Skip to main content

Mobile March Madness: Website Performance Matters More Than Team Performance

Peter Galvin

The majority (58 percent) of March Madness viewers said poor mobile or online performance while streaming or following games is worse than seeing their favorite team perform poorly, according to the March Madness performance survey conducted online by Harris Poll, commissioned by SOASTA.

Millennial (18-34-year-old) females who follow the tournament are most worried about performance issues (85 percent) compared to 71 percent of millennial male viewers. The female millennial demographic was more likely than any other age group to express concerns about how performance would impact their viewing experience, with 85 percent expressing concerns compared to the average of 54 percent concerned overall. Among those who follow the tournament, key differences between millennials’ concerns and those of their elder counterparts include:

■ 52 percent of millennials cite slow loading times as a concern, compared with 31 percent among age 35+

■ 36 percent of millennials cite apps or websites crashing as a concern, compared with 16 percent of those age 35+

■ 31 percent of millennials cite unresponsiveness as a concern, compared with 18 percent of those age 35+

Top concerns across overall include:

■ Slow loading times – 37 percent

■ Lag-time and time delays – 28 percent

■ Crashing – 22 percent

■ Unresponsiveness – 22 percent

■ Does not respond to taps, swipes or zooms – 13 percent

A poorly performing app or website when tracking the games was worse than watching their favorite team play badly for 58 percent of those who follow the tournament. Examples of situations when apps or websites do not work that are worse than a poorly performing team include:

■ When they need to get live updates about the tournament – 27 percent

■ When they are trying to watch a live stream of a game – 26 percent

■ When they need to find game time – 23 percent

■ When they need to get information about a team or player – 19 percent

■ When they need to multitask and keep track of the tournament while at work – 16 percent

■ When they need to place a bet – 10 percent

■ When they need to gloat about a team’s success – 9 percent

Those ages 18-44 are more likely than those aged 45+ to follow the game while multi-tasking at work, 25 percent vs. seven percent, respectively.

Of those following March Madness, 65 percent consider online or mobile activity to be critical for following March Madness – including 86 percent of 18-34-year-olds. Activities considered to be critical for following the games include:

■ Keeping an eye on March Madness brackets – 36 percent

■ Watching live streams of games – 26 percent

■ Tracking game and player statistics – 25 percent

■ Ordering food – 11 percent

■ Checking work email – 11 percent

■ Connecting with fans and participating in social media – 10 percent

“As audiences increasingly turn to online and mobile platforms to participate in March Madness, they demand uncompromising performance,” said Tom Lounibos, CEO of SOASTA. “Our study shows that millennial viewers are the most demanding demographic when it comes to quality mobile and online user experiences. With so much competition for the billions in economic value at stake during the tournament – and especially the final four – companies must prioritize app and digital performance more than ever before.”

Survey Methodology: This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of SOASTA from March 25-27, 2015 among 2,011 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

Peter Galvin is SVP of Marketing at SOASTA.

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

Mobile March Madness: Website Performance Matters More Than Team Performance

Peter Galvin

The majority (58 percent) of March Madness viewers said poor mobile or online performance while streaming or following games is worse than seeing their favorite team perform poorly, according to the March Madness performance survey conducted online by Harris Poll, commissioned by SOASTA.

Millennial (18-34-year-old) females who follow the tournament are most worried about performance issues (85 percent) compared to 71 percent of millennial male viewers. The female millennial demographic was more likely than any other age group to express concerns about how performance would impact their viewing experience, with 85 percent expressing concerns compared to the average of 54 percent concerned overall. Among those who follow the tournament, key differences between millennials’ concerns and those of their elder counterparts include:

■ 52 percent of millennials cite slow loading times as a concern, compared with 31 percent among age 35+

■ 36 percent of millennials cite apps or websites crashing as a concern, compared with 16 percent of those age 35+

■ 31 percent of millennials cite unresponsiveness as a concern, compared with 18 percent of those age 35+

Top concerns across overall include:

■ Slow loading times – 37 percent

■ Lag-time and time delays – 28 percent

■ Crashing – 22 percent

■ Unresponsiveness – 22 percent

■ Does not respond to taps, swipes or zooms – 13 percent

A poorly performing app or website when tracking the games was worse than watching their favorite team play badly for 58 percent of those who follow the tournament. Examples of situations when apps or websites do not work that are worse than a poorly performing team include:

■ When they need to get live updates about the tournament – 27 percent

■ When they are trying to watch a live stream of a game – 26 percent

■ When they need to find game time – 23 percent

■ When they need to get information about a team or player – 19 percent

■ When they need to multitask and keep track of the tournament while at work – 16 percent

■ When they need to place a bet – 10 percent

■ When they need to gloat about a team’s success – 9 percent

Those ages 18-44 are more likely than those aged 45+ to follow the game while multi-tasking at work, 25 percent vs. seven percent, respectively.

Of those following March Madness, 65 percent consider online or mobile activity to be critical for following March Madness – including 86 percent of 18-34-year-olds. Activities considered to be critical for following the games include:

■ Keeping an eye on March Madness brackets – 36 percent

■ Watching live streams of games – 26 percent

■ Tracking game and player statistics – 25 percent

■ Ordering food – 11 percent

■ Checking work email – 11 percent

■ Connecting with fans and participating in social media – 10 percent

“As audiences increasingly turn to online and mobile platforms to participate in March Madness, they demand uncompromising performance,” said Tom Lounibos, CEO of SOASTA. “Our study shows that millennial viewers are the most demanding demographic when it comes to quality mobile and online user experiences. With so much competition for the billions in economic value at stake during the tournament – and especially the final four – companies must prioritize app and digital performance more than ever before.”

Survey Methodology: This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of SOASTA from March 25-27, 2015 among 2,011 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

Peter Galvin is SVP of Marketing at SOASTA.

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...