Cyber Week 2023: Where the Internet Peaked and What It Means

Cyber Monday and Black Friday are anchored in the minds of shoppers, but from an engineering perspective, they serve as real-world stress tests for global infrastructure. Cloudflare’s network data for November 2023 offers a look at how these events influence traffic volume, device choice, and even attack patterns across different geographies.

The headline finding: Cyber Monday, November 27, was the busiest day for Internet traffic globally in 2023, just as it was in 2022. Black Friday, November 24, came second. The numbers are substantial. Cloudflare saw a peak of 80 million HTTP requests per second at 16:10 UTC on Cyber Monday, with the 16:00 UTC hour processing over 230 billion requests. Total daily requests hit roughly 4 trillion, of which about 5% were blocked attacks. That is a 27% increase over the same day in 2022.

The DNS side of the ledger tells a similar story. Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 resolver handled 1.68 trillion queries on Cyber Monday, with a peak of 22 million queries per second around 15:00 UTC. Of those, 15% were encrypted (HTTPS and TLS). That represents a 24% jump from August’s peak of 1.35 trillion daily queries. Authoritative DNS traffic also maxed out on Cyber Monday at 811 billion daily queries, peaking at 9.4 million queries per second. Combined, all Cloudflare services surpassed 100 million requests and queries per second at around 16:00 UTC.

Regional Rankings and the Weather Factor

Looking at daily traffic rankings, the global top three are Cyber Monday, Black Friday, and the Monday before Thanksgiving. In the US, the pattern is similar, but Saturday, November 25, took the third spot. State-level data mostly mirrors this, with one exception: Alaska’s busiest days fell on November 13 and 14, which coincided with a snow emergency that shut down schools and roads. Several Western states, including Colorado and California, saw Saturday rank second behind Black Friday, but Cyber Monday still won overall.

International trends are more mixed. In India, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia, traffic was elevated in October and November overall, but there was no clear Black Friday spike. Singles' Day on November 11 only registered in the top three for Turkey. In China, October peaks outpaced November, although Black Friday and the following Saturday showed noticeable bumps. South Africa saw both Singles' Day and Black Friday among its busiest November days. The general pattern suggests that while the US-centric shopping week is a global event, its impact is far from uniform.

Device Preferences Shift by Shopping Day

US traffic data shows a distinct shift in device usage around Cyber Week. Mobile traffic peaked at 55.3% of all traffic on Black Friday, even higher than a typical weekend, which usually sees the highest mobile percentages. On Cyber Monday, the trend reversed: desktop use surged, and mobile share dropped to 47.6%, which is lower than the previous Monday. This split suggests that Black Friday shopping may pair with offline activities, prompting more mobile browsing, while Cyber Monday stays a desk-bound activity for many.

E-commerce DNS Signals and a European Divergence

Further insights emerge by isolating DNS traffic to e-commerce categories in the US. The daily rankings match the HTTP pattern exactly: Cyber Monday first, Black Friday second, and Saturday, November 25, third. The most active DNS hours during those days were around 16:00–17:00 UTC, translating to noon–1 PM EST or 9–10 AM PST. Over the full Cyber Week (November 20–27), e-commerce DNS traffic was up 15% from the week before. The one exception to the week’s consistent highs was Thanksgiving Day itself, when DNS traffic to e-commerce sites dropped 6%.

The story abroad has its own quirks. The UK mirrors the US closely, though Black Friday and Cyber Monday were tied for the top spot. Australia also favored Cyber Monday; Canada’s peak was Black Friday. In Germany, Black Friday was the unquestionable leader, followed by the previous Friday, November 17. Cyber Monday did not crack Germany’s top three. France similarly saw Black Friday first and Saturday, November 18, second.

Category-Specific Patterns

In the US, not all e-commerce categories peaked on the same day. Electronics sites drew more DNS traffic on Black Friday than on Cyber Monday. Fast fashion followed the same pattern, with Black Friday clearly in front. Second-hand shopping sites saw momentum build in the week of November 12–18, ahead of the shopping rush, then hit their own peak on Cyber Monday.

Threat Landscape: Pre-Week Surge, Not the Main Event

When asked whether attack pressure intensifies during Cyber Week itself, the answer is no. DDoS attacks accounted for the lowest daily fraction of November traffic in the US on Thanksgiving. The week of Black Friday was not a peak period for DDoS attacks; November’s highest activity occurred earlier, during the week of November 6–13, a pattern also seen in 2022 with higher attack percentages before November 21. This is consistent with the heavier attack volume seen in late August and September, tied to the HTTP/2 Zero-Day vulnerability and resulting record-breaking attacks.

A broader look at the “Shopping & General Merchandise” industry, including WAF-blocked requests globally, shows a similar pre-Black Friday tilt. The peak occurred during the weekend before Thanksgiving, November 18, with 7.3 billion daily HTTP requests blocked by the WAF, coinciding with early promotional pushes.

Takeaways

Cyber Week trends show that while Cyber Monday may be the crown jewel for global Internet traffic, the lead-up days are where the threat volume and some regional shopping interests show their strongest gains. The pattern also underscores the importance of having the right dashboards in place during the holidays.