A royal weekend in Internet traffic
Major national events almost always leave a mark on Internet traffic patterns, but a coronation is a rare case with no close modern precedent. The last British coronation took place in 1953, before the Internet or even ARPANET existed. When Charles III and Camilla were crowned on Saturday, May 6, 2023, the ceremony produced clear spikes and dips in UK traffic that lined up with key moments of the day.
The effect wasn't limited to the ceremony itself. On Sunday, May 7, the Coronation Big Lunch drew a significant chunk of the country away from their screens, with traffic dropping as much as 18% during the afternoon. Later that evening, Prince William's speech at the Coronation Concert caused another noticeable dip. Monday, May 8, the coronation bank holiday, saw traffic run noticeably higher than the previous week.
Saturday's peaks and valleys
On coronation day itself, UK Internet traffic followed a pattern of sharp declines and rebounds, measured against the previous week at 15-minute granularity. Traffic began trending downward after 06:15, sitting 5% lower than the prior week. The biggest drops came as the royals and their guests arrived, with traffic falling to 7% below the previous week's level at one point. The trend flipped after 11:15, with traffic rising 6% above the prior week as the ceremony continued.
The dips coincided with spectacles like the king's crowning, while periods such as the choir singing saw traffic recover. A clear spike followed the military flypast and the Buckingham Palace balcony appearance.
Overall, daily traffic on Saturday was 4% higher than the previous Saturday.
Sunday's Big Lunch and concert
Sunday followed a different trajectory. Traffic was already 2% lower than the previous week after 07:00 local time, and dropped further to 5% below after 12:00. The deepest trough came between 14:15 and 15:30, when traffic ran about 18% lower — peak Big Lunch time, with more than 65,000 community events taking place across the UK. That was less severe than the 25% drop seen during the Platinum Jubilee on Sunday, June 5, 2022, at 15:00.
In the evening, the Coronation Concert broadcast from Windsor Castle after 20:00. Traffic dipped again around 21:15–21:30, down 7% from the previous week, during Lionel Richie's performance and Prince William's address to the king.
Daily traffic on Sunday ended up 6% below the previous week, in contrast to Saturday's 4% increase. The Monday bank holiday saw traffic 4% higher than May 1, also a bank holiday in the UK.
A mobile-heavy weekend
Mobile devices accounted for 61% of UK traffic on Saturday, May 6 — a figure matched only by April 15 and January 1, 2023. Sunday's 60% mobile share was likewise among the highest of the year, surpassed only by Easter Sunday (60.4%) and New Year's Day (61%).
Regional differences
All four UK nations showed similar weekend patterns: higher traffic on Saturday around the ceremony and lower traffic on Sunday. The Sunday drop was most pronounced in Wales, where traffic fell as much as 19% around 15:00. Northern Ireland saw an 18% drop at the same time, Scotland 17% around 13:30, and England 16% at 15:30.
Across the Commonwealth
The coronation's effect extended beyond the UK. In Canada, where events mirrored those held for the Platinum Jubilee, Saturday traffic fell as much as 8% between 09:30 and 16:30 Toronto time, with a larger drop of about 10% on Sunday between 10:30 and 12:00.
Australia saw a more modest effect, with traffic 7% lower at 20:00 Sydney time (10:00 UTC) as the ceremony got underway — the only period over the weekend when traffic dipped below the previous week's levels.
The royals and social media
DNS traffic to the 1.1.1.1 resolver revealed how different corners of the Internet responded. Social media domains saw a 33% increase in DNS traffic around 14:00 on Saturday compared to the previous week. That grew to 64% higher by 18:00 on Sunday, and remained 36% higher at 22:00 during the Coronation Concert. Video-centric platforms like TikTok saw a 57% surge in DNS traffic around 20:00 on Sunday as the concert began.
Domains directly related to the royal family peaked between 11:00 and 12:00 on coronation day, when DNS traffic ran roughly forty times higher than the same hour the previous weekend.
Over the prior 12 months, royal family domains had hit their highest point on September 8, 2022, the day Queen Elizabeth II died, with DNS traffic 12x higher than the previous week around 18:00 local time. The funeral on September 19 saw a 6x increase around 11:00.
British news organizations saw similar dynamics. September 8 was their peak day of the year, with DNS traffic 263% higher than the previous week around 18:00. During the funeral, news DNS traffic was 24% higher at 11:00. On coronation morning, news traffic ran as much as 47% above the prior week at 11:00.
The Queen's passing, one year earlier
Looking back at September 2022 provides context for the coronation numbers. When the Queen's death was announced on September 8, 2022, UK Internet traffic fell 7% around 18:30 local time versus the previous week. Two days later — when Charles was proclaimed king and crowds gathered at royal palaces — Saturday traffic was as much as 17% lower at 15:00.
The funeral on September 19 produced an even larger dip, with traffic 27% lower at 10:45, when the Queen's coffin was moved from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey on the State Gun Carriage.
A Very Old Tradition Meets a Very New Medium
It is easy to forget how young the Internet really is. When Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953—a ceremony held at Westminster Abbey, the site of coronations since 1066—the event was broadcast to 27 million people in the UK on a medium less than 20 years old: television. Sir Tim Berners-Lee wasn't even born yet; the World Wide Web wouldn't be made available royalty-free for another four decades.
King Charles III's coronation on May 6 was different. While traditional television remained an option, the ceremony was also streamed online—a large-scale phenomenon that only became possible in the last two decades, since YouTube's launch in 2005. The difference is measurable in DNS traffic patterns observed by Cloudflare.
The data shows that DNS traffic to UK video platforms spiked 13% above normal around 12:00 during the coronation ceremony, when it was broadcast on YouTube. But the effect was dramatically stronger for UK broadcasters' own streaming services, such as the BBC. Between 11:00 and 12:00 on May 6, DNS traffic to those platforms was 197% higher than it had been the previous week.
Those spikes, while considerable, pale in comparison to traffic patterns observed during recent royal milestones. When Queen Elizabeth II passed away on September 8, DNS traffic to UK streaming services surged 470% around 18:00 compared to the previous week. During the Queen's funeral on September 19, traffic was still 150% higher around 11:00 versus the prior week.
These are not isolated anomalies either. Cloudflare regularly observes how global events—from religious holidays like Easter and Ramadan to civil conflicts and even regional outages—reshape Internet patterns. Tools like Cloudflare Radar offer real-time visibility into these shifts, and developers can integrate this data via the Radar API. For ongoing updates, the Cloudflare Radar team is active on Twitter at @CloudflareRadar and on the fediverse at https://noc.social/@cloudflareradar.
