Web Evolution: Site Count from 1990 to 2024

The Internet is that beautiful place that offers valuable information and useful services.

Have you ever wondered how many websites there are online? Do you think it's measured in hundreds of thousands or tens of millions? None of these options are even close.

Although it is an interesting subject, there is a lot of conflicting information available online. That's why we decided to stop speculation once and for all and put our own team of investigators in search of the answer to the most common question people ask:

How many websites are there?

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

Through our extensive research, we also discovered some interesting facts about the number of websites and the internet statistics in general.

Scroll down to see the growth chart for the number of sites from 1990 to 2021, the most popular CMS, the most popular e-commerce solution and the websites and blogs the most popular.

1st website and the 1st domain name

The World Wide Web as we know it is rooted in numerous technologies, making it very difficult to choose the very first website. However, you have to start somewhere, and what better place to start than Tim Berners-Lee and his team of collaborators at CERN.

They were responsible for creating the hypertext transfer protocol in 1989, a protocol that allowed servers and clients to communicate.

The same team also launched the first text-based browser, as well as the creation and launch of the first website, which was only one page.

First site : http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

This web page was the first online guide to creating web pages, and as you might have guessed, it consisted only of text. Today, modern technologies (such as website creation tools) allow people to create their own blog or website without any technical knowledge.

It was the Mosaic browser that really paved the way for quality websites. Marc Andreessen and his colleagues at the University of Illinois created and launched 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 was not available before 1985. However, prior to this date, some businesses created and used domain names for their intranets. The first was Nordu.net, created on January 1, 1985. This was the domain of a Scandinavian research collaboration.

The first domain name registered goes back to Symbolics.com, a domain owned by a computer systems company in Cambridge, Mass. It was recorded on March 15, 1985, followed by BBN.com, recorded on April 24, 1985.

The most visited websites in the world

The World Wide Web is a rich universe, some sites stand out for various reasons: functionalities, ease of use, design... These web “superstars” attract significant audiences. Here's a look at the 20 most visited sites, according to Semrush's traffic report.

