Forget everything you think you know about your website visitors, because the real story is in the data, from Gen Z’s mobile dominance to the surprising rise of silver surfers and suburban users, as 2023’s statistics reveal a digital landscape far more nuanced than any single label could capture.
Key Takeaways
- In 2023, 59.5% of global internet users aged 16-64 were female, marking a 1.2% increase from 2022
- Globally, the average age of internet users in 2023 was 35.4 years, with users under 35 comprising 52.7% of the total
- In the US, 92.3% of adults aged 18-29 used the internet daily in 2023, compared to 58.1% for those over 65
- The average session duration on websites worldwide was 10 minutes 42 seconds in 2023
- 52.7% of users abandoned shopping carts after adding items in 2023
- Globally, users scrolled through 7.2 pages per session on news sites in 2023
- Average daily time spent on websites per user was 6 hours 45 minutes in 2023
- Global email open rate averaged 21.3% for marketing campaigns in 2023
- Video engagement rate on websites reached 52.4% completion in 2023
- Direct traffic accounted for 36.4% of all website visits globally in 2023
- Search engines drove 53.3% of B2B website traffic in 2023
- Social media referrals made up 12.8% of e-commerce traffic in 2023
- Mobile devices accounted for 58.67% of global website traffic in 2023
- Desktop usage fell to 40.12% of web traffic worldwide in 2023
- Android held 72.4% mobile OS market share for web access in 2023
Website users are increasingly female, mobile, and favor fast personalized content.
Behavior
- The average session duration on websites worldwide was 10 minutes 42 seconds in 2023
- 52.7% of users abandoned shopping carts after adding items in 2023
- Globally, users scrolled through 7.2 pages per session on news sites in 2023
- 68.4% of mobile users exhibited 'thumb-friendly' navigation patterns in 2023
- Bounce rate on e-commerce sites averaged 45.2% in Q4 2023
- 73.1% of users clicked on personalized content recommendations in 2023
- Average pages per visit on blogs was 2.8 in 2023
- 41.3% of users shared content within 5 minutes of viewing in 2023
- Video content led to 88% longer session times than static pages in 2023
- 55.6% of users left sites loading over 3 seconds in 2023
- Dark mode preference rose to 63.2% among users under 30 in 2023
- 29.4% of sessions involved search functionality use in 2023
- Multi-tab browsing occurred in 76.8% of desktop sessions in 2023
- 64.7% of users preferred vertical scrolling over horizontal in 2023
- Email newsletter opens led to 3.2 page views per user in 2023
- 47.2% of users bookmarked content for later in 2023
- Gesture-based interactions increased 22.1% on touch devices in 2023
- 58.9% of users ignored pop-up ads instantly in 2023
- Average time to first click was 8.2 seconds on landing pages in 2023
- 71.3% of returning visitors converted 2.4x higher than new ones in 2023
- Heatmap analysis showed 82.6% focus on top 1/3 of pages in 2023
- 39.7% of users used incognito mode weekly in 2023
- Voice search initiated 27.8% of mobile sessions in 2023
- 66.4% of users read reviews before purchase on sites in 2023
- Pogo-sticking (back to SERP) rate was 33.1% in 2023
- 54.2% of users zoomed in on mobile content in 2023
- Social logins used by 67.9% of users to avoid passwords in 2023
- Average dwell time on product pages was 1:47 minutes in 2023
- 72.5% of users skipped autoplay videos in 2023
- Newsletter subscribers engaged 4.1x more pages per visit in 2023
- 48.6% of users hovered over CTAs before clicking in 2023
- Infinite scroll retention dropped 15.3% after 10 items in 2023
Behavior Interpretation
The modern web user, a distracted yet discerning sovereign with the attention span of a goldfish and the high standards of a critic, demands your site load instantly, entertain endlessly, and respect their thumb—all while keeping the ads out of their face, the pop-ups off their screen, and their password safely forgotten.
