Internet records topple at breakneck speed: DE-CIX Frankfurt breaks the 21-terabit mark, while global traffic exceeds 32 terabits per second for the first time

Just 25 days after the last records were set, peak traffic values have increased by around seven percent. The new records were set in parallel with UEFA Champions League matches.

The Internet is setting new data traffic records, and at ever shorter intervals: Just 25 days after the previous milestones, traffic at DE-CIX Internet Exchanges has once again reached historic highs. On Tuesday evening, 21.47 terabits per second (Tbit/s) were transmitted via DE-CIX Frankfurt for the first time. At the same time, traffic across DE-CIX’s global Internet Exchanges reached a new peak of 32.10 Tbit/s. Both records were measured at 21:20 Central European Summer Time, just 20 minutes after kick-off in numerous UEFA Champions League matches. Internet traffic has been growing steadily for years, however the pace of this development has now accelerated: On September 18, DE-CIX Frankfurt had exceeded the 20-terabit mark for the first time, reaching 20.02 Tbit/s, while global traffic surpassed the 30 Tbit/s threshold. In less than four weeks, measured peak traffic increased by around seven percent both in Frankfurt and worldwide. These new records underline the growing importance of high-performance digital infrastructure in an increasingly connected world.

“Just three and a half weeks ago, we crossed the 20-terabit-per-second mark in Frankfurt for the first time. Now we are already at almost 21.5 terabits, and worldwide at more than 32 terabits. This momentum is remarkable and demonstrates the scale that digital traffic has now reached,” said Ivo Ivanov, CEO of DE-CIX. “Live sports make this development particularly visible when millions of people access digital content simultaneously. Behind this lies a long-term trend: streaming, cloud services, gaming, and increasingly artificial intelligence are fundamentally changing the requirements placed on our networks. High-performance, direct, and resilient connections are becoming ever more important for the digital economy.”

Football livestreams coincide with new internet records

The new record values coincided with numerous UEFA Champions League matches. As football fans followed the games via streaming platforms, data exchange at DE-CIX Frankfurt and across DE-CIX locations worldwide reached new highs. Major live events significantly increase demand for simultaneous access to digital content and, with it, the load on the underlying network infrastructure.

The new Frankfurt peak of 21.47 Tbit/s corresponds to around 12 million TikTok videos being streamed simultaneously. If the amount of data transmitted in a single second were printed on paper, the resulting stack would be approximately 17 times higher than Mount Everest.

High-performance interconnection as the foundation of the digital future

DE-CIX Frankfurt is one of the largest Internet Exchanges in the world and serves as a central data hub for Europe. Through direct data exchange between network operators, cloud providers, content platforms, and enterprises, data reaches its destination via the shortest possible routes. This reduces latency, increases resilience, and helps ensure that digital services remain available even during periods of exceptionally high demand.

Since the beginning of 2020, peak traffic at DE-CIX Frankfurt has increased by more than 160 percent. Today, DE-CIX operates more than 60 Internet, Cloud, and AI Exchanges across Europe, North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Its global interconnection ecosystem connects more than 4,600 networks from over 100 countries. In 2025, nearly 48 exabytes of data were exchanged at DE-CIX Frankfurt, where almost 1,100 networks are connected.