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Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games proves a hit with sports fans
Microsoft releases online usage statistics for the Official Games website
Melbourne, Australia – 15 May 2006: While the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games attracted massive crowds at its Melbourne venues, Microsoft Australia today revealed statistics showing the official Games website attracted many millions more.
The Official Games website (www.melbourne2006.com.au), which Microsoft helped the games organising committee to develop, attracted more than 9.7 million site visits and 65.3 million page impressions during the 12 day spectacular.
The busiest day for the site coincided with the final day of swimming competition on 21 March when over 974, 000 visits were recorded. Online fans’ appetite for the Games drove an average of 815,000 visits per day during the Games, with the statistics also showing that the site was consistently busiest at around 9.00pm daily.
Fans from Australia, New Zealand and island nations in the South Pacific, proved to be the biggest online supporters, with figures showing they were responsible for 41 per cent of all known visits, followed by Europe with 13 per cent and then North America at 10 per cent.
The most popular page visited was the schedules and results page followed by the medal tally. The most popular sport was swimming.
The website, which was capable of processing over 10,000 requests per second, provided fans with online access to the medal tally, competitors’ times and results, Games records, events and news.
Echoing sentiments expressed by Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Mr Bill Gates at the launch of the official Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games website on 10 March, Mr Steve Vamos, Managing Director, Microsoft Australia, said the website had brought the Games alive in millions of homes and offices around the world.
“No matter where people were or what time of day it was, the Melbourne 2006 website provided fans around the world with a way to track their favorite sports and to share moments of inspiration and achievement that only the Games can bring.”
Mr Vamos also said that the success of the website in handling massive volumes of traffic proved the value of partnership and strong teamwork in large-scale technology projects.
“When Melbourne 2006 first approached us, they had some very specific requirements and a vision for their technology infrastructure,” said Mr Vamos.
“Above all, speed, value for money, reliability and scalability were critical. Microsoft is proud that our technology and people lived up to the very high expectations and standards set by Melbourne 2006.”
Microsoft was previously the Official Technology Partner for the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester, in the United Kingdom, in 2002.
| Games time usage statistics 15-26 March 2006 | |
| Activity | Result |
Total number of site visits | 9,789,306 |
Total number of page impressions | 65,305,237 |
Average number of site visits per day | 815,775 |
Date on which daily visits peaked | 21 March |
Peak number of site visits | 974,197 |
Region from which most known visits came from | Oceania |
Breakdown of know visits by geographic region (%) |
|
Length of average visit | 12 min 07 sec |
Busiest time of day | 21:00 |
Average number of page views per visit | 8.5 |
Most popular page (apart from home page) | Schedules and results |
Most popular sport | Swimming |
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For more information or to arrange an interview:
Samantha Herron
Head of Corporate Communications
Microsoft Australia
Ph: 02 9870 2316 or 0412 589 951
Ben Tan
Howorth Communications
Ph: 02 8281 3830 or 0418 488 827
howorth@howorth.com.au
www.microsoft.com/australia/presspass/news/