GLOBAL NEWS - WEB TRAFFIC METRICS 05.17.08 1:34 AM EDT
Updated Every Five Minutes
North America
1,195,161 VM 0%
South America
12,383 VM +6%
Europe
75,799 VM +16%
Asia (Pacific)
130,405 VM +13%
Africa
3,875 VM +25%
Australia
35,763 VM +16%
The World
Elevated Traffic
2% Above Normal
1,454,181 VM

North America 2,282,729
South America 50,511
Europe 351,868
Asia (Pacific) 158,908
Africa 15,301
Australia 80,971


Highest Peaks based on total visitors per minute

The highest peaks since inception of the Net Usage Index for News (August 18, 2005), based on total visitors per minutes. The following data ranks the top peaks, and the corresponding events that were taking place in the world at the time.

Rank
Date
Approximate Time (EST)
Peak Visitors per Minute
Compelling News Event*
 1  June 22,  2006  12:00 PM  7,283,584  U.S. eliminated by Ghana in
 World Cup
   2  Mar. 20 ,2008  2:30 PM  7,008,325  Day One of U.S. College  Basketball
 2008 Playoffs Coverage
 
 3  Mar. 16 ,2006  3:00 PM  5,489,918  Day One of U.S. College  Basketball
 2006 Playoffs Coverage
 4  Mar. 15, 2007  2:30 PM  5,100,367  Day One of U.S. College Basketball
 2007 Playoffs Coverage
 5  Feb 8,  2007  4:30 PM  4,885,065  News breaks on the death
 of Anna Nicole Smith
 6  Sep.-  Nov.
 Sundays,  2006
 4:00 PM  4,778,916
(ave. peak)
 U.S. National Football League
 (NFL) Coverage
 7  June 12,  2006  2:00 PM  4,733,201  U.S. plays Czech Republic
 in 1st Round of World Cup
 8  Oct. 11,  2006  2:45 PM  4,598,917  Cory Lidle's light plane crashes into
 New York apartment building
 9  Mar. 17,  2006  2:30 PM  4,594,098  Day Two of U.S. College Basketball
 2006 Playoffs Coverage
 10  Oct. 5,  2006  4:30 PM  4,567,571  Yankees lose in American League
 Division Series game to Tigers
 11  Mar. 16,  2007  2:30 PM  4,369,741  Day Two of U.S. College Basketball
 2007 Playoffs Coverage
 12  Apr. 16,  2007  3:30 PM  4,154,200  Deadly shootings at Virginia Tech
 13  Nov. 8,  2006  2:00 PM  4,053,610  Post Election Day 2006 coverage;
 Rumsfeld resigns
 14  Oct. 19,  2006  3:30 PM  3,940,053  Escalating violence in Iraq
 15  Oct. 20,  2006  11:00 AM  3,932,119  Shiite militia seizes So. Iraqi city


* The Net Usage Index for News does not claim that a single news event accounts for all Web news traffic at any given time, but the Index can be used to correlate worldwide interest in specific news events with relative audience size.