Demographics
- In 2023, 59.5% of global internet users aged 16-64 were female, marking a 1.2% increase from 2022
- Globally, the average age of internet users in 2023 was 35.4 years, with users under 35 comprising 52.7% of the total
- In the US, 92.3% of adults aged 18-29 used the internet daily in 2023, compared to 58.1% for those over 65
- Urban internet users worldwide reached 4.8 billion in 2023, representing 62.4% of all users versus 37.6% rural
- In 2023, 48.7% of internet users in India were female, up from 45.2% in 2021
- Millennials (born 1981-1996) made up 38.2% of global website visitors in Q4 2023
- In Europe, 67.3% of internet users were aged 25-54 in 2023
- Hispanic internet users in the US grew by 12.4% YoY to 45 million in 2023
- In 2023, 71.5% of global internet users spoke English as a primary language online
- Female users aged 18-24 increased by 8.9% in social media access globally in 2023
- Baby boomers (55-73) accounted for 22.1% of US e-commerce website users in 2023
- In Asia-Pacific, 55.6% of internet users were male in 2023
- Low-income households (<$30k/year) represented 28.4% of US internet users in 2023
- In 2023, 41.2% of global website users had college education or higher
- Gen Z (12-27) comprised 27.8% of mobile web users worldwide in 2023
- In Brazil, 53.1% of internet users were female in 2023
- Married users made up 54.7% of US online shoppers in 2023
- In 2023, 63.4% of internet users in China were urban dwellers aged 18-35
- African American internet users in the US reached 94.2% penetration in 2023
- In 2023, 39.6% of global website users lived in households with children under 18
- Seniors (65+) in Japan used the internet at 78.3% rate in 2023
- In 2023, 46.8% of EU internet users were employed full-time
- Students represented 19.4% of daily website visitors globally in 2023
- In Australia, 51.2% of internet users were female aged 30-49 in 2023
- High-income earners (>$100k) were 32.7% of premium content subscribers in 2023
- In 2023, 57.9% of Mexican internet users were under 35 years old
- LGBTQ+ users comprised 7.1% of US social platform audiences in 2023
- In 2023, 44.3% of global website users were parents
- Rural US internet users grew 9.2% to 112 million in 2023
- In South Korea, 82.4% of users aged 20-29 accessed websites via high-speed broadband in 2023
Demographics Interpretation
The global internet is no longer a boys’ club or a young person’s game, but a sprawling, middle-aged, predominantly English-speaking, urban matriarchy where even your grandma is probably online, scrolling past your posts while buying something.
Devices
- Mobile devices accounted for 58.67% of global website traffic in 2023
- Desktop usage fell to 40.12% of web traffic worldwide in 2023
- Android held 72.4% mobile OS market share for web access in 2023
- iOS captured 27.6% of mobile web traffic globally in 2023
- Chrome browser dominated with 65.3% share on all devices in 2023
- Safari usage was 18.7% primarily on Apple devices in 2023
- Tablet traffic declined to 4.21% of total web visits in 2023
- Windows OS powered 28.4% of desktop web traffic in 2023
- 5G connections enabled 22.3% of mobile web sessions in 2023
- Firefox browser share was 3.2% across devices in 2023
- Smart TV web browsing reached 2.8% of traffic in 2023
- Edge browser grew to 5.1% share in 2023
- Wearables contributed 0.9% of web traffic via browsers in 2023
- macOS held 15.6% desktop OS share for web in 2023
- Samsung Internet browser used by 4.7% on Android in 2023
- Linux desktop web share was 2.1% in 2023
- Foldable phones drove 1.4% mobile traffic growth in 2023
- Opera browser at 2.3% global share in 2023
- Gaming consoles web traffic 1.2% via browsers in 2023
- Chrome OS 1.8% desktop share in 2023
- UC Browser 1.9% in emerging markets mobile web in 2023
- Progressive Web Apps accessed on 43.2% devices in 2023
Devices Interpretation
While mobile devices now rule the digital kingdom—with Android as their dominant chancellor, Chrome as the universal gatekeeper, and our increasingly couch-bound scrolling making tablets seem almost quaint—our web traffic tells a story of a world firmly in its pocket, yet still clinging to its desktop crown.
