Any doubt that wireless data usage at big events is continuing to grow was put to rest today, when Verizon and AT&T reported at combined 68.8 terabytes of data use in and around State Farm Stadium during Sunday’s Super Bowl LVII — about 58 percent more than the total seen last year.
Both Verizon’s reported mark of 47.8 TB and AT&T’s total of 21 TB set single-day records for each of the cellular carriers. Last year at Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium, Verizon reported 30.4 TB of data and AT&T saw 13 TB of data for a total of 43.4 TB to set the previous high-water marks.
We will attempt to find out more granularity around the data, but our guess is that the 5G network investments made by the carriers may have been partially behind the big jump, or at least a factor in the traditional annual data-demand growth that shows no sign of stopping. According to Verizon, 60 percent of the cellular users at Sunday’s big game were Verizon customers. T-Mobile has told STR it should have stats to share later this week.
According to both carriers, the biggest spikes in traffic came before kickoff, and for Verizon, at halftime, during the show that featured Rihanna.
