Football Fans Score Big

Football Data Driving Downfield

Football-filled weekends are here again with both the college and pro seasons officially underway. So far this season, we’ve seen data spike as fans across the country head out to stadiums with their smartphones in hand to share the big plays with family and friends. Let’s take a look back at some of the metrics and trends we saw on our in-venue mobile networks during the past week of pro and college football.

• If data usage was any indicator, pro football fans were excited to shout about the start of the 2015 season.
  • On average, 544GB were used per game. That’s equal to approximately 1.5 million social media posts with photos.
  • Compared to the first week of pro football in 2014, we experienced a 46% jump in data usage in 2015.
  • Close games drew more data as well. Out of the five most data-heavy games, 80-percent of them were decided by 8 points or less.
• At the collegiate level, fans of the top teams shared the most data. All of the five most data-heavy games were hosted by a team ranked in the top 25.

Top 5 Pro Venues by Total Mobile Data (9/10-9/14)

• Arlington, TX – 1,107GB
  • Equivalent to more than 3.1 million social media post with photos
• Santa Clara, CA – 874GB
  • Equivalent to more than 2.4 million social media post with photos
• Atlanta, GA – 748GB
  • Equivalent to more than 2.1 million social media post with photos
• San Diego, CA – 696GB
  • Equivalent to more than 1.9 million social media post with photos
• Chicago, IL – 669GB
  • Equivalent to more than 1.9 million social media post with photos

Caveats:

• All figures include only data traffic seen on AT&T’s venue-specific mobile network.
• All data metrics come from only venues with a DAS where AT&T’s mobile network is on-air. These metrics are not comprehensive of every game played during this past weekend for college football.
• This data is compiled from only football stadiums that had home games during this selected timeframe where AT&T is on-air on a DAS.