Cloudflare’s 2025 internet review: Why the web is faster, more automated, and under Attack

Cloudflare’s sixth annual Year in Review offers a clear snapshot of how the Internet evolved through 2025, and the picture is far from static. Drawing on telemetry from its global network and Cloudflare Radar, the report shows an Internet that is growing rapidly, becoming more automated, and facing increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, while simultaneously preparing for a post-quantum future.

Global Internet traffic rose by 19% year-on-year, underscoring how deeply digital platforms are embedded in both personal and enterprise workflows. However, this growth came with heightened risk. Cloudflare recorded more than 25 record-breaking distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks during the year, signalling a shift in the scale and persistence of cyber conflict.

Automation at Scale: Bots and AI Redefine Internet Traffic

One of the most defining trends of 2025 was the continued rise of automated traffic. AI-driven bots accounted for a growing share of overall Internet activity, with Google’s web crawling bot generating the highest volume of automated requests, far surpassing other AI bots.

At the application layer, concentration remained strong. Google and Meta once again emerged as the world’s most accessed Internet services, marking their fourth consecutive year at the top. In the generative AI category, ChatGPT retained its leadership position, reflecting sustained user reliance on conversational AI tools across industries.

Cyber Threats Shift Focus to Civil Society and Non-Profits

A notable change in the 2025 threat landscape was the profile of attack targets. For the first time, civil society and non-profit organisations became the most targeted sector globally. Cloudflare attributes this shift to the sensitive, high-value data these organisations hold, often combined with comparatively limited security resources.

The escalation of DDoS activity reinforces this trend. The scale of attacks observed during the year pushed existing assumptions about Internet resilience, with adversaries increasingly leveraging automation to overwhelm networks faster and more frequently than before.

Matthew Prince, CEO and co-founder of Cloudflare, observed that the Internet is undergoing a fundamental structural change, driven by advances in AI, evolving threat actors, and changing economic models for online content. The frequency and magnitude of attacks in 2025, he noted, have effectively reset expectations around what “normal” Internet operations look like.

Outages, Infrastructure Stress, and the Role of Governments

The report also sheds light on the causes behind major Internet disruptions. Government actions accounted for nearly half of all significant outages worldwide, making them the single largest contributor to connectivity disruptions in 2025.

While outages caused by cable cuts declined by almost 50%, disruptions linked to power failures doubled, highlighting growing stress on physical infrastructure as demand for always-on connectivity rises. These trends point to a more complex risk environment, where policy decisions and infrastructure resilience are as critical as cybersecurity controls.

Post-Quantum Encryption Moves into the Mainstream

One of the most significant milestones of the year was the rapid adoption of post-quantum encryption. According to Cloudflare, 52% of all human Internet traffic is now protected using post-quantum cryptographic methods.

This marks a decisive step towards future-proofing Internet communications against the eventual impact of quantum computing on existing encryption standards. What was once considered experimental has now crossed into mainstream deployment, particularly for organisations handling sensitive or regulated data.

Connectivity Performance: Europe Sets the Pace

On performance metrics, European countries led global rankings for Internet speed and quality. Average download speeds across the region exceeded 200 Mbps, with Spain ranking highest overall in connectivity performance.

These results reflect sustained investment in broadband infrastructure and highlight widening disparities in user experience across regions, especially as high-bandwidth applications and AI-driven services become more prevalent.

How Cloudflare Built the 2025 Internet View

The findings in the Year in Review are based on anonymised data from Cloudflare’s global infrastructure, which spans more than 330 cities across over 120 countries. Additional insights were derived from Cloudflare Radar and the company’s 1.1.1.1 public DNS resolver.

Cloudflare positions the annual report as a reference point for policymakers, enterprises, and Internet stakeholders seeking to understand how traffic patterns, security risks, and governance challenges are evolving at Internet scale.

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