At-Home Data Consumption Soared in 2020 Due to Pandemic, Says Comscore

In-home data consumption was significantly higher in 2020 than in 2019 due to COVID-19 work-at-home and remote learning directives, but allocation of data usage largely mirrored that of 2019, said a January Comscore report. 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,” it said.

Data consumption grew across all connected devices with smart TVs, laptops, gaming consoles, phones, smart speakers, streaming players and tablets all having strong growth vs. 2019. Consumers adapted to a modified way of life during the pandemic, Comscore noted. As lockdowns eased, data consumption growth slowed in comparison to the early months of the pandemic, it said.

Data usage trends for game consoles reversed year on year in November when the latest PlayStation and Xbox game consoles were released. Data use on gaming consoles rose 19% in November, after an 11% drop in October. It slipped 1% Dec. 1-27, Comscore said.

Computer data usage steadily increased from March on, jumping 43% in March and 52% in April. After a growth drop to 19% in June, PC and Mac data usage was over 20% higher year on year each month through December, it said. Tablets, which had a sales resurgence in 2020, had peak data usage growth in May at 40%.

Smart TV data usage was higher every month in 2020, even before the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak in March. Usage was 26% higher in January, 49% higher in April and 55% higher in May, before settling back to the 20-29% range through summer months. Smart TV data usage growth spiked 44% in October.

Smart speaker data usage, after a 4% year-on-year dip in February, had seesaw growth through the year, rising 12% in March, 47% in April and 25% in May. It jumped 62% in August but just 10% in September. The highest data usage for smart speakers was during the holiday season, with 195% growth in November and 148% in December, said the analytics firm.

By summer, year-over-year data growth rates across all devices leveled off to about 15% on average, but smart TVs and home computers continued to have growth rates above 30% versus 2019, said the report. 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, it said.

At the end of 2020, year-over-year growth in data consumption slowed slightly to rates seen in the weeks leading up to pandemic closures, Comscore said. Overall, total 2020 in-home data consumption grew 18% year on year.