How many websites are there on the internet

Updated: March 28,2022

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The creation of the internet dates back to the ‘60s when a bunch of scientists were tasked with connecting a couple of computers into a network. However, the internet’s true “big bang” took place in the ‘90s, when the World Wide Web Consortium arrived on the scene.

1. It seems like the oldest websites rarely change. Indeed, the oldest website in the world is itcorp.com, which dates back to 1986 and, believebu it or not, hasn’t changed at all since then.

2. Both the first and second website ever were owned by CERN. The first one was named The World Wide Web project and the second was called World Wide Web Virtual Library

3. If you’ve ever wondered how many websites are there in the world? you should know that the number of webpages on the internet is continually increasing. According to Internet Live Stats, the total number of websites in the world is now more than 1.7 billion.

(Internet Live Stats)

4. Of those 1.7 billion websites, there are only 400 million websites active, meaning the other 1.3 billion are inactive.

5. The number of websites by year increased nearly every year until 2009. From 2018 to 2019, web site numbers increased by roughly 100 million.

(Internet Live Stats)

6. The best way to identify the most popular websites in the world is by checking Alexa. According to Alexa, Google is the most visited website in the US. The other most visited websites in the US are YouTube, Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo, Reddit, Wikipedia, and Ebay.

7. The US hosts 43% of all the websites in the world. Germany comes in second with China in third.

8. As of Q1 2019, there was a total of 351 million domain registrations on the internet.

10. You might have asked yourself: How many websites exist thanks to WordPress? The answer is a staggering 35% of all websites on the internet.

11. Google’s site numbers show that 40% of users will leave a site that takes longer than three seconds to load.

(Think With Google)

12. Only 1% of websites available are seen on search engines, while the other 99% of websites are on the deep web.

13. Just 0.1% of sites on the internet account for over 50% of web traffic.

14. For every website, users need just 0.05 seconds to form an opinion

15. If you’d asked yourself “How many websites are there?” in 1995, the answer would have been just 23,500.

Frequently Asked Questions

The ideas of connected wired networks date back to Nikola Tesla, but it wasn’t until the 1960s that American computer scientist Joseph Licklider came up with the concept of the intergalactic network and created ARPAnet. Through ARPANET, multiple computers were connected, and in 1969 the first communication between computers occurred. Over the years as technology advanced, the Internet Protocol (IP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) were developed. ARPANET adopted that technology and started assembling the network that became the internet we know today. It was not until 1991 when Tim Berners-Lee invented the first website for CERN. The total number of sites in 1992 was just 10.

There are around 2,000 total dating sites in North America and 8,000 globally. The first dating site – Match.com – was founded in 1995 and is still regarded as the most popular dating site in the world. On the other hand, the most popular mobile dating app is Tinder.There are around 2,000 total dating sites in North America and 8,000 globally. The first dating site – Match.com – was founded in 1995 and is still regarded as the most popular dating site in the world. On the other hand, the most popular mobile dating app is Tinder.

The internet is made of various sites, and only 1% of them appear on search engines, recent website statistics reveal. The rest of 99% of sites belong are hidden on the deep web and don’t appear in search engines.

An active website is a site that allows business transactions to occur or information exchanged with customers. For example, an active site can take orders and purchases from users. The last active website count shows that there are around 400 million active sites. However, bear in mind that sites come and go by the second and not all are shown on search engines.

WordPress is one of the world’s original content management systems, based on the PHP and MySQL programming languages. Recent sites statistics reveal WordPress powers approximately 35% of all websites on the net. Or to put that in hard figures, there are 595 million sites that have content management systems powered by WordPress.

Amazon has 14 different sites for the US, UK, Spain, Netherlands, Mexico, Japan, Italy, India, Germany, France, China, Canada, Brazil, and Australia. Not every site has access to all Amazon products. The Dutch site, for example, only sells Kindle products; for other items, Dutch residents have to order through German Amazon. Additionally, not all products can be delivered to all countries, which is why every product page displays the eligibility of product delivery.