1. Google.com : The most popular search engine attracts around 15.63 billion visits per month. The majority of traffic comes from mobile devices, which account for around 60% of visits. The average visitor views approximately 9 pages per visit and spends approximately 9 minutes on the site during each visit. The bounce rate is 23%.
2. YouTube.com : The video sharing platform attracts around 4.11 billion visits per month, with a majority of mobile visitors (around 60%). On average, users spend approximately 22 minutes on the site during each visit and view approximately 8 pages. The bounce rate is 29%.
3. Facebook.com : The most used social network attracts around 3.36 billion visits per month, with an overwhelming majority of mobile traffic (around 90%). The average time spent by Visitors on Facebook are 12 minutes per visit, and they consult an average of 8 pages. The bounce rate is 31%.
4. Amazon.com : The world's largest online retailer attracts around 2.69 billion visits per month, with an almost equitable split between mobile traffic (51%) and office traffic (49%). Visitors view an average of 9 pages per visit and spend approximately 8 minutes on the site. The bounce rate is 24%.
5. Yahoo.com : The Internet service provider attracts around 1.5 billion visits per month, with a majority of mobile traffic (60%). Users spend an average of 7 minutes on the site during each visit and view approximately 7 pages. The bounce rate is 30%.
6. Wikipedia.org : The knowledge base attracts around 1.46 billion visits per month, with a majority of mobile traffic (56%). The average time spent on the site is 4 minutes per visit, and visitors view an average of 3 pages. The bounce rate is 61%.
7. Reddit.com : The online community network attracts around 1.35 billion visits per month, with a majority of mobile traffic (57%). Users spend an average of 11 minutes on the site during each visit and view approximately 7 pages. The bounce rate is 38%.
8. Pornhub.com : The adult entertainment site attracts around 1.02 billion visits per month, with an overwhelming majority of mobile traffic (75%). Users spend an average of 10 minutes on the site during each visit and view approximately 9 pages. The bounce rate is 29%.
9. Twitter.com : The social media platform attracts around 914 million visits per month, with a majority of mobile traffic (80%). Users spend an average of 10 minutes on the site during each visit and view approximately 5 pages. The bounce rate is 34%.
10. eBay.com : The e-commerce platform attracts around 895 million visits per month, with a majority of mobile traffic (59%). Users spend an average of 9 minutes on the site during each visit and view approximately 8 pages. The bounce rate is 26%.
11. Instagram.com : The social network focused on sharing photos and videos attracts around 871 million visits per month, with an overwhelming majority of mobile traffic (85%). Users spend an average of 8 minutes on the site during each visit and consult approximately 6 pages. The bounce rate is 33%.
12. Xvideos.com : The adult entertainment site attracts around 756 million visits per month, with a majority of mobile traffic (75%). Users spend an average of 12 minutes on the site during each visit and view approximately 10 pages. The bounce rate is 28%.
13. CNN.com : CNN is an American television news channel known worldwide. It attracts around 676 million visits per month, including 185.19 million via desktop and 491.44 million via mobile. An average visitor views 2.4 pages and spends 13 minutes on the site. The bounce rate is 52.06%.
14. Walmart.com : The website of the famous American department store chain generates approximately 618 million visits per month, with 188.95 million visits from the office and 429.19 million from mobile. Visitors view an average of 4 pages and spend 9 minutes on the site. The bounce rate is 46.75%.
15. Fandom.com : This site, which provides pages on popular TV shows, movies, and games, attracts approximately 604 million visits per month, with almost an equal split between mobile (304.82 million) and desktop traffic (299.47 million). Visitors see an average of 3 pages and spend 11 minutes on the site. The bounce rate is 56.17%.
16. Craiglist.org : This global classifieds platform generates approximately 560 million visits per month, with a significantly higher proportion of mobile visitors (448.2 million) compared to desktop visitors (111.99 million). An average visitor views 9.5 pages and spends 11 minutes on the site. The bounce rate is 21.88%.
17. ESPN.com : The sports website attracts around 554 million visits per month, with a majority of mobile visitors (406.79 million) compared to desktop visitors (144.76 million). On average, visitors view 3.5 pages and spend 23 minutes on ESPN.com. The bounce rate is 44.4%.
18. Xnxx.com : This adult entertainment site generates approximately 490 million visits per month, with a huge share of mobile traffic (445.26 million) compared to desktop traffic (44.69 million). Visitors view an average of 9.7 pages and spend 19 minutes on the site. The bounce rate is 23.77%.
19. Weather.com : The weather forecasting site attracts approximately 471 million visits per month, with a majority of mobile traffic (378.8 million) compared to desktop traffic (92.41 million). An average visitor views 2.6 pages and spends 4 minutes on the site. The bounce rate is 37.08%.
20. IMDb.com : This news site about movies and TV shows generates approximately 437 million visits per month, with an almost balanced split between mobile traffic (290.02 million) and desktop traffic (196.78 million). An average visitor views 4.2 pages and spends 6 minutes on the site. The bounce rate is 44.48%.

Statistics are based on traffic reports from Semrush and SimilarWeb, and may vary slightly due to the dynamic nature of web traffic.

Growth in the number of websites from 1991 to 2022

Let's take a look at the number of websites 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 start of the World Wide Web in 1992, when there were only about 15,000 websites online, that's a considerable increase.

The trend of increasing the number of websites continues year after year. In 2014, there were 1 billion websites online. It only took five years to nearly double that figure.

However, not all of the 1.93 billion websites that are currently online are active. It is estimated that fewer than 200 million of them are actually active.

Number of domain names

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

The domain is the address that every website has and is found in the browser's URL. Domain names correspond to the IP address of a website, but these names are converted to logical names instead of numbers.

The most popular domains are top-level domains, or TLDs, such as.com, .net, .org, etc. These are generic domain extensions that take the top spot in the system. Even though sites have these extensions, they have completely custom names that precede them.

