Though Netflix doesn't account for nearly as much web traffic as the amount of time you spend binge-watching The West Wing, it now makes up a significant portion of our Internet traffic.
Netflix leads peak web traffic in North America, acounting for nearly 37 percent of it, according to a new report from Canada-based broadband network firm Sandvine. This is up slightly from six months ago when Netflix made up 34.5 percent of the continent's peak Internet traffic.
Netflix has eclipsed its competitors in its share of peak traffic, according to Sandvine's report, which is based on traffic that passes through its systems. It takes up more than twice as much Internet traffic as YouTube (15.6 percent), and Amazon Instant Video and Hulu both account for less than 2 percent of peak traffic in North America. Amazon Instant Video actually experienced a decrease in traffic since Sandvine published its last biannual report in September when it accounted for 2.6 percent of peak Internet traffic in North America.
Though this report underscores how much of a force Netflix is to be reckoned with in the video streaming game, the streaming service isn't infallible. The report shows that Netflix's peak traffic dipped slightly during the Season 5 premiere of Game of Thrones, which helped HBO GO account for 3.4 percent of Internet traffic and HBO Now, which launched less than a week before the premiere, made up 0.7 percent of peak web traffic.
Speaking of cord cutting, Sling TV, which lets users stream live TV from cable channels without having to subscribe to cable, accounted for less than 1 percent of peak Internet traffic, according to the Sandvine report. However, Sling TV launched just a month before the data for the report was collected, so it's possible that we'll see that number climb in the future.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
