The 2024 Summer Olympics, or Paris 2024, is set from July 26 to August 11 in France. The opening ceremony, scheduled for Friday, July 26 at 17:30, will take place for the first time not in a stadium but in the open space of the Jardins du Trocadéro by the Seine River in Paris.
We’ll monitor relevant Internet insights throughout the event, but here we analyse some pre-event trends, from the popularity of Olympic websites by country to the increase in Olympics-related spam and malicious emails.
This year’s Olympics will host 329 events across 32 sports, featuring the debut of breakdancing as an Olympic event and the return of skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing from 2020. Similar to our 2024 elections coverage, we will maintain a Paris 2024 Olympics report on Cloudflare Radar, updating it as significant Internet trends related to the event emerge.
From our 1.1.1.1 resolver, DNS trends show heightened interest in the Olympics, especially from France. 24% of DNS requests for official Olympic-related websites came from the host country, followed by the United Kingdom and the United States, with 20% and 17% respectively.
Here’s the breakdown of countries responsible for at least 1% of 1.1.1.1. traffic for Olympic sites (percentages rounded):
- France: 24%
- United Kingdom: 20%
- United States: 17%
- Brazil: 5%
- Germany: 4%
- Russia: 3%
- Australia: 2%
- Japan: 2%
- India: 2%
- Spain: 1%
- Ireland: 1%
- Canada: 1%
- South Africa: 1%
- Netherlands: 1%
- Italy: 1%
Days with the highest “Olympic” spikes
Analysing the evolution of DNS traffic to official Olympic websites since January 2024, we’ve noted multiple spikes associated with specific Olympic events or ticket sales. The following ranking offers a global perspective via our 1.1.1.1 resolver, illustrating that as the event draws near and Paris readies itself, more recent dates are emerging prominently in the data.
Top 5 days with higher DNS traffic to Olympic official sites in 2024:
- January 31: Eve of the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics closing ceremony in Gangwon, South Korea.
- April 17: Over 250,000 new tickets for Olympic Games Paris 2024 went on sale – one of the last opportunities to get tickets to the main events.
- January 19: Opening ceremony of the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics (South Korea).
- June 26: One month before the opening ceremony; the Paris 2024 Main Operations Centre starts full games operation; in Paris, areas like the Champ-de-Mars became full occupied by the Olympics; in the US, tickets for NBC’s Opening Ceremony coverage for the Paris 2024 in IMAX theaters went on sale.
- July 1: Preparations in Paris with street and bridges closures and road signs added indicating fast track routes for Olympic related vehicles.
April 10 spikes in Germany, Russia and the US
On April 10, 2024, DNS traffic spikes were observed not just in France but also notably in Germany, Russia, and the US, among others. Despite France leading in overall DNS traffic to Olympic sites since January, as seen on the world map above, this particular day saw the largest spikes originating from other countries. These spikes were most prominent from Germany, Russia, the US, the UK, France, Brazil, and Australia, in that order.
What caused these spikes? Several press conferences related to the Olympics took place that day. One major announcement, covered globally, declared that for the first time, the Olympics would offer prize money, with track and field gold medallists receiving $50,000. The following chart illustrates the spike in DNS traffic in these countries on that day.
France’s trends: interest in tickets comes first
In France, the host nation, ticket sale days significantly influenced DNS traffic to official Olympic websites. The most obvious spike occurred on February 8, 2024, marking the start of the first phase of ticket sales for 2024, called the “Paris 2024 official ticketing website surprise releases.” On that day, daily DNS traffic was double that of the previous week. A significant surge was also observed at 10:00 local time, coinciding with the ticket release, which saw an hourly DNS traffic increase of 398% compared to the previous week.
The week of March 3, 2024, saw the highest DNS traffic to Olympic-related sites in France so far. The most significant increase occurred on March 4, the day the “Athletics Special” ticket sales began for events at the Stade de France, which also coincided with the unveiling of the Olympic poster. On this day, daily DNS traffic rose by 45% compared to the previous week. Other notable periods included the weeks of May 12 and May 19, when the Olympic torch arrived in France and started its journey through various cities. April 14 also marked a critical day, offering one of the last chances to purchase 250,000 tickets for major events.
“Olympics” and “Paris 2024” emails on the rise
From a cybersecurity perspective, as major events often attract phishing and spam, we’ve analysed email trends related to the Olympics—recently we did the same for the Biden vs Trump US presidential debate. From January 2024 up to late-July, Cloudflare’s Cloud Email Security service processed well over half a million emails containing “Olympics” or “Paris 2024” in the subject. The week of July 15 saw the highest number of such emails, marking a 694% increase compared to the busiest week in January.
Regarding unwanted messages, spam accounted for 1.5% of all emails with “Olympics” or “Paris 2024” in the subject, while malicious emails made up 0.2%. This means that in a sample of 1000 emails, roughly 15 would be spam and about 2 would be malicious. The week with the highest percentage of malicious Olympic-related emails was May 6, with 0.6% classified as malicious. Declining after that peak, it ticked back up in July, to 0.4% on July 8.
Furthermore, the week of June 24 witnessed the highest proportion of spam emails for the year so far, at 7% of all emails.
As the Olympics opening ceremony approaches, we expect the volume of related emails, and the proportion of malicious and spam emails, to increase. We’ll provide an update of the first days of the Olympics next week.
Conclusion: “Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter” *
As the world turns its eyes to Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics, our latest analysis provides a snapshot of the enthusiasm surrounding the games, with France, the host nation, clearly leading in terms of DNS traffic to official Olympic websites, followed by the UK, the US, and Australia.
With the games about to start, the best is yet to come, with the Olympics bringing over three hundred events in 32 sports to people all around the world.
As previously mentioned, we will maintain a Paris 2024 Olympics report on Cloudflare Radar, updating it as significant Internet trends related to the event emerge.
Let the games begin.
* “Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter” — Latin for “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together.” The first three words comprise the original motto that was proposed by Pierre de Coubertin, a French historian and the “father” of the modern Olympic Games, upon the creation of the International Olympic Committee in 1894. It was updated in 2021 to include “Communiter”, highlighting the power of sports to bring people together.
Image Credit: Cloudflare
