2025 looks set to be another bumper year in digital, with rapid advances in AI, the evolving social media landscape, and broadening online behaviours all gearing up to reshape our connected lives over the coming months.
With so much going on, the pace of digital trends can feel overwhelming, but our enormous new Digital 2025 Global Overview Report – published in partnership between We Are Social and Meltwater – has all the stats, insights, and trends you need to make sense of the current “state of digital”.
Top stories in the 630+ pages of this year’s flagship Global Digital Report include:
- Digital’s ever expanding role in our daily lives
- The accelerating momentum of AI
- How people discover brands and products in 2025
- The staggering scale of mobile video
- Unexpected trends in TikTok’s numbers
- The evolution of online shopping
- Some surprising truths about the world’s TV habits
- Details of some dramatic shifts in ad spend
- All the latest trends for the top social platforms
- Why silver may turn to gold in 2025
But those headlines barely scratch the surface of all the insights that you’ll find in the complete report.
Indeed, we’ve analysed millions of the freshest, most revealing datapoints to identify key trends in the world’s digital behaviours, and this latest update – the largest Global Digital Report we’ve ever published – is packed with loads more data, trends, and surprises, as you’ll see below.
The ultimate collection of digital data
As always, we’d like to extend our heartfelt thanks to our generous data partners, who provide much of the best-in-class data you’ll find in this report:
- GWI
- Statista
- GSMA Intelligence
- Similarweb
- Semrush
- data.ai (a Sensor Tower company)
- Ookla
- Locowise
- SocialInsider
- Skai
Authenticity statement
All of this year’s analysis has been written by Simon Kemp, without the use of generative AI [click here to learn why this matters].
Simon has been researching and producing the Global Digital Reports series for 15 years, so he’s intimately familiar with the “state of digital”, and how the world’s connected behaviours are evolving.
If you’d like to stay up to date with Simon’s regular analyses, he’d be delighted if you connect with him on LinkedIn.
⚠️ Important notes
As you explore this latest report – and especially as you compare trends over time – please be aware of the following data notes:
- Wherever possible, we use the latest available data for all datapoints in our global digital reports. However, in some instances, data for recent periods may not yet be available, and source data may not have been updated during the past 12 months. This is particularly relevant in the case of internet user data, where the challenges associated with conducting representative research into internet adoption mean that it often takes many months for new data to become available. As a result, we may report no change in certain metrics, even if we expect such metrics will show meaningful change when data for the relevant period(s) become available at a later date. Because of this, we strongly encourage you to explore the timeline charts available in our local country reports, which will provide more informed insight into the evolution of digital adoption and behaviour. Note that our Digital 2025 local country reports will be available to read in full – and for free – on the DataReportal website at the end of February 2025, but you can already explore data for previous years via our complete online library.
- The United Nations published a comprehensive update to its World Population Prospects data in July 2024, and this update included some important revisions to population numbers around the world. In addition to impacting the figures that we report for population, these revisions may also affect any data point where we show digital adoption or activity as a percentage of the total population (e.g. internet and social media adoption), or as a percentage of specific age groups within the broader population (e.g. people aged 18 and above). As a consequence, any comparisons with equivalent data points published in older editions of the Global Digital Reports series may result in unexpected trends, including apparent decreases in user figures or activity. However, any such change may be solely the result of revisions to underlying population data, and may not necessarily indicate any change in actual digital adoption or behaviour. As a result, we advise significant caution when interpreting any changes in values that show digital adoption or activity as a percentage of the population. For more details, please see our comprehensive notes on data.
- We’ve identified a number of unusual trends in the ad reach data published by various social media platforms over recent months, including a mix of both unexpected declines and unusually large gains. We’ll explore some of those trends in detail during the course of this analysis, but please pay careful attention to the notes on relevant pages of the full report to understand some of these changes in context.
The complete Digital 2025 Global Overview Report
You’ll find our complete Digital 2025 flagship report in the embed below (click here if that’s not working for you), but read on past that to explore what all these numbers actually mean for you and your work.
