AWS CloudFront Sets Traffic Record - 268 Tbps During Global Game Release

Amazon CloudFront, AWS's content delivery network (CDN), has set a new traffic record, reaching 268 terabits per second (Tbps) on November 1, 2025. The peak occurred during a large-scale global game update release and marks one of the most significant events in the history of internet content delivery.

To put this into perspective, this level of bandwidth is enough to stream live sports in HD to approximately 45 million viewers simultaneously. This milestone highlights the scalability and reliability of AWS infrastructure for gaming, media, and streaming industries.

Large-scale content delivery as the new standard

With Amazon CloudFront, delivering large game updates and streaming content has become a routine operation. What once required extensive planning and complex infrastructure coordination now happens seamlessly for end users.

CloudFront enables companies to deliver content to millions of users simultaneously worldwide, allowing them to focus on product development and content creation rather than delivery infrastructure.

"CloudFront enables us to reliably deliver Fortnite updates to our global player base," said Shane Smith, VP Technology Services at Epic Games.
"The infrastructure handles the complexity of distributing large updates to millions of players at once, allowing our teams to focus on game development."

Global content delivery infrastructure

Today, Amazon CloudFront operates one of the largest CDN networks in the world.

The infrastructure includes:

• 750+ edge locations (Points of Presence)
• 440+ cities globally

Edge nodes are positioned at the boundary of AWS and the Internet, enabling content delivery with millisecond latency.

Thanks to continuous innovation, the latest generation of edge locations delivers up to three times higher performance compared to previous versions. This allows CloudFront to seamlessly support millions of users simultaneously during game downloads and live streaming events.

Bringing content closer: Embedded PoPs

To further reduce latency, AWS deploys embedded Points of Presence - CloudFront nodes located directly within internet service provider networks.

Currently, CloudFront has deployed:

• 1140+ embedded PoPs
• 100+ internet service providers
• 20+ countries

This architecture is particularly effective for:

• live streaming
• game downloads
• popular video-on-demand content

By placing infrastructure closer to end users, CloudFront reduces data travel distance and improves performance, especially in regions far from major data centers.

Security and stability at peak scale

CloudFront is designed to distinguish between legitimate traffic spikes and malicious attacks.

The service includes built-in protection mechanisms such as AWS Shield Standard, which provides baseline DDoS protection at no additional cost. Advanced security options include:

• AWS Shield Advanced
• AWS WAF
• AWS WAF Bot Control

CloudFront's intelligent traffic management also effectively handles flash crowds - sudden spikes in traffic during major releases or live events.

Infrastructure for the world's largest online events

Today, CloudFront powers some of the world's largest digital events - from Super Bowl and Thursday Night Football streams to major game launches and global streaming platforms.

The record of 268 Tbps demonstrates AWS's ability to support internet-scale workloads and deliver content reliably to millions of users simultaneously.