The nail-biting World Cup last-16 tie between Argentina and Egypt helped smash data traffic records across DE-CIX’s global Internet Exchanges, the provider revealed.

Having gone up 2-0 against the reigning champions courtesy of goals from Yasser Ibrahim and Mostafa Ziko, Egypt were knocked out of the tournament following an Argentina rally capped by an Enzo Fernandez strike in stoppage time.

Lionel Messi and co’s stunning rescue act is believed to have caused data traffic volume to spike across the globe, with DE-CIX witnessing a record 29.517 Tb/s of traffic across its global locations – the equivalent to approximately 16 million TikTok videos being streamed every second.

DE-CIX Frankfurt, for example, recorded a record of 19.636 Tb/s, with the world champion’s great escape reflecting a growing trend for the IX. According to the provider, DE-CIX Frankfurt has seen peak traffic almost doubled (89%) in the past five years. Content streaming, along with increased demand for cloud services and the meteoric rise of AI applications, is driving continuous traffic volume rises.

“The World Cup highlights a trend we’ve been observing for years. Global data traffic is growing continuously – not just on match days,” DE-CIX CEO Ivo Ivanov noted. “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.”

DE-CIX has been building up its global presence for some time to meet increased data demands. Most recently, the operator expanded its presence in the Nordics through a new internet exchange in Stockholm, Sweden.

The World Cup already had an impact on the vendor prior to the last 16 tie, with DE-CIX having upgraded connectivity capabilities between its sites in Mexico and Dallas before the tournament kicked off.

Alongside data traffic growth, the match drew headlines after Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan claimed refereeing was “unfair.” His side were denied a penalty mere moments before the counter attack that led to Fernandez's winner. VAR (video assistant referee) did not check the incident, with a furious Hassan claiming the officiating was “directed towards Argentina.”

Argentina will now face Switzerland in Kansas City on July 12.