Kate who? Royal wedding? What? Internet?! No! Huh?
GigaOM has an interesting post up on whether or not Prince William and Kate Middleton’s nuptials might actually — God forbid — break the Internet. British Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt guessed that over 2 billion sets of eyes across the globe will tune in, which isn’t as wild as it initially sounds, especially when you consider speculation around Princess Diana’s funeral put viewership figures at as many as 2.5 billion.
For perspective, this year’s record setting Superbowl had a humble 111 million viewers.
But to echo TIME’s resident TV critic: “Why the hell should we care?”
According to a CNET report, the biggest Internet viewing spectacle in history was Obama’s election night victory, with a modest 8.6 million visitors flocking to news sites per minute. Obama’s inauguration speech — all 7.7 million streams — also managed to noticeably slow the web.
But enough with the numbers. The point’s that, come this Friday, April 29, expect loads of people on the Internet at the same time, watching the same thing. That could cause bottlenecks along the East Coast when you factor in the time differences.
If, however, the Internet doesn’t break (fingers crossed) and you’re into commoners becoming princesses and all that jazz, our parent site has a boatload of quality coverage, while our sister vertical NewsFeed has a few whackier tidbits for those who can’t get enough.
More on TIME.com:
The Royal Wedding Will be on YouTube