my $content = decode('UTF-8', 'tralala ' x 1E6);

my @a;
$#a = 10_000_000; # presize array
for (1..5)
{
    print "ITER $_\n";
    push @a, split m{(\p{Z}|\p{IsSpace}|\p{P})}ms, $content;
    procinfo();
}

##</code><code>##

ITER 1
Vsize: 248.18 MiB ( 260235264)
RSS  : 62362 pages
ITER 2
Vsize: 317.14 MiB ( 332550144)
RSS  : 80000 pages
ITER 3
Vsize: 393.71 MiB ( 412839936)
RSS  : 99598 pages
ITER 4
Vsize: 579.46 MiB ( 607612928)
RSS  : 147156 pages
ITER 5
Vsize: 625.23 MiB ( 655597568)
RSS  : 158895 pages