comes to Virgin Media O2’s busiest days of network traffic.

Paul Kells, Director, Network Strategy & Engineering at Virgin Media O2, said: “It has been an exciting couple of weeks for gamers, with the return of Fortnite’s original map and the much-anticipated arrival of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. Both of these events have seen gamers getting online in their droves, with our customers setting two network records in less than a week. We are proud to make these moments possible with our gigabit network, backed up by our market leading Wi-Fi guarantee.”

 

Journalists can contact the Virgin Media O2 press office on:
press@virginmediao2.co.uk 01753 565656
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