Five Premier League matches and a deluge of freshly unwrapped tech gifts will result in a new record for broadband traffic volumes this Boxing Day.
That’s according to BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A) managing director Chris Bramley, who gave the prediction in a Sky News interview.
"When you see things like major gaming downloads coinciding with big football events, that's when you see the biggest peaks," said Bramley.
More and more houses are connected to high-speed broadband, with BT surpassing 12.5 million home connections earlier this month, marking a halfway milestone to its 25 million homes target.
Superior network speeds mean households can stream and download more data than ever.
Combining that with a packed Boxing Day sporting schedule, new iPhone 15s and LEGO Fortnite will make for a perfect storm on the 26th.
BT hit record traffic volumes less than two weeks ago, when 30.1 terabits per second (Tbps) passed through its wires, when Amazon streamed six Premier League Football games while gamers flocked to the latest Call of Duty update.
With similar upgrades underway by rivals such as Virgin Media 02 and CityFibre, the telecoms regulator estimates 57% of households now have access to fast broadband.