Millions of viewers tune in to watch the FIFA World Cup final, the Super Bowl, and the Olympic Games. These are not just sporting events — they are moments of global connection, culture, and celebration. For broadcasters and content distributors, these high-profile events not only represent an opportunity to shine, but also pose a monumental challenge.
The stakes are high: Every second of buffering, every problem when logging in, and even a single outage could lead to social media backlash, subscriber dissatisfaction, and even long-term damage to brand reputation.
This is the world in which Akamai operates — a high-pressure environment where the margin for error is razor thin, and the expectations for flawless streaming are non-negotiable. In 2026, the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl took place on the same weekend and viewers expected a seamless experience when cheering on their favorite team or athlete.
What’s at stake if performance or availability falters?
Viewers demand uninterrupted, high-quality streaming, regardless of where they are or which device they are using. A single glitch could lead to a cascade of consequences, including:
- Frustrated viewers who abandon streams
- Negative publicity that floods social media
- Loss of trust in the content provider’s reliability
For Akamai’s customers, their ability to deliver seamless streaming during these limited yet critical events directly impacts revenue, customer loyalty, and their competitive edge in the market.
The three pillars of great events
With Akamai, events are built on three pillars:
- Global scale and resilience
- Proactive monitoring
- Human expertise
Global scale and resilience
Akamai’s platform leverages a massively distributed global network of 4,400 locations across more than 130 countries and 1,200+ networks to handle the scale and complexity of live events. This scale enables Akamai to absorb traffic spikes, minimize latency, and protect against threats, enabling millions of viewers to have an uninterrupted experience during major events.
Proactive monitoring
Using real-time analytics and synthetic monitoring tools, Akamai helps ensure that every aspect of the streaming experience is optimized. These tools simulate viewer experiences across various regions, detecting suboptimal routing or performance bottlenecks before they impact the audience.
Human expertise
Our managed event services integrate human oversight beyond automation. During critical events, dedicated event engineers actively monitor streams, analyze metrics, and intervene at the earliest signs of degradation to enable rapid problem resolution, so viewers remain blissfully unaware of any potential disruptions.
Akamai has deep experience in managing complex digital events end to end. With expertise across security, compute, and content delivery, Akamai helps protect data and applications, optimize performance through real-time insights, and deliver high-quality content at global scale. Our platform, technology, and expert teams work together to support reliable, secure digital experiences across the entire business ecosystem.
Streaming achievements
Akamai supports some of the most-watched events in the world, including the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup, the English Premier League, the Indian Premier League, and the Super Bowl. We’ve achieved:
- Reliable streaming: Millions of viewers tuned in to high-quality streaming with minimal buffering and disruptions.
- Customer satisfaction: Our proactive and responsive event support earned the trust of leading content distributors.
- Scalability: Akamai’s platform seamlessly handled spikes in traffic, enabling consistent performance during peak demand.
During rare periods when multiple global, high-profile events such as the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics occur at or the same (or nearly the same) time, Akamai operates at massive scale to manage shifting traffic surges; address evolving security threats, including AI chatbots and API vulnerabilities; and coordinate seamlessly across platform and event teams. This helps protect performance, reliability, and our customers’ brand reputation during moments that matter most.
The future of media delivery is still Akamai
The future of media delivery is evolving, and Akamai is at the forefront of this transformation. These moments reveal that peak demand is no longer an exception; it’s the operating environment.
As we look to the future, Akamai remains committed to helping ensure that every viewer, no matter where they are, enjoys seamless, high-quality streaming experiences during the moments that matter most. We thank our customers for trusting Akamai with major events like the Super Bowl.
Learn more
Contact us or reach out to your account teams if you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you with your next event.
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