Netflix utilizes 15 percent of the internet bandwidth, up to 40 percent in the evening

Video streaming eats away a sizable chunk of internet bandwidth, and who don't use Netflix, YouTube and services like Prime these days? generates a high volume of data is not new. But Netflix is the single application with the highest download volume.

It's been measured now, Netflix uses 15 percent of the total Internet download volume, making it the leader in each application. This is reported by the industry magazine Variety. Netflix is followed by HTTP media streams, which account for 13.1 percent of total downstream traffic, YouTube at 11.4 percent, web usage at 7.8 percent, and MPEG at 4.4 percent.

Netflix accounts for 19.1 percent of total downstream traffic across the Americas, according to Sandvine. Here, Amazon Prime Video generates more data (7.7 percent) than Youtube (7.5 percent) and during the evening in prime time, Netflix usage can reach up to 40 percent of total downstream traffic in some fixed networks in America. 

Worldwide, video playback accounts for 57.7 percent of total downstream traffic, followed by web use (17 percent), gaming (7.8 percent), and social media (5.1 percent). Other categories include iTunes and Google Play (4.6 percent), file sharing (2.8 percent) and audio streaming (1 percent).

Netflix represents 26.6 percent of all video traffic worldwide. Regionally, Netflix is growing 30.7 percent in America. In the EMEA region, which stands for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Youtube has the highest share of downstream video traffic (30.4 percent), followed by Netflix (23.1 percent). In the Asia-Pacific region, web-based video streaming leads the pack with 29.2 percent, followed by Facebook video with 17.7 percent.

The data used by Sandvine for the Global Internet Phenomena Report is reported by some 150 service providers worldwide representing 2.1 billion subscribers. For China or India, the report contains no significant data. 

Read the full Sandvine report here.