Well, there are hundreds, but only 20 are significant on a global scale. We’re talking about Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, WeChat, Instagram, QQ, Tumblr, Qzone, TikTok, Sina Weibo, Twitter, Reddit, Baidu Tieba, LinkedIn, Viber, Snapchat, Pinterest, Line, Telegram, and Medium. There are some local social sites, but they’re not big enough to make our list of all social websites.

At the time of writing this article, there are precisely 1,745,137,692 live websites online. The number of websites until 2009 was increasing, but since then, it has fluctuated. By comparison, in 2000, there were only 17 million websites online, but by 2010 there were more than 206 million. In 2015 the number increased to 863 million, and by 2019 the total number of websites in the world had doubled to 1.7 billion, including the number of blogs. Note that, with the appearance of various free website builders that have enabled easy website creation, the number is expected to soar even higher.

How Many Websites Are There in 2021?

How Many Websites Are There?

Last Updated: 05/28/21

It’s estimated that over 1.7 billion websites exist, but this number fluctuates daily, as websites are launched or lost. Despite the ebb and flow, the Web is massive and 4.5 billion people across the world contribute with online interactions.

576,000 New Websites Per Day

Just over 30 years since it was born, the World Wide Web has completely transformed our lives. With a few clicks of your mouse or a simple voice command, you can have essentials delivered straight to your door or connect with a friend all the way across the globe.

Have you wondered what makes up the complex infrastructure of the Internet or interconnected World Wide Web? What sites dominate our online searches? And, just how vast is the network that we use and rely on daily for information?

To attempt to answer these insurmountable questions, we’ve compiled everything to know about what makes up the Internet and Web and why this information matters for you and users around the world as these systems grow.

How Big is the Internet?

Facts About the Internet

Number of Active Websites

Types of Websites

Most Visited Websites

Future of the Internet

How Big is the Internet?

Even for complex data analysts, it’s difficult to get an accurate picture or truly understand how big the Internet and World Wide Web is.

Beyond the ever-changing “surface” web is the unquantifiable dark web or invisible web. The dark web is estimated to be a thousands times larger than the surface web, and each is growing by the day. Just think: in the minutes it takes you to read this, hundreds to thousands of new sites may be born.

We use the Internet in real-time now more than ever, whether it’s with streaming content or video calls. Meaning, the networks we use have become more aware of how to operate, deliver, and prioritize information than ever before.

Will we ever reach full capacity? While the answer is impossible to predict, there are ways to attempt to quantify how big the Internet is with the questions below.

How Much Data
is on The Internet?

To estimate the size of the Internet, we can evaluate how much data there is in the world. Cisco’s Visual Networking Index states that the annual global IP traffic will reach 4,800 zettabytes (ZB) per year by the year 2022.

TechTerms defines a zettabyte as “10 21 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes.” On a grander scale, one zettabyte is “approximately equal to a thousand exabytes, a billion terabytes, or a trillion gigabytes.”

If you compare how many terabytes are in a zettabyte, you can get a picture of just how large a zettabyte is and in turn, the size of the Internet. A Cisco analyst calculated that “if each terabyte in a zettabyte were a kilometer, it would be equivalent to 1,300 round trips to the moon and back.”

How Many Web Pages Exist?

According to statistical research by WorldWideWebSize, the web contains over 6 billion indexed web pages as of 2020. This accounts for all pages, whether active or inactive.

Web page vs. website

A web page is any single page on the Internet that can include a range of content from video to text, while a website is a collection of web pages under one domain.

Let’s consider an example. Nike is one of your favorite brands to shop online, but the women’s running shoes product page is the page you frequent the most. The Nike site as a whole is the website, while women’s running shoes is one of the web pages that makes it up.

How Many People Use the Internet?

InternetLiveStats estimates that over 4 billion people search the web every day. That’s over half of the global population. This estimation in itself is telling of how massive the Internet is, since from your computer at home, you can browse and peruse sites endlessly.

How Long
Would it Take to
Download The Web?

According to Physics.org, it’s estimated to take “three million years to download all the information currently on the internet, assuming a download speed of 44 megabits per second.”

Facts About the Internet

How much do you really know about what powers our digital world? The Internet and Web have truly revolutionized how we connect with each other. Let’s take it back to the beginning and define some of the most important milestones and terms to know.