The global state of digital in February 2025
Let’s start with a look at the latest headlines for digital adoption and use around the world:
- Population data from the United Nations shows that there are 8.20 billion humans living on Earth today, with that total increasing by 70 million people (+0.9 percent) compared with the equivalent figure for this time last year. At a worldwide level, almost 4.8 billion people – 58.1 percent of the global population – now live in urban centres, while 3.4 billion people live in rural areas.
- 5.78 billion people use a mobile phone today, which equates to 70.5 percent of the world’s total population. Unique mobile subscribers have increased by 112 million over the past 12 months, delivering year-on-year growth of 2.0 percent. Meanwhile, data shows that smartphones now account for almost 87 percent of the mobile handsets in use around the world.
- A total of 5.56 billion people use the internet at the start of 2025, resulting in a penetration figure of 67.9 percent. Internet users increased by 136 million (+2.5 percent) during 2024, but 2.63 billion people remained offline at the start of 2025.
- Kepios’s latest analysis shows that global social media user identities now stand at 5.24 billion, with that figure equating to 63.9 percent of all the people on Earth. The global total has increased by 4.1 percent over the past 12 months, thanks to an additional 206 million new user identities [note that “user identities” may not represent unique individuals].
Headlines and deep-dives
That’s some great context to start things off, but – while these headlines provide a useful benchmark for the current “state of digital” – we need to explore the underlying numbers in order to uncover the richest findings.
But my complete analysis of those underlying numbers clocks in at close to 23,000 words. Ahem.
So, to make it easier for you to find the insights that matter most to you, this article offers a selection of key headlines and charts.
Each of those sections then links to a separate article that contains significantly more data, as well as in-depth analysis of the associated trends and implications.
OK, all set? Let’s dive in…
The world is ever more connected
All the evidence points to strong growth in digital adoption over the past year, despite internet user numbers already reaching “supermajority” status in April 2024.
For initial perspective, data from Statista indicates that the world’s 5.56 billion internet users now outnumber the 5.32 billion people who watch broadcast and cable TV.
But perhaps more importantly, data also shows that people are now turning to connected tech for a wider variety of activities than they did this time a year ago.
Indeed, after averages declined for several quarters during 2022 and 2023, GWI’s latest research shows that the number of reasons people cite for using the internet has rebounded to levels that we last saw during Covid-19 lockdowns.
“Finding information” remains the single greatest motivation for going online at the start of 2025, with 62.8 percent of adult internet users stating that this is one of their main reasons for using the internet today.
However, it’s also interesting to note that more than 6 in 10 internet users now say that “staying in touch with friends and family” is a top digital motivation.
And in what may be something of a related trend, GWI’s latest research finds that adult internet users now spend an average of 6 hours and 38 minutes online each day.
That figure crept up over the course of 2024, although it’s still slightly lower than the figure that we reported this time last year.
Dig deeper: Online motivations and behaviours vary meaningfully by age, as we explore in this in-depth analysis of the latest trends.
AI making gains
At the time of writing, DeepSeek is making plenty of headlines around the world, as AI companies vie for supremacy.
However, insights from data.ai indicate that ChatGPT still tops the AI leaderboard, with its mobile app already averaging more than a quarter of a billion monthly active users between September and November 2024.
ChatGPT was also one of the world’s most downloaded apps during that period, placing eighth in data.ai’s global ranking across all app categories.
ChatGPT enjoys considerable success on the web too, with both Similarweb and Semrush ranking ChatGPT.com in the world’s 10 most visited web domains at the end of 2024.
For example, Similarweb’s data shows that ChatGPT had an average of 310 million unique monthly visitors between September and November, who generated a combined 3.5 billion visits to the platform’s dotcom domain.
However, it’s unclear exactly how many people make use of tools like Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot, because these tools are integrated into their respective company’s broader offerings.
Similarly, while Meta recently announced that Meta AI now has “more than 700 million monthly actives,” this service is delivered by default to all Facebook and Instagram users whenever they search for something on those platforms, so it’s unclear how many of those 700 million “actives” are looking specifically for an AI solution, and how many are simply looking for the latest memes.
