German fans celebrated an hour longer in the stadium after the final whistle, Scottish fans quickly headed for the “party banana” and female fans were clearly in the minority in Fröttmaning at 34 percent: This and more is the result of a data analysis by mobile phone provider O₂ Telefónica on the opening match of the European Football Championship. And it reports that a record has been set. Across Germany, one million gigabytes per hour were transmitted during the match – more than ever before, namely during the Champions League final between Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid at the beginning of June.
In the Munich football arena alone, around 900 gigabytes per hour were streamed on the O₂ network at peak times, which corresponds to more than 30,000 minutes of Netflix streaming in HD quality and is twice as much as at a Bundesliga home game of FC Bayern Munich. In total, 1,500 gigabytes flowed through the network in the stadium alone during this time.
The analysis also confirms a visual impression that could be gained on Friday afternoon: Munich’s city center between Marienplatz, Odeonsplatz and Stachus was firmly in Scottish hands from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., a large part of the “Tartan Army” was here and later in the fan zone in the Olympic Park. After the game, according to O₂ Telefónica, most Scottish fans headed to the city districts where there are not only hotels and guest houses but also numerous bars, especially Altstadt-Lehel, Maxvorstadt, Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt and Schwanthalerhöhe.
The data also provides information about how the fans got to the stadium and their age: While the majority of Scottish supporters, not surprisingly, travelled by subway (70 percent), 52 percent of the remaining fans arrived privately. On average, stadium visitors were 37.4 years old; most male fans (24 percent) were 30 to 39 years old, most female fans (nine percent) were 50 to 59 years old.
O₂ Telefónica regularly analyzes its users’ cell phone data at major events – for example at the Oktoberfest, where the data can be used to determine where visitors come from and who celebrates the most. On the first point, there is once again a curious finding: fans from the municipality of Handewitt near Flensburg had the longest journey within Germany to the opening game.