New figures have revealed the Aussie suburbs consuming the most internet data in the country, with some surprising entries.
Recently-released video games and major updates to popular titles are believed to be behind some of Australia’s most data-consuming suburbs.
NBN Co has revealed the top 10 local government areas (LGAs) across the country based on how much internet they use — with immensely popular games Fortnite and Call of Duty contributing to a record-high amount of traffic in early November.
In October, the average resident of the City of Playford in South Australia used 613GB download data, topping the list.
They were followed by Logan, Queensland (601GB) and Kwinana, Western Australia (596GB) to round out the top three.
NBN’s Head of Customer Strategy and Innovation Dr Robert Joyce said new network usage records have been set and broken three times in the last 12 months.
“With data usage more than tripling in the past seven years, and with average households now having around 21 connected devices, it’s a timely reminder to check your home broadband plan is still meeting what you want from your broadband service,” Dr Joyce said.
Some of NBN’s other data trends for 2023 show Sunday is Australia’s busiest day for internet usage, with an average busiest time of between 9-10pm.
School holidays also prove to be the busiest periods for the network.
Fortnite, a 100-player battle royale third-person online shooter, underwent a major update on November 2, which prompted a massive influx of new and returning players as publishers Epic Games resurrected its original 2018 Fortnite map.
The nostalgia gambit appears to have paid off, with an all-time peak of 6.17 million players recorded the weekend following the update, according to unofficial website Fortnite. GG.
As gamers rushed back to Fortnite, a new game was released in the war-themed first-person shooter powerhouse franchise Call of Duty on November 3.
Despite a rocky launch, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 still proved popular with fans of the series, with gigabytes of data downloaded to accommodate a game with notoriously large file sizes.
Depending on the platform and version purchased, the game could take up to 90GB to pre-load before the November 3 launch, with a further 100GB or so needed on release day.
The monster demand for data broke an NBN network traffic record, peaking at 26,7TB per second on November 3.
It is the equivalent of more than half-a-million simultaneous Fortnite downloads at 50Mbps, or more than 1.1 million simultaneous 4K video streams.