Inauguration breaks news site records

UPDATED: Online news sites enjoyed a massive surge of record-setting traffic during Barack Obama's inauguration.

CNN says that according to its early data, the Obama inauguration ceremony generated more than 136 million pageviews and 21.3 million video streams -- shattering the network's previous all-time streaming record (which was the November election, with 5.3 million).

Fox News says it has 5 million streams served today and counting -- also a record. 

"This will be FoxNews.com's biggest day ever," says a spokesperson.

MSNBC claims 14 million streams, surpassing its prior record, set during the Virginia Tech school shooting, and clocked 107 million page views.

Yet despite the historic event's enormous domestic news site popularity, particularly boosting streaming video, early numbers suggest the inauguration might not be enough to topple global Internet news records.

News sites worldwide spiked at 5.4 million visitors per minute during Obama's swearing in, with North America accounting for 4.6 million of the users.

That ranks fifth on content-delivery network Akamai's measurement of online traffic events, behind Day 1 of U.S. college basketball playoff coverage in 2006 (ranked fourth), then again in 2008 (ranked third). The U.S. getting eliminated by Ghana in the 2006 World Cup ranks second.

And the news event that corresponded with the largest surge of online traffic? Obama winning the election in November -- so the president does claim the overall top spot, just not for today.

More inauguration numbers and TV ratings to come, with most observers convinced the event will set more than a few other records by the time all the figures are tallied. 

Biggest Online Traffic Peaks

1. Nov. 4,  2008 11:00 PM 8,572,042 -- Barack Obama is victorious in
 historic presidential election

2. June 22, 2006 12:00 PM 7,283,584 -- U.S. eliminated by Ghana in World Cup

3.  Mar. 20,  2008 2:30 PM 7,008,325 -- Day One of U.S. College Basketball 2008 Playoffs Coverage

4. Mar. 16,  2006 3:00 PM 5,489,918 -- Day One of U.S. College Basketball 2006 Playoffs Coverage

5. Mar. 15,  2007 2:30 PM 5,100,367 -- Day One of U.S. College Basketball 2007 Playoffs Coverage

6. June 16,  2008 4:30 PM 4,963,050 -- US Open Championship

7. Jan. 15,  2009  5:30 PM  4,962,523 -- U.S. Airways Flight 1549 lands safely in New York's Hudson River

8. Nov. 5,  2008 5:00 PM 4,885,406 -- Post Election Day 2008 coverage

9. Feb. 8,  2007 4:30 PM 4,885,065 -- News breaks on the death of Anna Nicole Smith

10. June 12,  2006 2:00 PM 4,733,201 -- U.S. plays Czech Republic in 1st Round of World Cup   

Comments

[How to Start a Business in California]

It was a historic day indeed with the inauguration of Barack Obama and now Obama will have to sit down and tackle the problems facing the United States of America. The economy, oil, jobs and two wars will all be Obama’s focal points during his historic first 90 days in office. The changing of the guard will hopefully equal an end to the crisis.

[Hungarian origin of President Barack Obama]

In this moment I would like to be American to have a President like you!