World Cup 2026 sets new streaming record for ORF and Big Blue Marble
July 25, 2026 12.54 Europe/London By Jörn Krieger

The FIFA Football World Cup 2026 has set new streaming records for Austrian public broadcaster ORF and its technology subsidiary Big Blue Marble.

With an average audience of 351,000 viewers and peak traffic reaching 2.5 terabits, this year’s World Cup final surpassed the previous record established during the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC).

These record-breaking figures were made possible by extensive technical preparations, with Big Blue Marble building directly on the experience gained during the ESC. Ahead of the tournament, the company nearly doubled the hardware capacity of its core infrastructure while scaling its AWS-based cloud services to meet the expected demand.

ORF and Big Blue Marble set new streaming records throughout the tournament. Following Austria’s opening group-stage match against Jordan, new peaks were recorded during both the semi-final and the final. Overall, eight matches exceeded the previous streaming record set during ESC.

For comparison, peak traffic during the World Cup final four years ago reached 930 gigabits. Peak streaming demand has therefore nearly tripled.

“After the Eurovision Song Contest, we knew the World Cup would push our technical infrastructure even further. We expanded our capacity accordingly, enabling us to provide ORF with a stable and reliable streaming platform even under record-breaking demand,” said Norbert Grill, CTO of Big Blue Marble.

Harald Kräuter, ORF Director of Technology and Digitisation, added: “Major live events place high demand on technical infrastructure. I’m particularly pleased that the intensive preparation and close collaboration between ORF and Big Blue Marble provided the foundation for these new streaming records.”