From deals to DDoS: exploring Cyber Week 2024 Internet trends

Cyber Week 2024: Global Traffic Peaks, Mobile Shopping Patterns, and Rising Threats

Cloudflare's network data from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday 2024 (November 28 to December 2) reveals how shopping events shape Internet behavior worldwide. Cyber Monday, December 2, was the busiest day for global Internet traffic in 2024, with Cloudflare processing a peak of 99.8 million HTTP requests per second at 15:33 UTC. The company handled roughly 5.4 trillion daily requests on Cyber Monday, with about 5% of that traffic blocked as potential attacks. For comparison, Black Friday saw 5.1 trillion requests, 6% of which were blocked potential attacks. Global HTTP request volume on Cyber Monday 2024 rose 36% over 2023, following a 27% year-over-year increase in 2023.

Busiest Traffic Days by Region

While Cyber Monday ranked first globally, other days factored prominently in the top positions. Sunday, December 1 (the day before Cyber Monday) took the #2 spot, followed by Tuesday, November 26. Black Friday ranked #5 worldwide, coming in behind November 21. One notable caveat: a customer-specific software update event on December 1 contributed to elevated traffic that day, including at the country level.

The US pattern was similar, with Cyber Monday, Sunday, and Black Friday as the top three traffic days. Cyber Monday traffic in the US was 12% higher than the previous week and 57% higher than Cyber Monday 2023. State-level data largely reflected this trend, though Arizona, West Virginia, and Arkansas saw week-over-week gains exceeding 20%. Most other states, including California, Florida, and New York, grew by roughly 11%.

Mobile vs. Desktop Shopping Behaviors

Device preferences shifted distinctly across the shopping period. On Thanksgiving Day, mobile devices accounted for 51.7% of US traffic, up from 42.4% the prior week. Mobile share peaked on Black Friday at 51.9% (versus 43.9% the previous Friday) and stayed near 52% on Saturday, November 30. Cyber Monday reversed this trend: mobile traffic fell to 43.4%, lower than the preceding Monday. This suggests Black Friday shoppers were more often away from home or office, relying on mobile connections, while Cyber Monday saw many people return to work and school.

International and E-commerce DNS Patterns

Most countries followed the broader pattern of peaking Internet traffic in November, likely tied to Northern Hemisphere weather, holidays, and shopping seasons. However, not every market aligns with US shopping calendars. In the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia, October and November saw elevated traffic, but Cyber Week itself did not stand out. Singles' Day (November 11) ranked as a top-3 traffic day in Turkey, the Philippines, and other countries.

DNS data from Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 resolver shows steady November growth in E-commerce traffic mirrors overall Internet trends. In the US, Black Friday ranked as the top day for E-commerce DNS traffic, followed by Cyber Monday and Tuesday, November 26. Intra-day patterns differed by event: Black Friday DNS traffic to E-commerce sites peaked between 15:00 and 18:00 ET (with an 18% spike at 18:00 versus the prior week), while Cyber Monday peaked later, from 20:00 to 22:00 ET.

Regional E-commerce DNS rankings varied considerably:

• United Kingdom: Black Friday ranked #1, followed by Cyber Monday and Thursday, November 21.
• Australia: Saturday, November 30 was the top day, followed by Cyber Monday and Black Friday.
• Canada: Black Friday ranked highest, then Cyber Monday.
• Germany: Thursday, November 21 (one week before Black Friday) was busiest, ahead of Black Friday and Monday, November 25. Cyber Monday did not crack the top three.
• France: Black Friday retained the #1 spot, followed by Cyber Monday and Thursday, November 21.

For low-cost E-commerce sites (including recent entrants like Temu and fast-fashion brands), US DNS traffic was highest on November 26 and 27, in the run-up to Black Friday, with Cyber Monday ranking third. Second-hand shopping sites showed an earlier surge, peaking on November 12, with Cyber Monday a close second.

Cyber Threats Intensify During Shopping Week

DDoS attacks targeted shopping properties with greater intensity during Cyber Week. Among US Shopping and Retail sites protected by Cloudflare, 7% of all Cyber Monday traffic was mitigated as DDoS attacks, with an additional 8% flagged as potential threats. Broader DDoS activity against the US also spiked starting November 24, peaking at over 2% of all traffic on November 25. During the entire Cyber Week window, there was a 41% increase in blocked DDoS attack requests compared to the previous week.

Email Threats Riding Shopping Keywords

Cloudflare's Cloud Email Security service processed nearly 24 million emails between November 1 and December 2, 2024, with "Black Friday" or "Cyber Monday" in the subject line. Of those, 19.4 million referenced Black Friday and 4.2 million mentioned Cyber Monday; 76% of the Cyber Monday emails (3.2 million) were sent on December 2 itself.

Emails mentioning "Black Friday" proved more dangerous: 10.8% were spam and 0.9% malicious, versus 1.8% spam and 0.2% malicious for "Cyber Monday" emails. Spam mentioning Black Friday peaked in mid-November at 29% of all emails and hit 26% on Cyber Monday. Malicious percentages also climbed mid-month, with 3% recorded on November 14. The busiest single day for Black Friday emails was November 29, with 4.1 million sent, followed by Saturday, November 30 (1.5 million) and Wednesday, November 27 (1.4 million).