Record changing from a scientific definition? Yep.

But, when the relatively non-technical populous hears 'record changing' a completely different set of emotions are triggered in their brains. Its just like any other overly grandios marketing headline, designed to excite those whom aren't familiar with the topic.

well, what I got from the article was that the person was saying "We aren't the whole internet, this is larger than what we normally see, but not by a huge margin." - which is to say, it's possible that other providers have seen larger DDoS attacks.

It does. But consider all the other times this record must have been broken -- wasn't a big news story. Incremental increases in the bytes/second record just aren't, by themselves, that interesting.

That's from GTT/NLayer's perspective, which is just one of many Tier 2 network providers. Tier 1 networks are more likely to see the largest attacks.