With the number of internet users increasing year after year, understanding consumers’ behavior online and, in particular, the top websites they visit is more relevant now than ever for ecommerce businesses. 

Here’s a look at the ranking of the most popular websites worldwide.

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Most visited websites in 2023

As of December 2023, social media platforms and search engines dominate the list of top websites in the world.

Coming in at the top is internet giant Google. This should come as no surprise, considering its dominance in the global search engine market share. In fact, as many as 8.5 billion queries are carried out on Google every single day.

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Google is followed by a slew of social media platforms. For instance, video-sharing platform YouTube, which is owned by Google, ranks second. YouTube is followed by social media giant Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram. Micro-blogging social media site Twitter, which recently rebranded to X, ranks fifth. 

In sixth place is Baidu, China’s own answer to Google, and online encyclopedia Wikipedia ranks seventh among the top websites. They are followed by two more search engines: US-based Yahoo.com and Russia’s Yandex.ru.

Last on the list of the 10 most popular websites in the world is another Meta-owned entity: WhatsApp. Though it started out as a messaging app, it’s been categorized by many as a social media thanks to its huge variety of social features. WhatsApp is also the only messenger website within the top 10. 

Of these top 10 websites, just one website (Wikipedia) is neither a search engine nor a social media site.

Most visited websites: bounce rate and average duration comparison

Of the 10 most visited sites, YouTube has the lowest bounce rate. At 22.1%, it means that just over one out of every five visitors to the site leave after having viewed one page. Wikipedia lies on the other end of the spectrum, with a bounce rate of 59.7%.

The page on which users spend the most amount of time is WhatsApp. Its average visit per duration is 20 minutes and seven minutes. YouTube follows close behind with 19 minutes and 35 seconds. Wikipedia’s average duration is the shortest among these 10 most popular websites. Visitors to the online encyclopedia spend just three minutes and 56 seconds on the site.

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