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There aren’t many things that can create a noticeable dip in internet traffic, but it appears that the first screenings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens managed to.
Across Europe on Thursday night into Friday morning, fewer people were using the internet than is expected, with the biggest decrease occurring in Germany as people crammed into cinemas at midnight to see the much-anticipated film as soon as possible.
The film was popular in the UK, but not quite as popular.
The first screening in England was five past midnight on Friday morning, and Incapsula also recorded a dip in traffic in the UK at that time.
Incapsula, a platform that provides security by routing traffic through their system, observed the trends by comparing the online traffic during the first screenings compared to the average amount of traffic for that time of day between December 2 and December 15.
It was done individually for four countries. Traffic declined the least in Russia, where they’re clearly not as into their Star Wars as they are in Germany.
But France held their own – internet traffic didn’t dip as much as in the UK, but there was still a large decline.
