13 Essential Website Statistics You Need to Know in 2025

Over 1.5 billion websites exist on the internet today. Yet only a small percentage of them are active or regularly maintained. With the rise of no-code builders, decentralized domains, and AI-powered web creation tools, the way we build and experience websites is changing fast.

At the same time, 25.8% of users rely on websites for product and brand discovery. In a landscape where visibility drives growth, it’s more important than ever to create a site that captures attention. Whether you’re running a startup or scaling a global brand, understanding the digital landscape is key to staying competitive.

In this article, we’ll reveal how many websites are active in 2025, explore the most popular CMS platforms and domain types, highlight mobile vs. desktop traffic patterns, and unpack the emerging trends shaping the next era of the web.

Editor’s Choice

• There are over 1.5 billion websites online globally as of 2025, showing the massive scale of today’s internet, covering everything from personal blogs to global businesses.
• While billions of websites exist, only about 17% (260 million) are actively maintained and updated. Most sites online are inactive, outdated, or simply parked. 
• Roughly 177,000 to 252,000 new websites are created every day, adding to nonstop internet growth. Thus, the web becomes a constantly evolving and competitive space.
• Around 368.4 million domain names are registered worldwide, led by .com and growing niche domains like .ai, showing traditional branding and emerging tech trends shaping the web’s future.
• E-commerce and blogging sites make up the largest share, with over 28 million active e-commerce stores and 600 million blogs contributing to daily web activity.

The Scale of the Web: How Many Websites Exist Today?

Over 1.5 billion websites are currently online, but not all of them are active. Around 17% are regularly maintained, while the rest are outdated, abandoned, or parked.

In 2024 alone, around 4.4 million new domain names were registered globally. This marked a 1.2% year-over-year increase, bringing the total number of registered domains to 364.3 million by the end of the year. That’s roughly 12 new domain registrations every minute.

This steady growth, combined with a high turnover of inactive sites, makes it hard to track exact numbers. On average, about three new websites go live every second, reflecting the nonstop expansion of the web.

So what defines an active website in 2025, and what trends shape how they’re built? Let’s take a closer look.

Total Number of Websites and Growth Rate

Every day, approximately 177,000 to 252,000 new websites are created worldwide, reflecting the continuous growth of the internet. However, the distinction between active and inactive websites is both significant and easy to observe.

Active websites are regularly updated and maintained, ensuring that content remains relevant and functionality stays intact. In contrast, inactive websites often consist of outdated content, abandoned projects, or parked domains with no meaningful activity.

While inactive sites contribute to the total count, it’s the active websites that offer a more accurate picture of how the internet is being used. 

Here are some updated insights into the active website landscape in 2025:

1. Only 17.3% of websites are actively maintained in 2025.

(Forbes)

While the internet now hosts over 1.5 billion websites, this percentage means just around 260 million are considered active, regularly updated, and functional. The remaining over 1.2 billion sites are inactive, outdated, or simply parked. 

This gap between total and active websites highlights how much of the internet is cluttered with unused or abandoned domains.

2. In 2025, there are approximately 368.4 million domain name registrations globally.

(Verisign)

This data marks an increase of about 6.1 million domains year over year (1.7%), and a 4.2 million increase (1.1%) from the previous quarter. Here’s a breakdown by domain type:

• .com and .net domains together accounted for 169.8 million registrations, with 10.1 million new domains added during Q1 2025 alone.
• Country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) reached 142.9 million registrations, growing by 3.4 million (2.4%) compared to the same time last year.

If the current trend continues, global domain registrations for the year are projected to exceed 40 million new domains. That breaks down to:

• Around 3.2 million new domains per month
• About 1,100 new registrations per hour
• Approximately 0.3 new domains are registered every second
  

These figures highlight the steady and competitive growth of the domain ecosystem, driven by business expansion, personal branding, and emerging technologies like decentralized domains.

Website Categories and Use Cases

Websites serve a wide variety of purposes, from selling products to sharing personal stories or hosting media content. In 2025, certain categories clearly dominate the digital landscape, both in volume and user engagement.

3. There are approximately 28 to 30.7 million e-commerce websites worldwide.

(Statista)

About 28 million of these websites are active, meaning they support ongoing sales and transactional activity. This data reflects steady growth of 2.9% to 11% annually, with an average of 2,162 new e-commerce sites launching daily between 2024 and 2025. 

Breaking it down even further, the United States hosts around 50% of all e-commerce websites globally. Meanwhile, small businesses make up approximately 70% of e-commerce sites, most earning less than $1 million annually.

4. Blog websites remain dominant, with around 600 million blogs published globally. 

(Wix)

This makes up approximately 40% of the total 1.5 billion websites. Collectively, these blogs generate an estimated 7.5 million new posts every day, adding up to more than 2.7 billion posts each year.

Tumblr leads the space with around 518 million blogs, followed by WordPress, which hosts approximately 60 million. Other platforms like Wix, Squarespace, Joomla, and Drupal account for the remaining share.

5. WordPress powers over 43% of all websites globally.

(W3Techs)

These data proves that WordPress remains the most widely used CMS. This platform has a dominant 61.2% to 63.5% share of the global CMS market, even as its overall growth slightly tapers. Among the estimated 200 million live websites using a CMS, WordPress continues to lead at over 30%.

