Pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 drove a record-breaking spike in data traffic at the DE-CIX internet exchange in Frankfurt on Tuesday, November 12.
The upcoming video game requires players to download a massive 212 gigabytes of data before its scheduled release on November 19, 2026. Because physical discs will only contain installation codes rather than the game files, millions of users have initiated pre-loads simultaneously. The surge pushed data throughput at the Frankfurt exchange to a new peak.
“Am Dienstagabend um 20:20 Uhr haben wir am DE-CIX Frankfurt einen neuen Rekordwert von 22,30 Terabit pro Sekunde gemessen – ein plus von rund 19 Prozent im Vergleich zum Höchstwert bei Jahresbeginn,” said Thomas King at DE-CIX, according to hessenschau.de.
Telecommunications providers reported record demand on their transport networks during the initial pre-load window. Vodafone observed traffic increases reaching roughly 60 percent above normal daily baselines on Tuesday morning.
.jpg?width=1200&height=630&fit=crop&enable=upscale&auto=webp "Photo: Eurogamer.de")
Rival provider 1&1 said that traffic from online services tied to PlayStation and Xbox consoles jumped by a factor of 10 during peak night hours. Both companies confirmed that the heavy data flow began immediately after pre-loading opened on Monday, November 10. Sony reported that the title is the most pre-ordered game in PlayStation Store history, according to finanzen.net.
King explained that content providers and network operators maintained sufficient capacity reserves to handle the load.
The Deutsche Telekom advised customers to use a wired LAN connection or stable Wi-Fi, ensure adequate storage space, and utilize the pre-load period to avoid bottlenecks. With a 100 megabit-per-second connection, the 212-gigabyte file takes approximately four hours and 43 minutes to download.
