Netflix now accounts for more than 30% of peak internet traffic

Netflix now accounts for more than a third of all downstream Internet traffic during peak evening hours in North America, according to research firm Sandvine. Netflix’s share of traffic during the second half of 2014 rose to 34.89%, up from 34.21% in the first half of the year, Sandvine found in its biannual report. The figure is the highest for Netflix in Sandvine’s publicly available data since 2011. The streaming service has long dominated downstream Internet usage, a point that’s sparked battles between it and Internet Service Providers like Comcast and Verizon, which have argued Netflix should pay up for the bandwidth it uses.

Netflix remains the largest source of Internet traffic created on home networks during the busiest periods, a new Net traffic report says. But on the go, YouTube is the app of choice. The movie and TV streaming service accounted for 35% of downstream Net traffic in the peak evening hours during the second half of 2014, according to networking company Sandvine’s latest edition of its twice-yearly Global Internet Phenomena Report. That’s up from about 32% last year. YouTube accounts for 14% of traffic on U.S. home networks, but it accounts for about 20% of mobile Net traffic, beating out No. 2 application Facebook at 19%. Facebook saw its mobile and fixed traffic go by 60% and more than 200%, respectively, after adding its Autoplay video feature in September, Sandvine said. Home broadband users are using 30% to 40% more data than last year, with typical consumers using 20 Gigabytes monthly. After Netflix, YouTube, web surfing and Facebook, home Net users’ favorite applications include BitTorrent, iTunes, Amazon and Hulu.