International web visitors grew 19 p.c this yr. That is in keeping with Cloudflare, which simply launched its “Cloudflare Radar 2025 Yr in Assessment” report, a look-back on the yr in on-line habits.
As an increasing number of people are spending an increasing number of time on-line than ever earlier than, we’re beginning to see some cracks within the digital divide. This was the yr that AOL dial-up web formally died (RIP), but in addition a yr wherein satellite tv for pc corporations like Starlink introduced the web to a few of the most distant corners of Earth.
The report additionally contains some revealing statistics on the state of the online in 2025. Cloudflare gives a broad vary of web providers, and it is one of many core pillars that make up the infrastructure of the web. The world was reminded of that this yr when a Cloudflare outage led to downtime and errors for a lot of widespread web sites and apps, similar to Spotify, Google, Snapchat, Discord, and Nintendo.
Cloudflare additionally acts as a visitors gatekeeper of types for a lot of web sites, which additionally makes the corporate uniquely certified to prognosticate in regards to the state of the web world.
You possibly can take a look at all the report for your self, however listed here are some key takeaways that caught with us.
AI bots account for lots of visitors
As AI corporations ship out crawlers and bots to scrape as a lot of the web as they will, many web sites are reporting spikes in bot exercise. And the Cloudflare Radar report bears this out: AI bots now account for 4.2 p.c of all HTML requests, the corporate says.
Merriam-Webster names “slop” the phrase of the yr, and boy was 2025 sloppy
Web visitors primarily grew within the second half of the yr
“Our ongoing reliance on the Web is mirrored in continued international Web visitors development,” Cloudflare says. “This pattern line begins mid-January, permitting for Web exercise to normalize following the return to work and college after the New Yr.”
Mashable Gentle Pace
The corporate’s stats present visitors rising slowly and staying flat from January by means of July, then rising within the again half of the yr.
Google continues to be the king of the web
Google is at present sparring with OpenAI on the way forward for AI — however by way of web customers, it stays unmatched.
Per Cloudflare, Google is the most well-liked web service on this planet, adopted by Fb, Apple, and Microsoft. ChatGPT did not even make the highest 10.
Google additionally gives the “highest visitors Verified Bot” (GoogleBot), the highest search engine, and the most-used net browser (Chrome).
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Android continues to be extra widespread than iOS
Cloudflare discovered that Android units account for 65 p.c of on-line visitors, whereas iOS visitors makes up the rest.
The corporate notes that this varies extensively by area, with iOS adoption peaking at 70 p.c in some areas. In the USA, iOS accounts for 56 p.c of cell visitors.
Starlink helps the web develop
Love Elon Musk or hate him, there is no denying that his Starlink service performed a large position within the development of the web this yr.
Starlink noticed a 2.3x development fee over the previous yr, and that stayed fairly regular all through. This yr, Starlink and SpaceX recorded a significant milestone — they launched their 10,000th satelite.
ChatGPT is the highest AI service
The report discovered that ChatGPT is the most well-liked AI service (as reverse to web service), which can come as no shock. What was a shock? Regardless of latest advances with Gemini 3, Google Gemini ranked solely fourth, with Claude/Anthropic and Perplexity each outranking it.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s guardian firm, in April filed a lawsuit towards OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in coaching and working its AI programs.
