Sandvine, a broadband specialist company, has said through a press release that Xbox Live usage is up 80%. They took a sample of North American based ISP’s during the week of November 7th, when Microsoft released six new Xbox 360 games, including the highly anticipated Gears of War and Call of Duty 3. The company also said that it hasn’t seen anything like this since the release of Halo 2 on the original Xbox, which undeniably put Xbox Live where it is today. Dave Caputo, CEO of Sandvine, had this to say:

“The effect Gears of War and other games are having on networks indicates to service providers that online gaming is not just a craze.”

Shortly after its release, Gears of War beat Halo 2 for the to stop on Xbox Live, and has sold over 1 million copies in less than a month.

Read (Sandvine.com)