The third quarter of 2021 registered 364.6 million top-level domains. This number has continued to grow since the introduction of the domain name system in 1985, and the trend does not seem to be slowing down any time soon.

Of all top-tier domain registrations, 172.1 million belong to.net and.com domains. This is a decrease of 2 and a half million compared to the second quarter of 2021. Since the start of the year, these top domain registrations have declined by about 6 million.

Here's how top level domains are ranked based on the number of domain names they currently own:

1. .com - 158.6 million domain names
2. .tk - 24.7 million domain names
3. .de - 17 million domain names
4. .cn - 15.3 million domain names
5. .net - 13.5 million domain names
6. .uk - 11 million domain names
7. .org - 10.4 million domain names

The number of TLDs has increased by over 4 million compared to 2019, which means that the total number of domain names has increased by approximately 1.1%. This is just another statistic that shows that many people buy new domains and that the number of websites continues to increase.

Source: Verisign

Use of CMS

Not all websites are created the same way. Some are coded and designed from scratch, but many use a CMS. CMS is the abbreviation for Content Management System, a platform specially designed to facilitate creation and publication of websites.

There are over 10 CMS available, which makes this market very competitive. You are probably familiar with some of these names, such as WordPress, Joomla, and Wix.

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

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

Here are the top 5 CMS:

1. WordPress - is the preferred CMS option overall. Over 30 million websites are currently using WordPress, representing 44% of all websites that use a CMS.
2. Wix - Wix comes in second position. Over 7 million websites are currently using Wix, which represents 7% of all websites that use a CMS.
3. Progress Sitefinity - is becoming more and more popular every day. It currently equips more than 3.5 million websites, representing 5% of the CMS market.
4. Squarespace - In fourth position, we have Squarespace, which currently powers 2.9 million websites, representing 4% of the CMS market.
5. Plesk- Finally, with a market share of 2.6%, we have Plesk. There are currently 2.3 million websites that use Plesk.

How many websites on the Internet use e-commerce solutions?

E-commerce is a very lucrative industry, with one of largest market sizes to the world. According to Statista, e-commerce revenue forecasts indicate that it will reach 3.1 billion US dollars in 2024. It is only natural to see many online e-commerce sites, given the number of opportunities in this sector.

The same rule that applies to the creating websites applies to e-commerce sites. You can Create one from scratch with one of the e-commerce solutions available. There are a large number of these solutions that allow you to: start an online business.

Let's dive into the statistics to find out how many websites use e-commerce solutions and which are the most popular.

According to the e-commerce usage distribution report of BuiltWith, there are currently 25.7 million websites that use e-commerce solutions, and WooCommerce Checkout is the solution with the largest market share.

The distribution of market shares tells us that users prefer easy to use and automatic solutions over more complex solutions.

Shopify - is currently the most popular e-commerce solution. It is a specialized e-commerce platform (read theShopify reviews), and over 3.8 million websites currently use it. Shopify's market share is 15%.

WooCommerce Checkout - is a WordPress plugin, and given the popularity of the WordPress CMS, this is not an unexpected result. WooCommerce powers over 3.5 million online stores, representing 13.6% of the market.

Wix Stores - is third on the list, with over 1.6 million websites, representing a 6.5% market share . -> How to use Wix

Squarespace Add to Cart - is a Squarespace extension of eCommerce technology. Currently, more than 1.2 million websites use it, and its market share is 4.8% . -> How to use Squarespace

Ecwid - Finally, we have Ecwid, which currently powers over 907,000 websites. Around 3.5% of the market share goes to this e-commerce solution, which meets the needs of small businesses.

Conclusion

We hope 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 nearly 2 billion websites, of which only about 200 million are active.

The most popular websites can be grouped into several categories: search engines, social media platforms, adult online entertainment, e-commerce, news, sports, and weather. However, the websites in the top 20 will evolve according to the needs and preferences of the public.