Google and YouTube now control 25% of the world’s web traffic – report

Last year, internet users worldwide spent an average of six hours and 38 minutes per day browsing the web, nearly a third of their waking hours. Smartphones accounted for a massive 95% of total web traffic, while just two websites, YouTube and Google, claimed an astonishing one-fifth of all visits.

According to data from Techgaged.com, YouTube and Google controlled roughly 25% of global web traffic in 2024, cementing their status as the internet’s most dominant forces.

Google’s traffic outperforms all leading websites combined; YouTube surpasses other social media giants by 40%

Despite tough competition from TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, and ChatGPT, Google and YouTube remain the most visited websites in the world, proving they are still the biggest players in the digital space.

Their dominance is even more impressive when looking at how much time people spend on other platforms. In 2024, Android users averaged 310 monthly sessions on TikTok, spending nearly 32 hours watching videos, three hours more than on YouTube and twice as much as on Facebook or Instagram.

But despite social media’s popularity, YouTube remains the go-to place for video content, while Google remains the internet’s main search hub. The Digital 2025; Global Overview Report proves this.

In 2024, Google and YouTube generated around 25% of the global web traffic, meaning one in four website visits went to these two platforms. Google alone accounted for 18.73% of total web traffic, nearly three times more than the second-ranked YouTube and more than the other 14 top websites combined.

YouTube`s web traffic figures were also quite impressive. While TikTok and Instagram top in usage time, YouTube remained the online video powerhouse, generating 6.44% of total web traffic, or nearly 40% more than Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, X, Reddit, and WhatsApp combined.

Statistics show Facebook was the third most-visited website, accounting for 2.76% of total traffic, 2.5 times less than YouTube and 6.5 times less than Google. Instagram and WhatsApp complete the top five most-visited websites, accounting for 1.33% and 1.03% of total web traffic, respectively.

Social media falls behind while ChatGPT moves up

The rest of the list revealed some interesting trends among internet users. Despite facing an ongoing decline in users, traffic, and advertisers due to controversial platform changes, leadership decisions, and policy shifts, X (formerly Twitter) was still the sixth most visited website, accounting for 1% of total web traffic last year.

Wikipedia, which ranked seventh with a 0.89% share, faced growing competition from ChatGPT, which wasn’t far behind at 0.8%. This put the AI-powered platform ahead of major internet names like Reddit (0.79%), Yahoo (0.78%), and Amazon (0.61%).

Also, statistics show that the top 15 websites accounted for 37.5% of all web traffic among the top 10,000 sites, proving that a small number of platforms continue to dominate the internet.