The internet landscape continues to evolve, yet familiar trends endure, according to Cloudflare’s 2024 annual review. The global content delivery and web security leader highlighted a 17.2% rise in internet traffic over the past year, alongside a strong showing for Google, which retained its position as the most visited online service. However, the United States once again emerged as the top source of global bot traffic, accounting for 34.6% of the total.
Despite this growth, IPv6 traffic has surprisingly declined. Cloudflare reported that 28.5% of global traffic used IPv6 in 2024, down from 33.75% last year. Mobile traffic, meanwhile, remained consistent at 41.3% of the total, split largely between Android and iOS ecosystems.
Bots—both helpful and harmful—dominated significant internet activity. Cloudflare’s data shows that Amazon Web Services alone generated 12.7% of global bot traffic, with Google contributing 7.8%. AI-driven bots, such as TikTok’s Bytespider and Anthropic’s ClaudeBot, saw notable activity fluctuations, reflecting the growing role of AI crawlers in digital ecosystems.
Interestingly, 13% of Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 traffic now employs post-quantum encryption, indicating that some organizations are preparing for quantum computing threats. Moreover, Cloudflare’s security systems mitigated 6.5% of total internet traffic, a slight increase from last year.
Geographically, Spain led the world in download and upload speeds, boasting 292.6 Mbps and 192.6 Mbps, respectively. In contrast, Albania saw one of the highest rates of mitigated traffic, with 42.9% of its internet activity flagged for security threats.
On the browser front, Google Chrome continued its dominance, capturing 65.8% of all requests. For search engines, Google maintained an overwhelming lead, driving over 88% of search traffic.
Cloudflare’s annual report paints a picture of steady growth and enduring challenges in the digital realm, underscoring the need for robust security measures and scalable technologies as the internet continues to expand globally.
