Blog post
Blog Post
From refresh to results: the metrics that shaped Election Day 2024 coverage
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Dubbed 'the most important election ever,' it was expected that online traffic would skyrocket across traditional broadcasters, online streaming platforms, and digital publishers on November 5, 2024. As the initial results rolled in, Internet traffic surged nationwide by up to 15%, both at national and state levels. Surprisingly, though, this surge in traffic didn’t happen where you might expect—not on TV. Traditionally, election night sees the masses glued to live broadcasts, but this year was different. On November 6th, Nielsen reported a dramatic 25% drop in TV viewership compared to the 2020 election night.
So, where did everyone go?
Digital publishing took center stage on election day 2024
Digital publishing dominated election day 2024, with cloud platforms like Fastly experiencing a significant surge in traffic. This chart from Digiday shows how digital news sites gained more audience compared to the 2020 election, with Yahoo and CNN taking the lion's share of visitors.
Digital publishing has a distinct edge over broadcasting when it comes to instant news delivery, and this advantage was particularly noticeable over election day, when audiences craved immediate results. Essentially, we were all just constantly refreshing those news websites.
In this context, web performance metrics become crucial because they directly impact user experience and engagement on news websites. So, what exactly happened online during the election? How did these news websites handle the pressure of millions of people all wanting the latest updates at the same time?
Catchpoint benchmarked the performance of prominent news websites during the US Elections between November 5th and 6th, 2024. The study drilled down into crucial performance metrics like Time to First Byte(TTFB), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), and Document Complete time—terms that might sound technical, but actually tell you a lot about how those sites performed under pressure. Here's how they performed.
The Guardian: Setting the bar for TTFB
Their TTFB was an impressive 195 milliseconds—practically instant. This shows they were well-prepared for a traffic surge, with solid server infrastructure.
Bloomberg Businessweek: A struggle with SSL
Not everyone fared as well. Bloomberg struggled with SSL negotiation and server response times, with some wait times exceeding 800 milliseconds just for the initial server response. The real-life impact of that is a frustrating experience for users, maybe even missing out on important election updates.
BBC: DNS delays hurt performance
BBC's DNS lookup times were also an issue. DNS lookup is what translates a website's name to an IP address, and if this takes too long, it adds delays. BBC’s website had the slowest DNS lookup time, with a geometric mean of 193ms.
Ideally, DNS lookup time should be under 100 milliseconds, with anything below 50 milliseconds being preferred. Every millisecond mattered on election night, and this hurt the BBC's performance.
CNN: Page load time troubles
CNN's performance was inconsistent. Their base HTML file size almost doubled at one point from 635,068 bytes to 1,359,388 bytes, causing load times to triple. This increase in load time has a direct impact on base response time, leading to a noticeable slowdown in page load performance.
CNN’s spike in load times is a reminder of how seemingly small things can turn into big performance problems, especially with the amount of traffic seen on election night. What good is a fast-loading page if the thing you actually want is buried under a bunch of slow-loading stuff? Do we care if the ads are loading instantly but we can't even see the election results? The report also highlights how CNN's document complete time fluctuated significantly during the elections.
CBS News: Fastest LCP on election night
CBS had the fastest LCP of the night. LCP measures how long it takes for the main content of a page to load. High LCP metrics suggest that users will perceive the website to be loading slowly. With an LCP value of 637 milliseconds, CBS got important election updates to users almost instantly.
Bloomberg: LCP lagging behind
Bloomberg’s LCP lagged at 3.8 seconds, significantly exceeding the recommended threshold of 2.5 seconds. This prolonged delay in loading primary content can negatively impact user experience and reduce engagement. On election night, such delays were potentially significant.
Business Insider: Winning the document complete race
Business Insider won the race for document complete time with a blazing fast 810 milliseconds. Their success was likely due to server optimization, efficient caching, and CDNs that ensured faster content delivery. This meant their pages were fully loaded and ready to go almost instantly.
Behind the election night drama: the critical role of web performance
The benchmark results are more than just technical data—they’re the pulse of web performance on election night, a night filled with tension, anticipation, and constant demand for up-to-the-minute information. Each metric—DNS Lookup Time, TTFB, LCP, and Document Complete Time—directly impacted whether users were able to keep up with the drama as it unfolded. A delay in DNS resolution meant users were stuck waiting before even seeing the headlines. A sluggish TTFB meant blank screens during crucial updates. Poor LCP scores led to delays, making it impossible to get information when it mattered most.
When these metrics aren’t optimized, they create friction at every point in the user journey. Individually, they can hurt customer satisfaction, but together, they can wreak havoc on conversion rates, loyalty, and brand perception.
The shift from traditional broadcasting to online platforms only highlights the necessity of peak performance—those who prioritized optimization kept users informed and retained their loyalty during one of the most pivotal nights in modern history.
In this evolving digital landscape, where multiple outlets are vying for user attention, web performance isn’t just a technical detail—it’s a critical element of strategy, one that directly impacts user engagement, satisfaction, and the ability to stay ahead of the competition.
Learn more
Check out our other deep-dive website performance benchmark reports covering industries like banking, airline, hotel, travel, GenAI, and athletic footwear and apparel.
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