Netflix dominates US web traffic

Netflix now accounts for 37.1% of North American web traffic in peak evening hours, with video and audio streaming making up 70% of overall web use, according to new research.

Sandvine’s latest Global Internet Phenomena report found that Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Video were the top three sources of downstream video traffic on fixed access networks in North America – with all three having increased their traffic share year-on-year.

Netflix accounted for 37.1% of peak-time downstream traffic in the region, with YouTube accounting for 17.9%, and Amazon Video 3.1%, according to the research.

Streamed video and audio accounts for more than 70% of North American downstream traffic in the peak evening hours on fixed access networks, up from less than 35% five years ago, said Sandvine.

“Streaming Video has grown at such a rapid pace in North America that the leading service in 2015, Netflix, now has a greater share of traffic than all of streaming audio and video did five years ago,” said Dave Caputo, CEO, Sandvine.

“With Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Video, and Hulu increasing their share since our last report, it further underscores both the growing role these streaming services play in the lives of subscribers, and the need for service providers to have solutions to help deliver a quality experience when using them.”

The report found that BitTorrent “continues to see a decline in fixed access bandwidth share” accounting for only 5% of total traffic in North America. Last year during the same period it accounted for over 7%.

In terms of downstream mobile traffic in North America, YouTube was the biggest application accounting for 20.8% of traffic, followed by Facebook with 16%.

In the Middle East, YouTube was also responsible for most downstream mobile web traffic at 23.2%, while in Africa it accounted for just 4.6% behind HTTP websites, the Whats App messaging service, and Facebook.