The release of Grand Theft Auto IV has set a new first in online gaming history, according to new figures released today by Internet Service Provider PlusNet.

The company said 90,000 customers were gaming online at one stage – more than one third of its broadband users.

The amount of traffic between 8.00pm-9.00pm on April 30 – the day after its release - rocketed by 30 per cent over the previous hourly record. The 9.00pm-10pm period that day was the second busiest ever.

Neil Armstrong, PlusNet products director, said: “The demand to play Grand Theft Auto IV online has been absolutely phenomenal. Our broadband usage figures have gone through the roof as customers battle it out on the streets of Liberty City.”

The unprecedented demand began after the game’s UK release on midnight
April 28.

PlusNet also witnessed an increase in gaming traffic of up to 35 per cent between 4.00am-7.00am on April 30 over the previous Wednesday as excited fans stayed up all night to play.

The rest of the morning saw the biggest increase in usage with up to 65 per cent more gaming traffic per hour than the previous week while the rest of the day witnessed a jump of around 30-40 per cent.

Gaming usage across the rest of April 30 was up to 50 per cent higher than the
previous day.

“Grand Theft Auto IV has captured the imagination of gamers in a way not previously seen. We believe that if this has happened to us then it will be a similar story with other ISPs. Our usage data shows that the day after release we had the two busiest ever hours for gaming in the UK,” said Neil Armstrong.

“Gaming accounted for approximately 7.6 per cent of all downloads in that hour – we’d normally expect to see between 3.5 per cent and 5 per cent by gaming around that time of day.”

The previous highest hour for online gaming witnessed by the Sheffield-based ISP was 9.00pm-10pm on November 4, 2007.

For more information visit: http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/05/09/grand-theft-auto-iv-whats-the-usage-impact/