Whether you fell asleep early, kissed at midnight, or celebrated into the early hours, New Year’s Eve 2020 was probably a bit different. Forced indoors and apart from family and friends by COVID-19, more people spent the countdown at home, connecting with loved ones via online video and audio calls.
So it will come as little surprise that Facebook—owner of popular platforms WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram—boasted record volumes on New Year’s Eve, a historically busy night for social media.
WhatsApp counted more than 1.4 billion voice and video calls on Dec. 31—the most ever in a single day on the app (and 50 percent more than the same time a year before). The day also proved popular for Messenger group video chats (three or more people) in the US, where nearly twice as many NYE calls were placed than during an average day.
“Before COVID-19, New Year’s Eve generated Facebook’s biggest spikes in messaging, photo uploads, and social sharing at midnight across the world,” Caitlin Banford, technical program manager at Facebook, said in a statement. “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.
“Behind the scenes, Facebook Engineering came together to drive unprecedented efficiency improvements and make our infrastructure more resilient,” Banford continued. “This work includes load testing, disaster recovery testing, and shuffling capacity. This year, New Year’s Eve looked a lot different, and we had engineering teams across Facebook’s apps, ready to support any issue, so the world could ring in 2021.”
From fancy frocks to luscious loungewear, it didn’t matter what you wore or how messy your house was: People all over the country turned on Messenger’s AR fireworks display to liven up their backgrounds.
Not everyone reveled in virtual meetings with family and friends, though. Based on the more than 55 million live broadcasts across Facebook and Instagram globally, it appears plenty of folks chose to celebrate with strangers across the world.
“Happy New Year from all of us at Facebook,” a company blog post said. “We’re looking forward to helping everyone stay connected in 2021.”