World Wide Web vs. Internet

While the Web and Internet are intricately connected and many people use the terms interchangeably, they are actually two different things.

Think of the Internet as a network consisting of infrastructure and technologies that you use to connect whether it’s at your office, home, or a coffee shop.

The World Wide Web (or Web) is the system that enables the exchange of information over the Internet through HTTP, essentially what powers the technology.

When Was the Internet Created?

The Internet was created in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, who’s now considered the inventor or “Father” of the Internet. He now leads the W3C which is the organization that oversees the development of the World Wide Web.

How Was the Internet Created?

Berners-Lee developed hypertext, the method of instant cross-referencing that supports communications on the Web, making it easy to link content on one web page to content located elsewhere. The introduction of hypertext revolutionized the way people used the internet. With that, he introduced the first browser and editor, as well as HTTP/HTML protocols.

What Was the First Website?

The very first website was info.cern.ch and went live in 1991 to provide information on the World Wide Web Project led by Berners-Lee.

Did you know the first website is still live today? You can check it out here:
https://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

How Many Websites are Created Everyday?

While there is no final or concrete answer, Mill For Business estimates that if “every 24 hours we get 547,200 increase in the total number of websites worldwide,” there are “over 380 websites are created every minute”.

Total number of Websites

There are over 1.5 billion websites on the world wide web today. Of these, less than 200 million are active. The milestone of 1 billion websites was first reached in September of 2014, as confirmed by NetCraft in its October 2014 Web Server Survey and first estimated and announced by Internet Live Stats (see the tweet from the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee). The number had subsequently declined, reverting back to a level below 1 billion (due to the monthly fluctuations in the count of inactive websites) before reaching again and stabilizing above the 1 billion mark starting in March of 2016. During 2016, the total number of sites has grown significantly, from 900 million in January 2016 to 1.7 billion in December 2016. From 2016 to 2018, the level has hold pretty much unchanged. From 1 website in 1991 to 1 billion in 2014, the chart and table below show the total number of websites by year throughout history:

By «Website» we mean unique hostname (a name which can be resolved, using a name server, into an IP Address).
It must be noted that around 75% of websites today are not active, but parked domains or similar. [1]

Periodic drops in the total count can depend on various factors, including an improvement in NetCraft’s handling of wildcard hostnames. For example, in August 2012, over 40 million hostnames on only 242 IP addresses were removed from the Survey.

How Many Websites Are There? – The Growth of The Web (1990–2022)

The Internet is this magnificent place offering valuable information and useful services.

Did you ever wonder how many websites there are online? Do you think it’s measured in hundreds of thousands or tens of millions? Neither of these options is even close.

While this is an interesting topic, there’s a lot of contradictory information available online. That’s why we decided to once and for all stop the speculation and put our own team of investigators on a quest to find the answer to the common question people ask:

How many websites are there?

As of Mar 21, 2022, there are currently over 1.93 billion websites online.

Through our extensive research, we’ve also discovered some interesting facts related to the number of websites and internet stats in general.

Scroll down to see the growth chart of how many sites from 1990 to 2021, what the most popular CMS is, what the most popular eCommerce solution is, and what the most popular websites and blogs are.

The 1st website and the 1st domain name [History]

The World Wide Web as we know it is rooted in many technologies, which makes it really hard to pick the very first website. However, we have to start somewhere, and what better place to start than with Tim Berners-Lee and his team of coworkers at CERN.

They are responsible for creating the HyperText Transfer Protocol in 1989, a protocol that enabled servers and clients to communicate.

This same team also released the first text-based browser, as well as created and launched the first website, which was a one-pager.

This web page was the first online guide about creating web pages, and as you might’ve guessed, it was text-only. Nowadays, modern technology (such as website builders) lets people create their own blog or website without any technical knowledge.

What really paved the way for good-looking websites was the web browser Mosaic. Marc Andreessen and his colleagues at the University of Illinois created and released Mosaic in 1993. It was the first web browser that allowed users to use “point-and-click” graphical manipulations.

