It wasn’t very competitive on the pitch, but the Group G opening round match of the 2014 World Cup between Germany and Portugal scored the highest peak amount of video streaming bandwidth, according to Akamai Technologies.
Germany’s 4-0 thrashing of Cristiana Ronaldo’s Portugal side notched a peak of 4.3 terabits per second of streaming video on Akamai's content delivery network, according to company officials. That total shattered the previous mark of 3.5 Tbps recorded for the Canada-U.S. men’s hockey semifinal match during the 2014 Winter Olympics from Sochi.
The U.S.-Ghana match on Monday topped out at 3.2 Tbps, behind the 3.4 Tbps for The Netherlands’ 5-1 dismantlement of defending champion Spain on Friday, June 13, according to Akamai.
Officials said the timing of the U.S.-Ghana match likely curbed online streaming – it kicked off at 6 p.m. on June 16, meaning that many on the East Coast had already left work to watch the game at home or in their favorite tavern.
Akamai -- which is supplying technical assistance in delivering live and on-demand online video for the action from Brazil, to more than 50 rights-holders -- counts the CBC (Canada), SBS (Australia), SVT (Sweden), Singtel (Singapore), TVB.com (Hong Kong), Telecinco (Spain), Wilmaa (Switzerland) and Zattoo (Germany and Switzerland), among its client roster.
