IPv6 usage reaches historic 50% across Google services, matching IPv4 — increased usage eases pressure on the IPv4 address market as 'new' protocol designed in 1998 finally hits its stride

Google says IPv6 briefly reached 50% of global user connections across its services on March 28, matching IPv4 for the first time in its tracking.

Other measurement groups, including APNIC and Cloudflare, also reported strong IPv6 growth.

The shift is being driven by IPv4 exhaustion, rising IPv4 costs, and broader support from cloud providers and engineers.

Wider IPv6 adoption should ease pressure on the IPv4 market and improve the internet’s long-term scalability.