Bob Collins
This is a chart showing hourly traffic to the MPR News Web site yesterday. I’ve taken one of the axis labels out because that’s the kind of information we’d have to kill you over if you knew it, but the point is the same: Even late on a Sunday night, people — a lot of people — are getting their information online.
It’s an interesting chart, mostly because every TV station in America was covering the build-up to last night’s presidential announcement, which was delayed by more than an hour.
Akemai, a company which hosts many of the larger news Web sites in the world, registered 4.1 million page views right around the time President Obama began his speech to the nation.
The spike represents a 24% increase in global web traffic compared to the averages for the time period when many people have gone to bed.
That number seems low. But it still represents 4.1 million page views per minute, about the same as the Super Bowl, which is all about TV.
By comparison, last week’s royal wedding drew about 5.3 million page views per minute. But nothing compares to the all-time online audience winner: Last year’s World Cup qualifying matches, which coincided with the longest-ever Wimbledon final. That drew over 10 million page views per minute.
At least online, you can beat terrorism with soccer and tennis.