Andreessen also co-founded Netscape Communications Corporation, the company behind Netscape Navigator, the most popular web browser of the 90s.

Domain name registration wasn’t available until 1985. However, previous to that, some companies created and used domain names for intranet. The first one was Nordu.net, created on January 1, 1985. It was the domain of Scandinavian research collaboration.

The first registered domain title goes to Symbolics.com, a domain belonging to a computer systems company in Cambridge, Mass. It was registered on March 15, 1985, followed by Bbn.com, registered on April 24, 1985.

Number of websites and their growth from 1991 to 2022

Let’s examine how many websites are on the web in 2022.

According to Internet Live Stats, there are currently over 1.93 billion websites online. Compared to what would be the beginning of the World Wide Web in 1992, when there were only approximately 15.000 websites online, this is quite an increase.

The trend of website numbers increasing continues year after year. By 2014, there were 1 billion websites online. It took only five years to almost double that number.

However, not all of the 1.93 billion websites currently online are active. It’s estimated that less than 200 million of that number are actually active.

How many domain names are there?

We all know that domain names are deeply connected to websites, but most people don’t know how domains work and what a domain name actually is. In most cases, people think they are the same as web hosting providers.

The domain is the address each website has and is located in the URL of the browser. Domain names are the IP of a website, but these names are converted into logical names instead of numbers.

The third quarter of 2021 reported 364.6 million top-level domains. This number has been growing ever since the domain name system was introduced in 1985, and the trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

Here’s how top-level domains are ranked based on the number of domain names they currently have:

The number of TLDs increased by over 4 million compared to 2019, which means that the total number of domain names has increased by around 1.1%. That’s just another statistic showing that many people buying new domains and the number of websites is still growing.

How many websites use CMS?

Not all websites are created in the same way. Some are coded and designed from scratch, but many use a CMS. CMS stands for Content Management System, a specifically designed platform that facilitates website creation and publishing.

There are over 10 CMSs available, which makes this market quite competitive. You probably know some of the names, such as WordPress, Joomla, and Wix.

Let’s see how many websites use a CMS and which CMSs are the most popular.

According to BuiltWith, there are currently 74 million websites that use a CMS, and the most popular CMS by far is WordPress.

Here are the top 5 CMSs:

WordPress – is the favorite CMS option overall. There are currently over 30 million websites using WordPress, which accounts for 44% of all websites that use a CMS.

Wix – Wix falls in second place. Over 7 million websites currently use Wix, which is 7% of all websites that use a CMS.

Progress Sitefinity – is becoming more and more popular every day. It currently powers over 3.5 million websites or 5% of the CMS market.

Squarespace – In fourth place, we have Squarespace, currently powering 2.9 million websites (here are examples) or 4% of the CMS market.

Plesk– Finally, with a 2.6% market share, we have Plesk. There are currently 2.3 million websites using Plesk.

How many websites on the web use eCommerce solutions?

eCommerce is a very lucrative industry, with one of the largest market sizes in the world. According to Statista, the eCommerce revenue forecast tells us that it will grow to 3.1 billion US dollars in 2024. It’s only natural to see many eCommerce websites online, given the number of opportunities in the industry.

The same rule that applies to making regular websites applies to eCommerce sites. You can build one from scratch with one of the available eCommerce solutions. There are many of these solutions available that let you start an online business.

Let’s dive into the statistics to discover how many websites use eCommerce solutions and which are the most popular ones.

According to the BuiltWith eCommerce usage distribution report, there are currently 25.7 million websites using eCommerce solutions, and WooCommerce Checkout is the solution with the largest market share.

The market share breakdown tells us that users value easy-to-use and automatic solutions over the more complex ones.

Ecwid – Finally, we have Ecwid, currently powering over 907,00 websites. Around 3.5% of the market share belongs to this eCommerce solution catering to the needs of small business merchants.

20 most visited websites on the web

On the world wide web, there are superstars, just like in any industry. Whether it’s the functionality, ease of use, look and feel, or some other factor, some websites are always going to have more visitors than others.

Are you wondering which are the superstars among websites? For quite some time now, the US has been setting the global trend in this landscape, at least when it comes to the top sites that are generating traffic. According to the Semrush traffic analytics report, these are the 20 most visited websites on the web.

