Study reveals most-visited websites
June 10, 2021
Following the revelation by communications regulator Ofcom that the UK is online more than any other European nation, web technology provider Fasthosts.co.uk has updated its findings on the busiest websites; from search engines to social media platforms, news sites to entertainment and everything in between.
Unsurprisingly, Google is crowned the world’s busiest website. In just one hour, Google receives 127,983,631 visits on average; that’s the equivalent of the population of London 14.2 times over!
Social media platforms YouTube, Facebook and Twitter also make the top five, whilst Chinese search engine Baidu.com comes in at number four. In one week alone, Baidu receives 1,506,361,111 visits, just over the population of China.
Whilst our need for acquiring knowledge, connecting with others, and sharing information is a common motivation for our Internet usage, there are other reasons we choose to hang out online, suggests Fasthosts.co.uk – adult entertainment. It seems people are bypassing the Netflix and heading straight for the chill as pornography websites receive more traffic than both Amazon.com and Netflix!
The top 20 busiest websites are:
| Rank | Sector | Company name | Average monthly visitors |
| 1 | Search engines | 86,005,000,000 | |
| 2 | Social media | YouTube | 32,692,269,844 |
| 3 | Social media | 25,161,666,667 | |
| 4 | Search engines | Baidu.com | 6,025,444,444 |
| 5 | Social media | 5,857,444,444 | |
| 6 | Social media | 5,337,777,778 | |
| 7 | News and media | Yahoo! | 3,680,333,333 |
| 8 | Pornography | Xvideos.com | 3,367,444,444 |
| 9 | Search engines | yandex.ru | 3,243,333,333 |
| 10 | Pornography | Pornhub | 3,172,666,667 |
| 11 | Pornography | xnxx.com | 2,783,000,000 |
| 12 | Ecommerce | Amazon.com | 2,583,333,333 |
| 13 | Social media | 2,490,777,778 | |
| 14 | Video / streaming | Netflix | 2,473,666,667 |
| 15 | Technology – email | live.com | 2,362,777,778 |
| 16 | News and media | yahoo.co.jp | 2,300,000,000 |
| 17 | Technology – social networking | vk.com | 1,777,444,444 |
| 18 | Search engines | Naver.com | 1,615,555,556 |
| 19 | Social news / entertainment | reddit.com | 1,550,888,889 |
| 20 | Technology | bit.ly | 1,440,111,111 |
When it comes to ecommerce, Amazon dominates with three of its websites making the top ten in its category. Meanwhile, online payments website PayPal tops the finance top ten, whilst American department store macys.com comes in at number one for Fashion, closely followed by H&M and Nike.
For food, recipe sharing platforms Cookpad and Allrecipes and restaurant review site Tablelog take the top three spots, whilst British supermarkets Tesco, ASDA and Sainsburys all make the foodie top ten.
Travel websites Booking.com, Tripadvisor.com, Airbnb, Uber and Expedia make the travel top five. However, because of the outbreak of the coronavirus and the subsequent lockdowns many countries faced – and still face – these travel websites lost a significant number of traffic, whilst other sectors such as search engines, social media, ecommerce and pornography have all enjoyed a surge in traffic.