Embodiments of the present invention provide a traffic switching method and apparatus. The method includes: establishing a mapping relationship between a performance parameter of a network and a forwarding node switching sequence, where the performance parameter of the network includes link usage rate before switching and link usage rate after switching; when traffic switching needs to be performed, obtaining a current performance parameter of the network, and determining, according to the mapping relationship, a switching sequence corresponding to the current performance parameter; and delivering a switching instruction to forwarding nodes according to the switching sequence, so as to control the forwarding nodes to sequentially perform traffic switching. In this way, traffic switching can be systematically implemented, thereby effectively avoiding a link congestion phenomenon in a switching process, and ensuring network performance.