Google.com — 15.63 billion visits per month

In the world of search engines, Google is the absolute champion. It’s by far the most popular search engine for both desktop and mobile users, who primarily use it to search the internet and find relevant content. Currently, the website generates a whopping 15.63 billion visits per month.

Around 8.76 billion visitors come from mobile platforms, while desktop users amount to 6.87 billion visits. On average, Google.com visitors view 6.9 pages per visit and spend approximately 24 minutes on the website. Google.com has a bounce rate of 30.18%.

YouTube.com — 4.11 billion visits per month

YouTube is not only the most popular platform for sharing videos but also one of the most visited websites on the web. It has come a long way from being a mediocre video-sharing platform founded in 2005 to one of the most visited websites online. YouTube.com now generates 4.11 billion visits.

Unlike Google.com, YouTube.com is more popular among desktop users, which is quite logical since the website has a dedicated mobile app for both Android and iOS. Desktop users amount to 79.97% of the traffic or 3.19 billion visits per month, while mobile users amount to 20.03% of the traffic or 798.39 million visits. On average, visitors view 3.2 pages per visit and spend 30 minutes on the website. The bounce rate is 52.02%.

Facebook.com — 3.36 billion visits per month

The social media platform craze is a real one. Almost everyone has at least one profile on one of the popular social media websites. The most popular, however, is Facebook, a platform that enables people to connect with each other, share images, videos, and other content. Facebook.com generates 3.36 billion visits per month, and it’s in third place on the top websites by traffic list.

The traffic share between mobile and desktop users is almost evenly distributed, with the advantage for mobile users. Desktop users amount to 1.51 billion visits or 40.17% of overall traffic, while mobile users amount to 2.25 billion visits or 59.83% of traffic share. On average, visitors view 5.6 pages and spend 23 minutes on the website. The bounce rate is 35.37%.

Amazon.com — 2.69 billion visits per month

Amazon started as a small office project and slowly grew into the world’s largest eCommerce website. Over the years, Amazon expanded and successfully tapped into other markets such as video streaming, cloud-based services, and eBooks. It’s in fourth place, generating 2.69 billion visits per month.

The platform is equally popular among desktop users and those who prefer their mobile devices. The desktop traffic share is 56.75% or 2.01 billion visits, while the mobile traffic share is 43.25% or 1.53 billion visits. Amazon visitors view 7.5 pages on average and spend 13 minutes on the website. The bounce rate is 33.3%.

Yahoo.com — 1.50 billion visits per month

Yahoo.com is a veteran in the world of internet service providers. It’s most famous for online search engines and email services. People around the world still use Yahoo to look for information online, read the news, send emails, and more. It’s in the sixth position of top websites by traffic. Currently, it generates 1.50 billion visits per month.

Yahoo.com is definitely more popular among mobile users. The mobile traffic share is 65.42% or 1.16 billion visits, while the desktop traffic share is 34.58% or 610.67 million visits. Yahoo.com visitors view 3.7 pages on average and spend 16 minutes on the website. The bounce rate is 43.52%.

Wikipedia.org — 1.46 billion visits per month

People enjoy reading facts about all kinds of things. Wikipedia manages to deliver them in the most digestible manner. It offers a comprehensive and searchable database offering information about almost anything. On top of that, anyone can contribute and create Wikipedia pages, which makes it even more accessible. Wikipedia.org generates 1.46 billion visits per month.

The mobile and desktop traffic shares are only a few percentiles away from being equal. The desktop traffic share is 50.85%, or 1.49 billion visits, while the mobile traffic share is 49.15% or 1.44 billion visits. The average Wikipedia.org visitor views 2.2 pages and spends 8 minutes on the website. The bounce rate is 66%.

Reddit.com — 1.35 billion visits per month

Online communities have always been popular. Reddit has emerged as the most popular network for communities. It enables people to join numerous communities which are sorted by interest. It also has a dedicated mobile app. Reddit.com currently generates 1.22 billion visits per month.

