To a hockey fan who enjoys the roar of the Zamboni and a bit of face-washing rough-and-tumble now and then, nothing seems more snooze-inducing than a zero-zero tie in soccer.
But that is a minority view, if numbers from Akamai Technologies Inc. are any guide.
Cambridge-based Akamai helps global networks covering the World Cup to stream the action on their websites, and during the recent Brazil-Mexico match that ended in a scoreless draw, Akamai said online traffic for Akamai customers peaked at 4.6 terabits of data streamed per second, the highest World Cup traffic peak that Akamai has measured so far during World Cup action.
You’d need the brainpower of six MIT hackathons to determine how many people were actually watching the match online based on terabit data. But we can unscientifically say it’s a lot.
By way of comparison, look at online traffic during the recent Winter Olympics in Sochi. On Akamai’s scorecard, the Olympic peak was attained during the men’s hockey game between Team USA and Canada. That peak clocked in at 3.5 terabits of data streamed per second, Akamai said.
Terabits aside, it’s safe to say that a whole lot of folks were enthralled by a zero-zero soccer tie the other day.
Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com.