And for perspective, while AI will undoubtedly play a defining role in shaping the future of tech, it’s also worth considering that Yahoo! still attracts almost 100 million more unique monthly visitors than ChatGPT does.
Dig deeper: Explore the latest AI trends – and learn which platforms are making the biggest gains – in this complete analysis.
TV trends and realities
Netflix and Disney+ continue to grow subscriber numbers, but the latest research from GWI shows that broadcast and cable channels still account for close to 57 percent of total TV time.
Indeed, it’s only amongst audiences aged 16 to 24 that streaming accounts for more than half of TV viewing time, and even then, OTT’s share only accounts for about 51 percent of the daily total.
Meanwhile, linear TV remains significantly more popular than streaming amongst older age groups, with people aged 55 to 64 spending more than two-thirds of their TV time watching broadcast and cable channels.
However, a hefty 91.9 percent of internet users watch some form of streaming TV each month, which is actually greater than the 87.8 percent who watch “live” TV like broadcast and cable.
Dig deeper: Our comprehensive analysis points to plenty of potential streaming growth, but key questions remain for marketers.
Brand discovery
GWI’s research shows that the typical adult internet user now discovers brands and products through an average of 5.8 different channels.
At a worldwide level, search engines remain the primary source of brand awareness for the world’s connected consumers, with 32.8 percent of GWI’s survey base saying that they discover new brands and products via online search.
TV ads aren’t far behind though, with 32.3 percent of respondents citing this channel.
Word-of-mouth recommendations rank third, with just under 3 in 10 respondents selecting this answer option, while social media ads come a close fourth, at 29.7 percent.
But the key takeaway for me in this brand discovery data is that no single channel introduces brands to more than one-third of adult internet users.
Even the top channel – search engines – is only cited as a source of brand awareness by 32.8 percent of respondents, meaning that it’s imperative for marketers to embrace a mix of different channels in order to achieve their objectives.
So how can marketers go about building the most robust mix of channels?
Dig deeper: Our complete analysis of this section has all the details.
Global advertising trends
Statista’s Market Insights data shows that the world’s marketers spent close to US$1.1 trillion on ads in 2024, with global spend increasing by $75 billion – 7.3 percent – compared with 2023 levels.
Moreover, Statista’s data indicates that global ad spend has increased by more than 50 percent since 2019, with digital advertising responsible for the vast majority of that increase.
Meanwhile, digital channels now account for 72.7 percent of worldwide ad investment, with online spend exceeding US$790 billion in 2024.
Absolute levels of digital spend continue to enjoy double-digital growth too, with Statista reporting a year-on-year increase of 10.3 percent (+$74 billion) between 2023 and 2024.
And in fact, digital ad spend has more than doubled since 2019, with Statista reporting a hefty 30-percent jump in total spend between 2020 and 2021.
But how are marketers allocating their spend across different digital channels?
Dig deeper: This detailed analysis has all the details by technology, device, and platform.
Alphabet’s other bets
Search still accounts for more than half of Google’s revenues, but Alphabet’s other products have been attracting an ever greater share of their respective markets.
For example, data indicates that Android now powers close to three-quarters of all connected smartphone handsets in use today, with the current share figure the highest we’ve seen since September 2020.
Android’s share varies significantly by country though, so marketers will want to explore the complete dataset to understand their audiences’ specific mobile preferences.
Meanwhile, Google’s Chrome browser is also on the ascent.
Chrome started dominating global web activity in 2016, but Chrome has started to build even more traction over recent months, and its December 2024 share figure of 68.34 percent is the highest we’ve seen in Statcounter’s data.
Chrome isn’t quite so dominant everywhere though, and it’s well worth exploring country trends to understand how local audiences prefer to access web content.
Dig deeper: Make sense of how preferences and behaviours vary around the world in our complete analysis.
Email is still essential
Marketers often have a distorted perspective of email use, especially when it comes to younger audiences.
However, at a worldwide level, GWI’s regular research finds that 75 percent of online adults use email at least once per month.
Moreover, the past two years have seen a steady increase in the share of internet users who say they use email each month.