The desktop traffic share is 66.27% or 810.59 million visits. The mobile traffic share is 33.73% or 412.66 million visits. On average, Reddit.com visitors view 4.6 pages and spend 18 minutes on the website. The bounce rate is 47.07%.

Pornhub.com — 1.02 billion visits per month

The adult entertainment industry market is popular worldwide, and it attracts various demographics. It doesn’t come as a surprise to see online adult entertainment platforms on this list. Pornhub.com is the most popular online platform in this niche and is among the top 10 most visited websites, generating 1.02 billion visits per month.

The mobile traffic share is 84.47%. The desktop traffic share is 15.33% or 200.38 million visits. Pornhub.com visitors view 8.9 web pages and spend 15 minutes on the website on average. The bounce rate is 21.68%.

Twitter.com — 914 million visits per month

Twitter.com is a social media website. It caters to the specific needs of social media users and attracts people who like to express their opinions and participate in public conversations. The platform also enables users to share images and videos, as well as to advertise products and services. It currently generates 914.46 million visits per month.

Twitter’s desktop traffic share is 36.5% or 333,74 million visits, while its mobile traffic share is 63.5% or 580.72 million visits. Twitter users view 3.5 pages and spend 13 minutes on the website per visit on average. The bounce rate is 49.11.

eBay.com — 895 million visits per month

eBay is a famous name in the online shopping industry. Unlike other popular sites in the niche, it enables visitors to directly trade their products to other visitors. It also comes with an auction feature, which makes its operations even more interesting. Ebay.com is in the 10th position on our list, and it generates 885 million visits per month.

The desktop and mobile traffic share are pretty close, 44.11% and 55.89%, respectively. When translated into numbers, desktop traffic amounts to 394.81 million visits and mobile traffic to 500.24 million visits. On average, eBay visitors view 7.2 pages and spend 13 minutes on the website, while the bounce rate is 31.44%.

Instagram.com — 871 million visits per month

Instagram is a social networking service with an emphasis on images and videos. Our civilization definitely has a sweet tooth for social media, given that it’s the third such platform on our list. Instagram.com generates 871.39 million visits per month.

The desktop and mobile traffic share are 53.68% and 46.32%, respectively. In numbers, it looks like this: 467.75 million visits originating from desktop platforms and 403.64 million visits coming from mobile ones. Instagram.com users visit 3.3 pages and spend 16 minutes on the website on average. The bounce rate is 58.09%.

Xvideos.com — 756 million visits per month

Xvideos is another player in the adult entertainment industry market. It’s an adult entertainment online platform with hundreds of thousands of adult videos and images. Currently, Xvideos.com generates 755.95 million unique visits per month.

The desktop traffic share is 14.68% or 111 million visits, while the mobile market share is 85.32% or 644.95 million visits. On average, Xvideos.com visitors view 9.2 web pages and spend 19 minutes on the website. The bounce rate is 24.96%.

CNN.com — 676 million visits per month

Cable News Network or CNN is an American news-based television channel with its own website that is quite popular in the US and worldwide. The site features various categories, ranging from World and US politics to business, health, entertainment, and style. CNN.com generates 676.64 million visits per month.

The desktop traffic share is 27.37% or 185.19 million visits, and the mobile traffic share is 72.63%, or 491.44 million visits. The average CNN.com visitor views 2.4 web pages and spends 13 minutes on the website. The bounce rate is 52.06%.

Walmart.com — 618 million visits per month

Walmart is a famous brand of North American department stores, and their website is an online shop for Walmart stores. It streamlines shopping for customers, offering great pickup discounts and a low bar on free shipping costs. Walmart.com generates 618.14 million visits per month, which is quite a success given that the company operates in a very specific niche.

The desktop traffic share is 30.57% or 188.95 million visits, while the mobile traffic share is 69.43%, or 429.19 million visits. On average, Walmart.com visitors view 4 pages and spend 9 minutes on the website. The bounce rate is 46.75%.

Fandom.com — 604 million visits per month

People love being entertained, and Fandom.com does it perfectly. The website features fun and interesting pages about popular and niche TV shows, movies, and games, all conveniently categorized into searchable wikis. Fandom.com generates 604.29 million visits per month.

