Image: Starlink
SpaceX’s Starlink is no longer just a promising satellite internet experiment — it’s a full-blown growth engine. According to new data from Cloudflare, global web traffic flowing through Starlink more than doubled in 2025, underscoring just how quickly the service is scaling worldwide.
As reported by Business Insider, Cloudflare’s data shows that Starlink traffic surged throughout the year as the service expanded into dozens of new markets. Cloudflare, which handles tens of millions of requests between users and websites every second, observed immediate spikes in internet traffic whenever Starlink became available in new regions. In some cases, the growth was dramatic, with traffic jumping nearly 300% in countries like Botswana after launch.
That growth aligns with Starlink’s rapidly expanding footprint. The service now has over eight million active users across more than 150 countries and territories, up from just four million in September 2024. Starlink is powered by a massive constellation of more than 9,000 low-Earth orbit satellites, a number that’s expected to cross 10,000 by early 2026.
The expanding constellation is doing more than just adding coverage. In 2025 alone, Starlink increased median peak-hour speeds across its network by more than 50%, a significant improvement that has helped drive adoption in both urban and remote areas. Airlines are also buying in, with over 20 carriers adopting or announcing plans to use Starlink to offer high-speed Wi-Fi on board.
Starlink’s momentum is increasingly central to SpaceX’s business. Elon Musk recently confirmed that Starlink is now the company’s single largest revenue source, eclipsing even its launch business. That revenue growth is a major reason SpaceX is reportedly preparing to go public as early as next year, in what could be one of the largest IPOs in history.
Looking ahead, SpaceX’s ambitions are only getting bigger. The company plans to begin launching next-generation Starlink V3 satellites in late 2026. These satellites are significantly larger than current models and are expected to expand network capacity exponentially. Musk has also floated even bolder ideas, including putting AI data centers in orbit as Starlink and Starship mature.
With web traffic doubling, millions of new users coming online, capacity upgrades already underway, and even a satellite-to-cellular service in the works, there’s little sign that Starlink’s growth is slowing down. As competitors like Amazon’s Leo and China’s Spacesail struggle to catch up, SpaceX’s satellite internet network is quickly becoming one of the most important pillars of the company’s future.
