With almost 300,000 people inside the Melbourne Cricket Ground over three nights, and tens of thousands outside who didn’t have tickets there was one thing in high demand other than Taylor Swift merchandise last weekend – mobile data.
Telstra’s cheeky Swift fans calculated that to consume all that content in one long sitting would take 1.7 years of viewing.
And there’s no questioning the scale of what Swift brought to the MCG – compared to the next biggest concert at the same venue, this usage added up to 200 per cent more.
Based on the network activity, Telstra can also use their data to look at what moments captured the attention of the audience.
While most photos and videos seem to show people watching through their phones, in fact fans used their phones most before the concert, with the peak data usage of the night just before the opening.
Of course, videos were uploaded to social media across the night, but the end of the 1989 Era in the show, when the surprise songs came out, downloads decreased and all eyes were on Swift.
As you might expect, traffic then jumped when it was time to go home, with content being shared, and Ubers being booked.
Uber reported the highest amount of pickups of all time at Melbourne Airport on February 16 for the first show, while almost 1700 people attended more than one show over the weekend in an Uber.
One Uber user travelled more than 130km in their ride to get to the concert.
All eyes now turn to Sydneys Accor Stadium where Swift will perform four shows from Friday to Monday.
Telstra is deploying its “cell on wheels” technology to add capacity to the area and hopefully prevent any Instagram or TikTok issues.
(9 NEWS)
