US Presidential election breaks Akamai traffic records
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US Presidential election breaks Akamai traffic records

Akamai Technologies claims media of the US Presidential election was the largest single news event the company has ever delivered through its platform.

Video traffic for the election, which saw Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton to become the 45th President of the United States, peaked at 7.5Tbps on the Akamai Platform.

The traffic reached that peak shortly before midnight Eastern Time on Tuesday 8 November. The previous record was held by the first 2016 Presidential debate, which hit peaks of 4.4Tbps.

Akamai’s platform offers high quality Content Delivery Network services for broadcasting partners. The election became the biggest ever news event delivered by the company in terms of video traffic delivered, and ranks among the largest live events it has ever delivered.

It shows the remarkable growth in data usage over the last decade. By way of comparison, the peak during the 2004 Presidential election, when George W. Bush beat John F Kerry, was 21Gbps. Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 reached 1.1Tbps, and the UK royal wedding in 2011 hit 1.3Tbps.

“In what has already been a record-setting year for live streaming with the European soccer finals, Rio and the recent Presidential debates, Akamai has again helped our customers deliver unprecedented levels of online video with last night’s election coverage,” said Bill Wheaton, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Media at Akamai. 

“Not only are more people watching online in general, they’re watching at higher quality, which contributes to the increasingly higher peaks in traffic that we’re observing.”

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