How Aussies internet in 2025
3-minute read
The online lives of Australians have expanded radically in the first quarter of this century and that trend has accelerated in 2025.
Video killed the DVD bar
The volume of internet traffic demanded by video in Australia exploded with the rise of streaming platforms and the decline of DVD rental shops. Despite more than 10 years since the arrival of Netflix down under, that growth is continuing, as video streaming will jump from consuming 43 per cent of all data downloaded on the nbn® network last year, to almost half (48 per cent) by 2026. Incredibly, nbn projects that this figure will rise to almost two thirds (59 per cent) by 2035.1
Comms is king of uploads
With more than half (54 per cent) of Australians working from home at least weekly, and more than a third (35 per cent) doing so daily2, it’s little surprise that real time communications, including platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom, account for the largest share of upload volume in 2025, at 24 per cent, emphasising the ongoing importance of fast and reliable broadband at home.1
Online habits hold fast
While constantly growing year-on-year, our online behaviours follow patterns of peaks and troughs. Internet use spiked between school terms, as more family members were home and online during the school holidays, in April, July, September and January. Online activity plummeted as fireworks soared, with the lowest daily peak landing on New Year's Eve.
While students off school drove the biggest days of the year for online activity, on average our busiest hour of the day was after most little ones were asleep, between 9pm and 10pm, and our busiest period was 7:30pm to 11pm.
Our two highest peaks in download traffic again coincided with the availability of update downloads for the popular game Fortnite, and these peaks were 10 per cent higher than last year’s download traffic peaks.
Super users steal the show
In any crowd there are over achievers that pull the average higher and that’s certainly the case for download volumes on the nbn network. The top 20 per cent of nbn customers now account for more than 50 per cent of all downloads, and the top individual customer downloaded 116 terabytes in a single month. For reference, that’s the equivalent of streaming KPop Demon Hunters about 7,400 times, or binging all five seasons of Stranger Things about 459 times.
We also saw 13 per cent of customers downloaded more than a terabyte in a single month, or about 222 DVDs worth of data.
Stately competition intensifies
Queensland holds the title for highest average downloads for the third consecutive year, while Tasmania holds the wooden spoon for the fourth year running. Western Australia overtook Australian Capital Territory to snatch second place, pushing New South Wales off the top three podium.
WA’s surge is to be expected, as it boasted the highest uptick in full Fibre to the Premises connections, jumping from a quarter (24 per cent) to a third (33 per cent) year-on-year. Northern Territory took the crown for highest percentage of full fibre connections, at more than three quarters (77 per cent) of all connections. This surge helped full fibre become the most common connection technology across the network for the first time this year.
Nationwide, average household downloads continued to grow rapidly, increasing 10 per cent to 508GB from June last year to June 2025, and doubled since 2019, while average upload volumes grew even faster, increasing 12 per cent year-on-year.
Accelerate Great enters the chat
Following the launch of Accelerate Great in September, Aussies have been ordering high-speed nbn plans, with wholesale download speeds of 100Mbps or faster, at the fastest rate ever seen, with more than 12,300 orders per week. That’s 50 per cent higher than the same time the previous year.
Two-in-five (40 per cent) of customers are now connected to fast nbn plans with wholesale download speeds of 100Mbps or faster and almost a third (30 per cent) on 500Mbps or faster.
- nbn State of the Nation network data, June 2025.
- Australian Digital Inclusion Index 2025.