The FIFA World Cup is also experienced through the internet, particularly in countries where football is deeply embedded in the national culture. Argentina is one of them. Every time the national team takes the field, fixed broadband traffic in residential networks surges by around 30 per cent. This pattern has been observed in each of Argentina’s three group-stage matches.
Average internet traffic on a typical evening, which coincided with the opening match against Algeria, is approximately 3.2 Tbps. Whenever Lionel Messi’s Argentina plays, however, traffic climbs to 4.15 Tbps. This peak has been consistently recorded in every match, regardless of kickoff time.
The measurements were conducted by the Argentine Internet Chamber (Cabase), which compared internet usage during national team matches with normal daily traffic. The increase is driven by greater connectivity across homes and mobile devices, fueled by streaming platforms, live broadcasts, social media, IPTV services and gaming.
“The extraordinary growth in traffic recorded during the national team’s opening match demonstrates how the internet has become the essential infrastructure for accessing most forms of content, particularly major live events. This new reality, where platforms and content providers rely on fixed networks and where video has become the dominant digital format, creates an ongoing challenge for digital infrastructure. Networks must become increasingly robust to absorb ever-higher peaks in demand,” said Ariel Graizer, president of Cabase, in a statement.
Consistent Traffic Peaks
As anticipated after the opening match, internet consumption continued to follow the same trend throughout the group stage. Graizer noted that connectivity infrastructure must be prepared “to support increasingly higher traffic levels.” Audiovisual and television consumption is now largely delivered through digital platforms, a trend that continues to accelerate despite the slight delay that streaming services may have compared with traditional broadcast television.
Argentina currently has more than 13.5 million internet connections, according to figures from the country’s communications regulator, Enacom, for the first quarter of 2026. Of those, 48.51 per cent already run over fiber-optic networks, which became the country’s leading broadband access technology at the end of last year, surpassing cable modem, which now accounts for less than 40 per cent of connections.
For this reason, Graizer explained that “major sporting events consumed simultaneously by millions of users have become one of the greatest challenges for the country’s digital infrastructure because they concentrate an enormous number of concurrent connections over very short periods of time. In this context, submarine cable capacity, transport networks, data centers, internet exchange points, last-mile networks and robust home Wi-Fi all become essential components in ensuring a high-quality user experience.”
This trend also reflects the growing use of multiple screens. Although the measurements refer to fixed broadband connections, viewers increasingly watch matches across televisions, tablets and smartphones. Mobile consumption during these events also places additional demand on fixed infrastructure because many households use IPTV services such as Flow, where content is delivered over home Wi-Fi through fixed broadband connections, effectively offloading traffic from mobile networks.
IPTV and Home Wi-Fi
Following the conclusion of the World Cup group stage, Personal reported that more than two million customers watched at least one match through its Flow platform, while 1.6 million subscribers watched all three of Argentina’s opening matches.
These figures illustrate how both fixed and mobile networks are being affected. Overall network consumption across Personal increased by 12 per cent during the tournament’s opening phase, while traffic generated specifically by Flow more than doubled compared with pre-World Cup levels.
Argentina’s internet traffic patterns provide just one example of the growing importance of digital networks during major sporting events. At the same time that residential networks experience unprecedented demand, mobile data usage inside the World Cup stadiums also reaches exceptional levels, particularly during halftime. As TeleSemana.com has been tracking through its dedicated World Cup connectivity dashboard, cumulative mobile traffic across the tournament’s 16 stadiums had already exceeded 3,200 TB as of July 1.
Interestingly, the opposite occurs in Argentina’s electricity network. According to data from Cammesa, the country’s wholesale electricity market administrator, power consumption drops significantly while matches are being played. Demand follows a distinctive W-shaped curve: it falls sharply during the first half, rises during halftime, declines again throughout the second half and then surges immediately after the final whistle, as previously reported by the specialized publication Econojournal.
While Argentina mainly observes this phenomenon in terms of electricity demand, Spain and several other European countries are increasingly analyzing its impact on household energy bills. The spike in electricity usage during halftime, when millions of viewers simultaneously prepare food, make coffee or use household appliances, is expected to increase energy consumption by between 10 and 30 per cent, regardless of whether the home nation’s team is playing. Every match has generated exceptional audience engagement, much as occurred during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, according to reporting by Infobae.
Whether the challenge involves energy infrastructure or digital networks, events of this magnitude place enormous pressure on critical national infrastructure. From a connectivity perspective, which is our primary focus, the traffic patterns observed throughout the tournament clearly demonstrate the importance of building resilient digital infrastructure, collecting detailed operational data and finding innovative ways to transform that information into actionable insights.