But the real surprises in this data lie beneath the surface, with the data contradicting stereotypes and media headlines.
Dig deeper: Explore the complete dataset to learn why marketers shouldn’t ignore email in 2025.
Device trends for 2025
The number of people using laptops and desktops to access the internet continues to decline, with just 61.5 percent of online adults using these devices to access connected services in Q3 2024.
That’s only slightly lower than the figure we reported this time last year, but it’s a lot lower than the figures we saw at the start of this decade.
However, these trends mask the continued importance of laptops and desktops for more than 6 in 10 of the world’s connected adults, especially when it comes to ecommerce.
Marketers will also want to understand trends by audience demographic and by country in order to build the most strategic digital plans for 2025.
Dig deeper: Get all the data you need to understand evolving device preferences and behaviours in this deep-dive article.
Accelerated access
The expansion of 5G networks around the world continues to deliver significant improvements in mobile internet speeds, and Ookla’s data shows that median cellular download speeds have increased by more than 80 percent over the past two years.
At a worldwide level, mobile users can now expect a median download speed of 61.52 Mbps, with that figure up by more than a quarter over the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, median cellular download speeds now exceed 250 Mbps in a total of three countries, and the speed of cellular data transfers outpaces that of fixed internet connections in 32 out of 111 countries.
In general though, fixed connections tend to be faster than cellular data networks, with the former delivering median bandwidth of more than 95 Mbps in November 2024.
However, there are significant differences in connection speed by country, and these variations have important implications when it comes to marketing content like mobile video.
Dig deeper: Explore our comprehensive analysis to make sense of the latest connectivity trends around the world.
Mobile data consumption
Analysis from Ericsson shows that the amount of data transferred over cellular data networks has increased more than sevenfold in the past 6 years.
By Q3 2024, the global total had jumped to an average of 157.16 EB per month, with each smartphone handset consuming an average of 21.6 GB per month.
Ericsson’s figures also reveal that video now accounts for more than three-quarters of all cellular data traffic, while social networking claims the next largest share.
However, the surge in mobile data consumption has some serious consequences, and marketers will need to keep these issues in mind if they’re to achieve corporate sustainability goals.
Dig deeper: Make sense of mobile data trends and associated impacts in this detailed article.
The state of social media in 2025
The latest analysis from Kepios shows that there are now 5.24 billion active social media user identities around the world, with that total increasing by 4.1 percent over the past 12 months.
However, adoption rates vary meaningfully around the world.
Indeed, data suggest that barely 3 in 10 internet users in Middle Africa use social media today, with well under half of the connected population in Sub-Saharan Africa using social media at the start of 2025.
At the other end of the scale, almost 97 percent of the connected population in Eastern Asia uses social media today, while countries in Southern America and the EU also see strong rates of social media adoption.
Reasons for using social media
The latest research from GWI indicates that “keeping in touch with friends and family” remains the primary reason for using social media in 2025, but it’s perhaps surprising to learn that barely half of active social media users (50.8 percent) cite this as a relevant motivation.
“Filling spare time” ranks second at a global level, while more than 1 in 3 active social users say that “reading news stories” is one of their main reasons for visiting social platforms.
On average, the world’s adults cite 4.66 “primary” reasons for using social media today, but – once again – those motivations vary meaningfully by age.
Social media time declines
But despite the apparent expansion of social media’s role in our lives, the amount of time that people spend using social platforms has actually fallen over the past two years.
GWI’s latest figures indicate that the typical internet user spends 2 hours and 21 minutes using social media each day, which is 10 minutes less than the figure we reported at the start of 2023.
Moreover, the current daily average is lower than the activity levels we saw in 2018, before TikTok and Reels came to dominate the social experience.
Who we follow on social media
Despite the fact that “keeping in touch with friends and family” remains the primary reason for using social media, fewer than half of adult social media users say that they follow friends, family, or other people that they know “IRL” on social platforms.
Actors, comedians, and other performers rank second at an overall level, while entertainment, meme, and parody accounts rank third.
GWI’s latest data also shows that 22 percent of active social media users follow influencers today, but there are some important nuances and trends in the full dataset that marketers will want to explore.
