- Work: Return to the office continues to take hold, as nearly half of Brits commuted five days a week in 2024 and Wednesday became the busiest office day.
- Rest: Modern life is taking its toll, with Brits going to bed earlier than ever before and turning to mindfulness apps to find balance.
- Play: Broadband traffic rises again to record levels as Brits turn to ‘gripping’ TV shows, gaming, and the summer of sport.
London, 11 December 2024: Virgin Media O2 has today released its 2024 ‘Year in Review’, which shows record levels of data consumption including an 8.1% rise in broadband usage and a 9% uplift on mobile data year on year.
Company data shows Brits returned to the office, shifted to an earlier bedtime, and turned to sporting events and scandalous TV in record numbers.
Virgin Media O2’s ‘Year in Review’ is based on combining broadband, mobile, movement and TV data with national polling findings to reveal the human behavioural insights behind the network data.
Return to office took hold with Wednesdays the most popular day to commute – how Brits worked in 2024
Exclusive insights from O2 Motion, which uses anonymised and aggregated data from O2’s mobile network, shows commuting increased in 2024, with nearly half of Brits (48%) heading to the office five days a week. The most popular day of the week to commute was Wednesday, with 74% of Brits making the journey to work.
This trend has been driven by growing in-office mandates from companies which appear to be taking hold, with 36% of office workers required to be in the office daily. Many workers also found the office more productive than working from home (46%), better for connecting with colleagues (42%) and say they provide a boost to physical wellbeing (37%). Over the summer, Gen Z workers had the biggest increase in office trips (12%) indicating a summer of post-work social plans.
Earlier bedtimes and mindfulness apps – how Brits switched off in 2024
Virgin Media O2 broadband data suggests Brits are increasingly getting an early night, with the data showing how the nation is going to bed 20 minutes earlier than in recent years with network traffic consistently starting to drop off from 9:20pm. In comparison, 2020 traffic shows a later bedtime, with Brits beginning to go offline from 9:40pm. This year’s data also reveals that the nation is also getting up earlier; 2024 morning traffic began to rapidly rise from 6:20am, fifteen minutes earlier than in 2020.
With a third (34%) of Brits citing the news as negatively impacting their mental health in 2024, just under half (44%) have increased their mindfulness practices and two thirds (62%) have used their mobile phone to access mindfulness apps. This rose to 88% of 18–24-year-olds.
Gaming, gold medals, and scandalous TV – where Brits found entertainment in 2024
Broadband data usage continues to rise and was up 8.1% in 2024 – hitting a new record. Online gaming was the main contributor for this growth and four of the five busiest days aligned with Call of Duty launches. Traffic peaked in the first week of December when six Premier League games were streamed on Amazon Prime, as fans tuned in to support their team.
2024 was also a big year for sport with Andy Murray’s final appearance giving Wimbledon a 12% audience boost compared to 2023, and 90% of Virgin Media households tuned into the Euro 2024 tournament over the summer. The busiest hours on O2’s mobile network came during England’s games with Denmark and the Netherlands as viewers reached for their phones to follow the action. Meanwhile, the Olympics and Paralympics were considered the biggest TV moment of the year by a third of Brits.
Outside of sport, 83% of the nation enjoyed TV dramas inspired by true events and scandal, with Mr Bates vs The Post Office the most memorable, closely followed by Netflix breakout hit Baby Reindeer. BBC iPlayer retained its top spot as most popular app for Virgin Media TV customers, up 8% on 2023, while Netflix took 32% of all streaming traffic as the most viewed on-demand app. YouTube is now the fastest growing app on Virgin Media TV across audience size and total hours viewed.
Jeanie York, Chief Technology Officer at Virgin Media O2, said:
“It was another record-breaking year across our mobile and fixed networks, as our customers continue to use more data than ever before. To meet this growing demand, we are continuing to invest and innovate to provide vital connectivity that underpins how our customers work, rest and play. This connectivity is clearly playing such a central role in people’s lives and our investment ensures Brits have the experience that they expect whenever and wherever they are.”
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