Akamai said that earlier this month it set a new record for peak data traveling across its global content delivery network.
The company said that on Dec. 11, the volume of data passed 72 Tbps, surpassing the 70 Tbps threshold for the first time in the company's 20-year history.
The volume, which Akamai equated to delivering more than 10 million DVDs per hour, was largely attributed to streaming of live sports events, gaming releases and major software updates along with elevated traffic levels from many of the e-commerce sites around the globe.
"The scale, reach and intelligence of our network is the reason Akamai was able to help our media customers deliver this summer's FIFA 2018 World Cup Russia—the largest sporting event we've supported. It's why more than 10 million people were able to simultaneously stream the Indian Premier League championship cricket match, and it's how earlier this year Akamai successfully absorbed the single-biggest recorded DDoS attack in history,” said Akamai CEO and co-founder Tom Leighton, Ph.D., in a statement.
RELATED: Akamai sets another traffic record with Fortnite
Akamai has seen big traffic spikes this year driven by megapopular video games like “Fortnite” and huge events like the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
In July, the company said that within 10 days of the soccer tournament, total traffic surpassed all 64 matches of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The July 3 Colombia-England second-round match delivered video traffic peaks reaching 18.59 terabits per second.
“This is the highest video traffic peak for any single sporting competition that Akamai has helped deliver. During the 2014 tournament, our highest peak was 6.9 terabits per second during the Netherlands-Argentina semi-final, which set record at the time for the highest peak traffic rate of any live sports event that Akamai had delivered,” Akamai said in a statement.
That same month, Akamai said “Fortnite” was setting records for a single video game by recording peak traffic levels of more than 37 Tbps across all platforms.