Engagement
- Average daily time spent on websites per user was 6 hours 45 minutes in 2023
- Global email open rate averaged 21.3% for marketing campaigns in 2023
- Video engagement rate on websites reached 52.4% completion in 2023
- Social media referral engagement was 3.2 pages per session in 2023
- Average conversion rate for e-commerce sites was 2.5% in 2023
- Newsletter click-through rate hit 3.7% globally in 2023
- Time on site for blogs averaged 2:18 minutes in 2023
- 14.6% of landing page visitors converted to leads in B2B in 2023
- Mobile app-to-web engagement crossover was 41.2% in 2023
- Forum thread participation rate was 8.9% of views in 2023
- Personalized homepage engagement boosted 28.4% time on site in 2023
- Comment section interaction averaged 4.2% of readers in 2023
- Webinar attendance-to-engagement ratio was 67.3% in 2023
- Loyalty program members engaged 5.7x more in 2023
- Interactive quiz completion rate was 73.1% on sites in 2023
- User-generated content views per session +2.1 pages in 2023
- Live chat resolution engagement was 82.4% in 2023
- Gamification increased session depth by 47.2% in 2023
- Poll participation rate averaged 12.6% of visitors in 2023
- Retargeted ads lifted engagement 31.7% in 2023
- Average form abandonment rate was 81.3% in 2023
- Podcast player engagement on sites was 58.9% listen-through in 2023
- Loyalty email engagement rate 15.2% vs 8.7% promotional in 2023
- AR try-on feature boosted engagement 94.2% in 2023
- User feedback survey response rate 9.4% in 2023
- Dynamic content personalization raised CTR by 20% in 2023
Engagement Interpretation
This mosaic of digital metrics reveals a simple, often costly, human truth: we will gladly give our attention, but only to things that feel personal, effortless, and worth our while.
Traffic
- Direct traffic accounted for 36.4% of all website visits globally in 2023
- Search engines drove 53.3% of B2B website traffic in 2023
- Social media referrals made up 12.8% of e-commerce traffic in 2023
- Organic search traffic grew 9.7% YoY worldwide in 2023
- Email marketing generated 22.4% of total web traffic in 2023
- Paid search (PPC) contributed 15.6% of traffic for retail sites in 2023
- Referral traffic from forums was 4.2% globally in 2023
- YouTube referrals drove 7.1% of video site traffic in 2023
- Mobile app deep links brought 18.3% cross-traffic in 2023
- Influencer links generated 3.9% of fashion site traffic in 2023
- Display ads referral rate was 2.7% of total traffic in 2023
- SMS campaigns drove 6.4% of mobile web traffic in 2023
- Podcast mentions led to 1.8% spike traffic in 2023
- Affiliate links comprised 11.2% of publisher traffic in 2023
- Push notifications generated 4.6% of app-to-web traffic in 2023
- TV ad integrations drove 2.1% online traffic uplift in 2023
- Reddit referrals were 3.4% for tech sites in 2023
- Newsletter-exclusive links 8.7% of subscriber traffic in 2023
- Offline event QR codes generated 5.2% post-event traffic in 2023
- LinkedIn drove 24.3% of B2B lead traffic in 2023
- TikTok referrals surged 45.6% YoY to 6.8% share in 2023
- Print media QR codes contributed 1.9% traffic in 2023
- Facebook organic referrals dropped to 9.2% in 2023
- Google Discover traffic was 11.7% for content sites in 2023
Traffic Interpretation
The digital landscape is a noisy cocktail party where search engines and direct visitors are doing the serious talking, but every corner—from a QR code on a beer coaster to a whisper on a podcast—is vying for your attention with varying, and often surprising, degrees of success.
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