One challenge that Ethereum is contending with in the wake of the Merge is that with growing interest in the network and growing desire to participate in it, there are now 840,000 validators. While this is beneficial to the core principle of decentralization, the sheer number of machines and their wide-ranging geographic dispersion inevitably leads to strain on the network, resulting in increased latency and longer waits to reach consensus.
Source: https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/09/28/ethereum-staking-surges-to-74m-eth-and-counting/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=rss&utm_campaign=headlines