, which the companies reported as the "biggest single game contribution to a broadband peak". But what does this really mean? And how do ISPs cope when gaming traffic spikes occur? I spoke with EE's director for gaming and future propositional development Sam Kemp to find out.
If a game isn't cached, your download request"routes out across the internet in the way that you would with a Google search," Kemp explains."It doesn't mean it's a poor experience, it means it's probably going to be a very comparable server, because there's going to be much less demand going out on that route to, I dunno, retro Pac-Man games."
"Some things we can't predict, right, because it's just a naturally occurring event," Kemp says, noting that particular gaming competitions can provide unexpected peaks."But whether it's a download or an upgrade, or a new Fortnite set of maps, by and large for the majority, we get those with good warning.
The work of both teams then feeds back into the ISP's data centres, where work is done to optimise for"the bigger aspects of content delivery, optimisation, availability" and where teams can plan for those game downloads, or"a particular TV show that is expected to go particularly well".