On New Year’s Eve of 2020, Facebook saw a surge in video calling across Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, the company said in a blog post. Over 1.4 billion video and voice calls were placed on WhatsApp on New Year’s Eve, the app’s highest ever on a single day. Facebook said that New Year’s Eve has historically been its busiest day, with a 50% spike on WhatsApp use compared to last year.
“Before COVID-19, New Year’s Eve generated Facebook’s biggest spikes in messaging, photo uploads and social sharing at midnight across the world. However, in March 2020, the early days of the pandemic produced traffic spikes that would dwarf New Year’s Eve several times over — and it lasted for months.” — Facebook
On Facebook Messenger, 2x more group video calls were placed on New Year’s Eve as compared to an average day. There were over 55 million live broadcasts across Facebook and Instagram globally on New Year’s Eve.