Brands and social media
Half of all adult users now visit social platforms with the intention of learning more about brands, and to see the content that they publish.
That figure has been creeping up over recent months too, from 47.7 percent in Q4 2022 (just after a revision in GWI’s research methodology) to the 50.0 percent that we see in the most recent survey.
Internet users in less developed economies are particularly likely to visit social platforms to learn more about brands, with almost 70 percent of respondents in Nigeria citing this as a primary reason for using social media.
But which platforms do social media users visit when they’re looking for information about brands?
Our complete analysis has all the answers.
Social media for news
Despite social platforms asserting that news content isn’t important to their users, more than 1 in 3 adult social media users (34.5 percent) say that reading news stories is one of the main reasons why they use social platforms.
Once again, people in less developed economies are the most likely to visit social platforms to find news, with 56.6 percent of social media users in Nigeria saying that current affairs content is a top draw.
More than half of adult users in Brazil, Turkey, and Greece agree too, but users in the Middle East and North-East Asia are meaningfully less likely to seek out news content on social platforms.
You can explore the latest “social news” trends in our full analysis, but – if you’d like to dig even deeper – you may also want to check out our comprehensive Digital 2024 Global News Report.
Social media for work
More than 1 in 3 active social media users say that they use social platforms for work-related activities, but – in something of a surprise – the youngest generations are not the most likely to use social media in their professional activities.
The use of social media in the workplace confounds some other stereotypes too, so it’s well worth checking out our complete analysis if you’re a B2B marketer.
Social media for sports
Interest in sports content on social media has been growing over recent years, and 23.6 percent of adult social media users now say that finding content related to sports is one of the main reasons why they visit social platforms.
However, our complete analysis reveals important differences by demographic, as well as by geography.
Dig deeper: Explore all of the latest social media trends in our comprehensive analysis article.
Top social platforms in 2025
In contrast to the decline in time that people spend using social media, we’ve actually seen the number of platforms used by the world’s social audiences increase over the past 12 months.
GWI’s latest research reveals a global average of 6.83 platforms per month, but overlaps in the audiences of top social platforms suggest that increases in this overall average are more likely to be due to people adding newer platforms into their “social portfolio”.
But which social media platform comes out on “top” in 2025?
Well, as we can explore in our in-depth analysis, there are a number of different answers to that question, depending on which metric we prioritise.
Indeed, the answer varies depending on whether you’re most interested in:
- The number of active users
- The size of platforms’ ad audiences
- The affinity that users feel for each platform
- The time that users spend using different social media apps
The complete guide to social platforms
As always, our Digital 2025 Global Overview Report has all the latest numbers for the world’s top social media platforms, including:
- Ad reach by country, age, and gender
- Time spent using each platform
- Usage frequency
- Popular content trends
- Details of top creators
You can explore the full story in our detailed analysis (link below), but here are a few “teaser” headlines to whet your appetite…
YouTube
Ads on YouTube reach more than 2.5 billion people each month, and that number continues to grow.
The latest data also reveals a remarkable jump in views for the platform’s most popular video.
Meta’s tools show continued growth in Facebook’s ad audience, but third-party data suggests that 2025 may hold challenges for the world’s largest social network.
In particular, Facebook’s share of social media referrals has seen some worrying trends over recent months, while engagement rates will also be of concern for marketers.
There’s been a dramatic twist in the rivalry between Instagram and TikTok over the past three months, with the latest numbers offering something of a surprise.
There are also some worrying trends in Instagram engagement though, so marketers may need to recalibrate their plans for 2025 to ensure maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
TikTok
Alongside the impact of the platform’s “partial” ban in the United States, we’ve also seen some big changes in TikTok’s numbers over the past three months.
Indeed, a number of TikTok trends seem to be headed in a downward direction, but – despite current challenges – our complete TikTok dataset also reveals some impressive wins, and some truly eye-watering numbers.
And with uncertainty about TikTok’s future lingering over marketers’ heads at the start of 2025, we’ve also got some perspective on the platform’s outlook for the months ahead.
