Brent Nowak

Welcome to the Q2 2026 Network Stats report. While we’ve been tracking trends since December 2023, this is the third quarter since we operationalized the dataset and re-launched the series, allowing ourselves to make direct, quarter-over-quarter comparisons. Why? Because AI workloads were changing traffic patterns across Backblaze’s network, and reshaping the internet. With three quarters of historical data now available, we’re moving beyond measuring traffic volumes.

Welcome to our second quarterly Network Stats report covering Q1 of 2026. Along with Drive Stats and Performance Stats, Network Stats pulls back the curtain on real-world infrastructure data, particularly how network-level analytics reflect emerging AI industry trends and usage patterns. If you are curious about what metrics we’re recording and how we classify data in this series, check out the details outlined in our Q3 2025 Network Stats  and Q4 2025 Network Stats report.

Bandwidth purchased for data center connectivity surged by nearly 330% between 2020 and 2024, driven primarily by AI workloads. And in 2024, just 10 buyers accounted for nearly 62% of all purchases, according to Zayo’s Bandwidth Report. That concentration is a structural feature of how AI moves data. Every training run that pulls data from Backblaze storage to a neocloud passes through our network, and our telemetry captures what those flows look like in real time.