The desktop and mobile traffic share are almost equal, amounting to 49.56% and 50.44% traffic respectively. In numbers, that amounts to 299.47 million visits and 304.82 million visits. The average number of page views is 3, and the average time spent on the website is 11 minutes. The bounce rate is 56.17%.

Craiglist.org — 560 million visits per month

There are thousands of online ad platforms, but there’s only one Craigslist.org. It’s a go-to place for millions of people around the world for classified advertisements. Craiglist.org generates 560.19 million visits per month.

Craiglist’s mobile traffic share is significantly higher than for the desktop version – it’s currently 80.01% or 448.2 million visits. The desktop traffic share is 19.99% or 111.99 million visits. An average Craiglist.org visitor views 9.5 pages and spends 11 minutes on the website, and the bounce rate is 21.88%.

ESPN.com — 554 million visits per month

ESPN.com caters to the needs of sports fans. The web portal features the latest sports news coverage. Visitors can check scores updated in real-time and read the commentary for all popular sports. ESPN.com generates 554.55 million visits per month.

There are more mobile visitors than desktop ones to ESPN.com. The mobile traffic share is 73.9% or 406.79 million visits, while the desktop traffic share is 26.1% or 144.76 million visits. On average, visitors view 3.5 pages and spend 23 minutes on ESPN.com. The bounce rate is 44.4%.

Xnxx.com — 490 million visits per month

Xnxx is the third online adult entertainment platform on our list. It’s quite obvious that the market for adult videos is huge and very active. The website features adult videos, stories, pictures, and forums, generating 489.95 million visits per month.

Mobile site visitors amount to 90.88% mobile traffic share or 445.26 million visits, while the desktop traffic share is only 9.12% or 44.69 million visits. On average, visitors view 9.7 pages and spend 19 minutes on Xnxx.com. The bounce rate is 23.77%.

Weather.com — 471 million visits per month

Weather forecasts are obviously very important, which is why we have a weather forecast website among the top 20 websites with the most traffic. It delivers both national and weather forecasts for cities around the world, along with weather radar and hurricane coverage. Weather.com generates 471.21 million visits per month.

The mobile traffic share is 80.39% or 378.8 million visits, and the desktop traffic share is 19.61% or 92.41 million visits. The average Weather.com visitor views 2.6 pages and spends 4 minutes on the website. The bounce rate is 37.08%.

Imdb.com — 437 million visits per month

Movie, TV, and celebrity content has a fairly large audience. Imdb.com delivers the latest information about popular movies and TV shows. Many people hit the site to check the ratings and reviews before they decide to watch a movie themselves. Imdb.com generates 436.9 million visits per month.

Interestingly, the Imdb.com desktop and mobile traffic share are well-balanced. The desktop traffic share is 45.05% or 196.78 million visits, while the mobile traffic share is 54.95% or 290.02 million visits. An average visitor views 4.2 pages and spends 6 minutes on the website. The bounce rate is 44.48%.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this has quenched your thirst for interesting facts about the internet and websites. As you can see, the Internet is a very interesting space that currently hosts almost 2 billion websites, among which only about 200 million are active.

The most popular websites can be grouped into several categories: search engines, social media platforms, online adult entertainment, eCommerce, news, sports, and weather. However, the websites in the top 20 will change as the needs and preferences of the audience change.

Tek Eye

The Internet is BIG! Very big. However it is dominated by just a few hundred organisations and their websites. So how big is the Internet? How many websites are there? According to the Netcraft January 2019 Web Server Survey there are 1,518,207,412 (over 1.5 billion) websites. Yes, the Internet is very big. However, most of those websites get almost no visitors.

(This post first appeared in January 2014 and has been updated yearly.)

How Many Websites Are Active?

The size of the Internet can be measured in various ways, including totals such as: How many websites are there? How many domains are registered? How many websites are being used? What are the most popular web sites? How much storage is required to hold all the web data? How much data is transmitted? Etc., etc. The trouble is the Internet is so big that these totals and numbers change all the time. For this brief look at the size of the Internet the total number of websites is examined. In other words you can type a unique domain name into your browser’s address bar and you will get a response.