The latest data show some incredible jumps in reported Reddit ad reach, but we’ve also got some balancing perspectives on growth from third-party data.
And given the platform’s impressive performance, we’ve also got some tips on the best ways to approach the Reddit opportunity in 2025.
The world’s preeminent professional platform continues to grow, but there are signs that LinkedIn may need to change tactics in 2025 if it’s to continue delivering similar trends in the second half of this decade.
We also offer a significantly expanded dataset exploring the most popular companies on LinkedIn, which offers valuable insights for B2B marketers.
Well over half a billion people use Pinterest every month, but – even more than its user numbers – it’s the platform’s unique demographics that make the platform particularly interesting for marketers.
And to help take advantage of Pinterest’s growing opportunities, we’ve also got insights into what users are seeking out on the platform.
Shiny new platforms
Our complete report also offers valuable insights into the growth of the “hottest” new social platforms.
Some of our key headlines include:
- Impressive growth for Threads, but not without a few troubling trends
- The migration of users from X to Bluesky Social
- The popularity of “TikTok alternatives”: Lemon8, RedNote, Likee, and more.
We’ve also got some essential tips for marketers on the best ways to approach new social media platforms in 2025, so be sure to check out our full write-up to get the details.
Dig deeper: Explore all the latest social platforms trends – and how to take advantage of them – in our complete guide to social platforms in 2025.
Online shopping still popping
Figures from Statista point to compelling growth in online shopping revenues in 2024, with the company’s estimates for full-year spend on consumer goods clocking in at more than US$4.12 trillion.
Global online consumer goods revenues also increased by more than half a trillion dollars in 2024 compared with 2023 spend, equating to year-on-year-on-year growth of 14.6 percent.
Statista’s analysis puts the number of people making online purchases of consumer goods at more than 2.5 billion, with that figure increasing by 200 million (+8.5 percent) over the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, GWI reports that close to 56 percent of online adults make online purchases every week, which points to an online shopping universe of roughly 1.7 billion in any given seven-day period.
But what are people actually spending their money on?
Well, our complete report offers a breakdown of “spend trends” by consumer product category, as well as the latest figures for online travel booking.
We also share details of spend by country, as well as valuable insights into how behaviours and preferences vary by age and gender.
And you can also learn which merchants are capturing the greatest share of ecommerce activity, as well as which brands and products have the most appeal for the world’s online shoppers.
Dig deeper: Learn how ecommerce is evolving in this more detailed article.
Senior surfers
Various data points in our Global Digital Reports reveal that people over the age of 50 are significantly underserved by the world’s marketers.
However, the data also show that brands would be crazy to ignore these older generations.
Indeed, across many of the world’s biggest economies, people over the age of 50 account for more than half of all consumer spend.
And with most brands largely ignoring these age groups, there are ample opportunities for savvy marketers to turn silver generations into a golden opportunity in 2025.
Dig deeper: Our complete analysis has all the numbers you need to start planning now.
Podcasts gain popularity
Podcasts received renewed media interest in the wake of the 2024 US presidential election, but data from GWI shows that podcasts have been steadily gaining popularity over the past two years.
More than 1 in 5 online adults (22.1 percent) now listens to at least one podcast each week, and for perspective, this is higher than the incidence of people following influencers on social channels (22.0 percent).
So, with podcasts now seemingly more popular than influencers, marketers may want to take another look at this audio format in 2025.
And as a bonus, our complete report also offers insights into top Podcast hosts around the world.
Dig deeper: Find out whether podcasts are relevant to your audiences in our detailed analysis.
Private investigations
And to finish with a surprise, the number of connected adults expressing concern about their online privacy is actually declining.
Indeed, fewer than 3 in 10 adult internet users say that they’re worried about how companies use their personal data online today, with that figure down by 7.1 percent compared with the figure we reported this time two years ago.
Moreover, our complete dataset has some fascinating insights into people’s reactions to cookies, as well as details of how initiatives like GDPR have affected opinions and online behaviours across the EU.
Dig deeper: Learn how people really feel about online privacy by exploring this richer dataset.
