The invention concerns high-performance adsorbents based on activated carbon of high meso- and macroporosity which are present in the form of discrete grains of activated carbon, wherein: at least 55% of the total pore volume of the high-performance adsorbents are formed by pores (i.e. meso- and macropores) having pore diameters of more than 20 Å, the high-performance adsorbents have a measure of central tendency pore diameter of more than 25 Å, and the high-performance adsorbents have a BET surface area of at least 1250 m2/g. These high-performance adsorbents are obtainable by a novel process comprising specific two-stage activation, and have, in addition to the aforementioned properties, an excellent abrasion and bursting resistance, so that they are useful for a multiplicity of different applications.