Comscore Finds Significant Growth in In-Home Data Usage Throughout Pandemic

Total in-home data usage surged 18% in 2020 compared to 2019

As millions of Americans sheltered in place and shifted to working from home and remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing research from Comscore, a trusted partner for planning, transacting and evaluating media across platforms, found that overall in-home data usage levels throughout 2020 remained significantly higher than in 2019.

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Throughout the first several of months of COVID-related lockdowns, data consumption from Comscore Connected Home custom reporting showed increased usage across all connected devices; smart TVs, laptops, gaming consoles, phones, smart speakers, streaming boxes & sticks and tablets all saw strong growth in data usage versus 2019.

By the summer, year-over-year growth rates across all devices seemed to level off to around 15% on average, but smart TVs and home computers continued to see growth rates upwards of 30% versus 2019. Despite some schools reopening for in-person learning and some adults returning to their offices, at least part time, home computer data usage continued to accelerate through the end of the year.

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As 2020 came to an end, year-over-year growth in data consumption during Q4 2020 slowed slightly – in-home data consumption increased at roughly the same rates seen in the weeks leading up to COVID closures. Overall, total in-home data consumption in 2020 increased 18% from the previous year.

Despite the cross-device year-over-year growth in data consumption, there was not much of a shift in how data consumption was allocated across devices in 2020 versus 2019. With the exception of a slight shift away from gaming consoles in favor of smart TVs in 2020, households continued to consume data in very similar ways to how they did in 2019.

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