Traffic to the Open Web Fell 24% From 2021 to 2026, Study Finds
TLDR
New data from Similarweb and SparkToro analyzing 2021 to 2026 finds traffic to the open web has fallen 24% over five years, with the largest sites taking a growing share.
Optimixed Overview
Optimixed's original report on this story.
Based on new research with Similarweb's team, SparkToro examines where and how much traffic to the open web has shifted between 2021 and 2026. The analysis started from the idea that the top few websites, dominated by Big Tech players, were capturing a larger share of web traffic while fewer visits reached the rest of the web.
How we got here: earlier coverage
- Oct 28Bing's Web Visits Fell 45.6% Over a Year, OneLittleWeb Estimates
OneLittleWeb estimates Bing lost 45.6% of its web visits over the past year, while ChatGPT rose 35.86% to 70.78bn visits.
- Oct 19Search traffic drops to 12% of North American publisher pageviews in latest Chartbeat data
Search referral traffic to North American publishers fell sharply to 12% of pageviews in Q3 2025, down from 21% the prior quarter, according to Chartbeat data.
- Sep 24Google Search and Discover traffic to publishers dropped 40% year-over-year, while direct and internal traffic grew
Publisher traffic from Google Search and Discover fell 40% year-over-year, according to new reporting.
- Sep 4ChatGPT Surges Into Top 10 as Bing Plummets 50%, Reshaping U.S. Web Traffic Hierarchy
Over the past year, ChatGPT surged to ninth among U.S. websites while Bing dropped 50%, revealing that AI adoption and policy changes are reshaping web traffic distribution far below the stable Google-YouTube dominance at the top.