DE_CIX: Argentina vs Egypt breaks DE-CIX global traffic record
July 8, 2026



While millions of football fans worldwide watched the FIFA World Cup Round of 16 match between Argentina and Egypt on July 7th, data traffic across DE-CIX’s global Internet Exchanges reached a new all-time high. Aat 8:05 p.m. CEST (6:05 p.m. UTC), a new record of 29.517 terabits per second (Tbit/s) was measured – the highest figure ever recorded across all global DE-CIX locations.

A data traffic volume of 29.517 Tbit/s is equivalent to approximately 16 million TikTok videos being streamed every second, or a stack of printed paper about 23 times as high as Mount Everest.


At the same time, DE-CIX Frankfurt, Europe’s largest Internet Exchange, also set a new record of 19.636 Tbit/s. This new peak reflects a long-term trend: Over the past five years, peak traffic at DE-CIX Frankfurt has nearly doubled (+89 per cent). This trend is driven in particular by streaming, cloud services, AI applications, and the steadily growing global exchange of data.

Egypt were winning the game 2-0 with just 11 minutes to go, but Argentina hit three quickfire goals to win the game 3-2 in regular time.

“The World Cup highlights a trend we’ve been observing for years. Global data traffic is growing continuously – not just on match days. Streaming, cloud services, and AI applications are driving this trend over the long term and making high-performance interconnection an indispensable foundation of the digital economy,” commented Ivo Ivanov, CEO of DE-CIX.

The simultaneous record figures in Frankfurt and across the global DE-CIX interconnection ecosystem underscore just how rapidly demands on digital infrastructure are rising worldwide. Direct data exchange between network operators, cloud providers, content platforms, and companies ensures that data is transmitted as efficiently as possible. This reduces latency, increases reliability, and ensures that digital services remain stable and accessible even during periods of exceptionally high data traffic.

DE-CIX currently operates more than 60 Internet and Cloud Exchanges in Europe, North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The global interconnection ecosystem connects more than 4,600 networks and enables the direct exchange of data between Internet service providers, cloud providers, content platforms, and enterprises. With a connected customer capacity of over 240 terabits, DE-CIX ranks among the world’s leading operators of digital infrastructure.