Most Popular Websites 1995 - 2023

Updated timeline of the most visited websites on the Internet from 1995 to 2023. Two major updates: added more accurate and complete data from 1990s, added missing information for the last 3 years. Worldwide data based on websites traffic measured by monthly visits or sessions. Included both desktop and mobile sites visits. A visit is defined as a visit to a website where at least one page has been loaded. Data source: media benchmark and companies reports.

As always your feedback is welcome.

*****

I am a first year PhD student, data geek and I love visualizations.
2022 UPDATE: I am now officially a program drop out and father of beautiful girl.

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[DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

1998: Yahoo refused to buy Google for $1 Million
2002: Yahoo refused to buy Google for $5 Billion
2017: Yahoo sold to Verizon for $4.4 Billion
2023: Google market capitalization is $1.28 Trillion

[loboeningles]

Imagine living in the world where people would say “Just Yahoo It”

[gulfmen]

half of those google visits were from me typing words out that I dont know how to spell

[HazMat]

I thought Amazon and Netflix overall would have been higher on the list in the last decade and was really surprised they didn't make a bigger jump in 2020

[UncleRicoOSU]

I still remember the day my high school librarian told me about Google back when it first launched. It was so unique because unlike every other site that was flooded with noise (text, photos, pop ups) it was so clean and straight forward.

[TheReaper]

Crazy that Google, YouTube and Facebook have been the three dominant forces of the internet for a decade now

[Tatsunami_Studios]

Being born in 91 and seeing some of this literally happening before my eyes but not “seeing the big picture” until seeing this video is crazy. I remember when MySpace was HUGE

[chrissym]

I kept expecting to see a huge increase in Amazon traffic during 2020 🤔

[jeffrowisdabest]

I remember when Yahoo was the dominant force, and the idea of anyone taking them over seemed impossible. The lesson: In business, nothing lasts forever.

[eueuueuee]

I loved the addition of the important facts throughout the timeline, man! As always, great work!!

[DarkAssassin]

It's interesting to see this information and look back at what I was doing at that time (which wasn't much because I was a kid), but kids after the internet boom will never, ever experience this phenomenon and will never understand or appreciate what it is and how it affects us everyday. They can learn about it, but to people like me who grew up with the internet and seeing things for the first time *ever* and watching it grow, adapt, and improve exponentially, it's indescribable

[hustledude]

Sad and frightening how much one company has control over what data we’re exposed to and affect our thought processes so much

[rex-racer]

AOL… “Welcome! You’ve got mail!” and a CD-ROM install disk in the mail every other week. Ah yes, the good old dial-up modem days. I can still hear the sounds!

[SwagMaster]

What surprises me the most is the amount of people going on Yahoo even in the late 2000’s early 2010’s. I didn’t even know that website was still being massively used that way.

[heene]

I got online in 1996 and remember all those old names. Loved Netscape Navigator. The sudden decline of Geocities in 1999 is interesting and they closed it 10 years later. I used that a lot and web pages were easty to create. No video sites in the 90s as was on dial-up amd everything was slow to load, but seemed normal back then.

[Mdevlin]

Again, another fascinating and somehow therapeutic presentation. I’m subscribing!

[MetricZero]

You know, it's crazy. I've left sort of time capsules for myself in the form of saved files going all the way back to my very first computer back in 2002. Before that, I had n64 and ps1, and my mom had a NES. It's insane to think about where we are today, and where we'll be in just 5, 10, or even 20 years. The world is going to be unrecognizable.

[vtommy]

It is even more impressive when you figure that Google has owned YouTube since 2006, so you could combine the top 2 if we are looking at companies and their share of the market.

[btetschner]

A+ video!
Fascinating trends and it is so much easier to understanding after seeing these visuals.

[delightinmydays]

This is actually a pretty interesting timeline to see. I still have my AOL account that I created back in the 90s. Even though I do have Google email my AOL is my primary one that I still put on applications or what not as the best way to email me even to this day.