The January 2019 Netcraft Survey shows a significant fall compared to last years number:

A Yearly Table of the Number of Websites in the World

When this article was first written in 2014 it used the Netcraft January 2014 Web Server Survey. Then there were 861,379,152 websites. During 2014 the total number of websites exceeded 1 billion for the first time (in September). The number of web sites peaked at 1,028,932,208 in October 2014 before falling back below 900 million. Had the world enough web sites at that time? Especially as mobile phone apps have become so popular as a way of accessing Internet services.

Despite the number of websites staying below a billion for a while, the peak had not been reached. It was not until March 2016 that the billion website mark was broken again, at 1,003,887,790 sites. This time not falling back. Indeed 2016 saw big growths in websites with Microsoft being the big winner. Their web server platforms and Azure cloud offering had seemed to hit all the right notes. However, as with all things in computing nothing lasts for ever, and the NGINX web server began gaining popularity.

Website numbers kept growing before peaking at 1,838,596,056 sites in February 2018. Since then website numbers have fallen, down to October 2016 levels.

What is the Total Number of Domains in the World?

Those of you that don’t understand the workings of the Internet may not realise that the 1.5 billion plus website number is just over three times larger than the number of registered domains. Why?

According to the Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief the total number of registered domain names in Q1 2019 was 351.4 million. So more than 351 million domains support over 1.5 billion websites. But not all registered domains get used. Some are just registered so that no one else can register them. Some are registered and never used.

When this post was first written in January 2014 the ZMap project, a high speed open source network scanner, had scanned the entire Internet and estimated the total number of hosts at 108 million. Then it was likely that the then 861 million websites were active on 108 million hosts. This is because a domain can be divided into sub-domains. For example a blogging website, such as Blogger, WordPress or Ghost, will let a user create a website that hangs of the main domain name, e.g. https://blog.wordpress.com/.

The January 2019 Netcraft Survey reports 8.2 million (8,209,715) web facing computers. So 8.2 million computers serve up 1.5 billion web sites. Most of these sites are static and hardly change. Netcraft estimates that there are 182 million active sites (those that get regular changes). The number of active sites has increased from 172 million in 2018. Despite the huge number of websites less than 10% contribute fresh information to the Internet. That is a lot of underutilized resources and thus wasted money.

A Few Hundred Sites Dominate the Internet

Despite there being over 1.5 billion websites only a few hundred dominate the Internet. Less than 1 million, or 0.1%, account for over 50% of web traffic. To get an idea on how much such a small percentage of the total websites dominate look at The Internet Map.

The website Alexa lists the world’s top websites.

Summary for How Many Websites Are There

As of January 2019:

With 1.5 billion websites, if you publish a website it is very unlikely it will get noticed. Unless you are prepared to produce quality content, perform Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and spend on marketing. Or you may get lucky, and be the next big thing, as all the top sites were once.

Archived Comments

Kween KleoKatra on February 18, 2015 at 4:21 pm said: Help! This post is dated January 2014, however there is 2015 data included. How?

Tek Eye on February 20, 2015 at 9:33 am said: The post was first published in January 2014, and was then updated this January (2015).

Shaheryar Sam on July 8, 2015 at 12:42 pm said: Its really helpful news thank you.

Jesmina Sultana on October 3, 2016 at 8:33 am said: Nice website.

Shania Williamson on March 9, 2017 at 12:41 am said: You are acuter with your answer.

Thomas on April 23, 2017 at 4:26 pm said: The internet is too flooded with websites and many people are sick of it, bottom line with the gigagiants taking over the little guy has no chance.

Tek Eye on April 23, 2017 at 11:19 pm said: The gigagiants won along time ago. But the world is big enough for niche websites. Find your passion and produce good content, keep producing content to fill the niche. Meet the needs of a target audience and promote it on social media. If you get to 50,000+ page views per month you are in the top 0.1% of world websites. 99.9% of websites get almost no traffic. Even the gigagiants started out with no traffic, but they found an idea that worked.

See Also

Author: Daniel S. Fowler Published: 2014-01-07 Updated: 2019-08-14

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