Comcast says Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 pushed internet traffic to record highs - shame about those data caps

In brief: Call of Duty titles person agelong had an evident responsibility to gobble up arsenic overmuch of your retention abstraction arsenic possible. The latest entry, Black Ops 6, is nary exception. The game's size and fame contributed to what was Comcast's "biggest week successful net history," which makes its 1.2TB information headdress look moreover much archaic.

Comcast writes that it recorded its biggest week successful net history pinch Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's pre-launch. It accounted for 19% of full web postulation past week, nan 5th highest net postulation arena successful Comcast web history. Availability of nan download and nan Thursday Night Football streams accounted for 26 percent of full web traffic.

Black Ops follows successful nan contented of different Call of Duty titles successful requiring a hefty chunk of your retention space. PlayStation owners request 84.40 GB free to instal it, while nan crippled takes up 85.6 GB connected Xbox. On PC, you request astatine slightest 102 GB free connected your SSD to instal Black Ops 6 – a number that tin inflate to almost 300 GB if you take to besides download Modern Warfare II and III and each nan contented and connection packs.

It is somewhat ironic that Comcast announced its grounds precocious net postulation erstwhile astir of its US customers person to woody pinch its 1.2TB information cap. The telecoms elephantine typically charges for exceeding this headdress astatine a complaint of $10 per 50GB, up to a maximum of $100 per billing period. There is an unlimited information scheme that costs an further monthly interest of $25 to $40.

In 2022, nan US proposed a measure called nan Uncap America Act, which looks to prohibition information caps from broadband providers that look predatory. The measure is still nether review.

The FCC past twelvemonth said it would commencement investigating why information caps are needed.

It's not conscionable successful nan US wherever nan latest Call of Duty is helping break net postulation records. On October 21 – nan time nan crippled became disposable for preload – nan UK's largest ISPs, EE/BT, saw a surge that collapsed its erstwhile grounds for gaming traffic. Like astir of nan EU and South Korea, nan immense mostly of nan UK ISPs don't person information caps for their location net plans.

Much of Black Ops 6's fame is owed to its quality connected nan Xbox/PC Game Pass service. It's besides received a batch of affirmative reviews, pinch galore critics calling it nan champion introduction successful years.