Wrapping up
That’s (almost) all for this review of essential headlines, but here are links to our complete collection of detailed Digital 2025 articles:
- Reasons for using the internet and the time we spend online (link)
- The current state of AI, and the platforms that dominate today (link)
- Rich insights into the world’s TV behaviours (link)
- How people learn about new brands and products in 2025 (link)
- Trends in global advertising, and details of digital ad spend by channel (link)
- Beyond search – Android, Chrome, and the success of Google’s other products (link)
- The continued importance of email, even amongst younger generations (link)
- The devices we use to access connected content and services in 2025 (link)
- The speed of internet connections around the world in 2025 (link)
- Insights into mobile data consumption, and its impact on the environment (link)
- The state of social media in 2025, with a rich guide to people’s evolving preferences (link)
- The top social media platforms in 2025, including detailed data for many of the global leaders (link)
- Insights into what we’re buying online, how much we’re spending, and who’s getting the money (link)
- Why it’s high time for marketers to embrace older generations (link)
- The steady rise of podcasts, including audience insights by geography and demography (link)
- An exploration of how people in different countries feel about online privacy and cookies (link)
And if you’re looking for even more data, I’d recommend starting with our Digital 2025 Country Headlines Report, which has essential figures for mobile, internet, and social media adoption in almost every country on Earth.
You might like to know that our more detailed Digital 2025 local country reports will be available in DataReportal’s free online library starting in late February 2025.
But just before you go…
A tail as old as time
To conclude this year’s analysis, let’s explore what might be our most impawtant Global Digital dataset: who’s “winning the web” in 2025.
And you may want to hold on to your hat at this point, because the fur has really been flying this year…
After being top dogs on the internet for the past few years, it’s been something of a rough year for canines, and Google’s crawlers report that there are now more than a billion more web pages about cats than there are pages about dogs.
At first we thought they were just kitten, but – while perhaps not purrfect – it seems the stats are indeed fur real: Google search currently returns 6.48 billion results for “cat”, compared with just 5.44 billion results for “dog”.
Cats have been hounding pups over on Wikipedia too, with the authoritative site’s English-language page about felines attracting 5.18 million worldwide views in 2024, compared with just 2.86 million for the canine equivalent.
But while those numbers will certainly be mewsic to feline ears, 2024 wasn’t a total cat-astrophe for their sworn enemies.
Social animals
Indeed, it seems that humans are still far more interested in dogs, as evidenced by search index data from Google Trends.
The world’s favourite search engine reports that global interest in dogs averaged 89 out of a pawsible 100 for 2024 as a whole, whereas interest in cats only averaged 55.
As a result, there’s a purrsuasive argument to be made that the current supremacy of cat pages on the web may all be down to copycat content churned out by GenAI.
And while some might dismiss such claims as tall tails, they may actually be borne out by the latest social media data.
For example, the world’s Instagram users have published 390 million posts tagged with #dog, compared with just 303 million posts tagged with #cat.
Canines also come out ahead of kitties on TikTok, with the platform’s users viewing posts tagged with #dog 787 billion times to date, compared with 754 billion views for posts tagged with #cat.
The gap is far clearer over at X though, where cats seem to have fallen totally out of favour.
Perhaps they largely deserted Twitter after the demise of Larry the Bird?
Either way, the platform’s advertising tools suggest that X users are now five times more likely to be interested in dogs than they are to be interested in cats.
Meowch.
And the winner is…
However, on the balance of all this data, I’m going to call the internet for cats in 2024 – even if only by a whisker.
But does this result pawtend the end of dog days for the internet?
Well, maybe not… based on historical trends, I have a feline that dogs will make a comeback in 2025.
Only time will tell though, and – ultimuttly – we’ll need to wait and see.
The good news is that we have bi-pawtisan support to continue researching this dataset though, so we’ll keep digging.
On that note, I’ll paws my analysis there, but I’ll be back on your screens before you know it, with the first of our Digital 2025 Statshot reports scheduled for late April.
Until then – as always – #BeMoreDog.
Disclosure: Simon Kemp is a brand ambassador for GWI.