Traffic and Usage Statistics

How people access and interact with websites continues to evolve in 2025. With mobile usage dominating and user habits shifting across platforms, understanding where traffic comes from and how it behaves offers key insights into online visibility and engagement.

6. As of May 2025, Google.com remains the most visited website globally, with around 111.9 billion monthly visits. 

(Semrush)

The dominance of Google is followed by YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, and Instagram, reflecting the continued importance of search engines, video platforms, social media, and information resources.

Here are the top 10 most visited websites in 2025 by monthly visits:

7. Organic search remains the largest source of website traffic, accounting for approximately 40–50% of global visits in 2025.

(Similarweb)

Most visitors arrive through unpaid search engine results, primarily from Google. Organic traffic is highly valued for its strong user intent, cost-effectiveness, and long-term sustainability compared to paid channels.

8. Mobile devices account for approximately 65.9% of global website traffic in 2025.

(Statista)

Further, over 80% of users browse the web on mobile devices. This surge is driven by widespread smartphone use and faster mobile networks, making mobile-first design essential for user engagement and accessibility.

Meanwhile, desktop devices comprise about 34% of the total traffic, and tablet devices represent a small share, around 1–2%.

Language and Localization

The language of a website plays a crucial role in shaping its reach, audience engagement, and accessibility. In 2025, English remains the dominant language online, but the internet continues to diversify as more sites embrace multilingual content and localized experiences.

9. As of early 2025, approximately 49.4% to 52.1% of all websites publish their content primarily in English.

(Statista)

Other widely used web languages include Spanish, German, French, and Japanese, but none come close to matching English in overall share. 

Domains and Hosting Trends

Behind every website is a domain name and a hosting provider that keep it accessible to users worldwide. In 2025, domain registration patterns and hosting technologies reveal key insights into how the internet is structured, secured, and evolving.

10. As of 2025, approximately 44.4% of all websites use the .com top-level domain.

(W3Techs)

The number of registered .com domains is estimated at 157 to 160 million, far surpassing other popular TLDs. For comparison, .cn (China) has about 18 million registrations, while .de (Germany) holds roughly 17.4 million. This dominance highlights the global preference for .com domains in business, branding, and online visibility.

11. As of early 2025, there are over 610,000 registered .ai domains worldwide.

(OnlyDomains)

This marks a remarkable increase of around 1,200% since 2018, when there were just 50,000 .ai domains, and more than quadruple the 144,000 recorded in 2022.

The surge is fueled by the booming artificial intelligence industry and the growing adoption of .ai domains by AI-focused businesses, startups, and innovators looking to align their brand with cutting-edge technology.

Web Security and Reliability

A website’s success is not just about content or design. It also depends on how secure and reliable it is. In 2025, web security and uptime are critical for protecting user data, maintaining trust, and ensuring uninterrupted access in an increasingly connected world.

12. As of early 2025, around 82.9% to 87.6% of websites have valid SSL certificates.

(SSL Labs, Netcraft)

There are now over 299 million SSL certificates detected across the internet, marking dramatic growth compared to just 18.5% SSL adoption five years ago. This surge highlights the increasing importance of encryption, secure browsing, and user trust in today’s online environment.

13. Approximately 30,000 websites are being hacked every day worldwide in 2025.

(TechJury)

Further, nearly 43% of cyberattacks target small businesses. Common attack methods include malware injections, phishing schemes, SQL injections, cross-site scripting (XSS), and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, all of which can compromise data, disrupt operations, and damage user trust.

Conclusion

While the web may seem overwhelmingly vast, its true strength lies in the active sites that shape how we shop, learn, and connect. With the right tools and strategies, whether through e-commerce, blogging, or emerging domains, websites can cut through the noise and reach the audiences that matter.

Staying secure, adaptable, and relevant is what sets today’s successful websites apart.

FAQs

What is the first ever website?

The first website was launched by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991 at CERN to explain the World Wide Web project.

What is the smallest website in the world?

Guimp.com is the world’s smallest website, measuring just 18 by 18 pixels, and features tiny games like Pong.

What is the trend for web developers in 2025?

Web developers are focusing on AI tools, headless CMS, faster performance, and adding immersive features like AR.

How fast is the web growing?

Approximately 177,000 new websites are created daily, totaling over 35 million new sites in the first four months of 2025 alone.

Sources

• Internet Live Stats
• Data Reportal
• DNIB
• Forbes
• Verisign
• Statista
• Wix
• W3Techs
• Semrush
• SimilarWeb
• Statista
• Statista
• W3Techs
• OnlyDomains
• Dev
• TechJury
• CERN

By Raj Vardhman

Raj Vardhman is a tech expert and the Chief Tech Strategist at TechJury.net, where he leads the research-driven analysis and testing of various technology products and services. Raj has extensive tech industry experience and contributed to various software, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence publications. With his insights and expertise in emerging technologies, Raj aims to help businesses and individuals make informed decisions regarding utilizing technology. When he's not working, he enjoys reading about the latest tech advancements and spending time with his family.