AI referrals to top websites were up 357% year-over-year in June, reaching 1.13B

The influence of AI on website traffic continues to expand, albeit still trailing behind Google Search. Recent findings from Similarweb reveal that AI platforms generated an impressive 1.13 billion referrals to the world’s top 1,000 websites in June, reflecting a staggering 357% increase compared to June 2024. Despite this growth, Google Search remains the dominant player in web traffic, accounting for a massive 191 billion referrals during the same month in 2025. Among the sectors feeling the impact of this shift is the news and media industry. Publishers are grappling with declining traffic and anxiously anticipating a scenario dubbed 'Google Zero,' in which Google ceases to direct users to their sites. A report from The Wall Street Journal highlighted how AI-generated summaries are adversely affecting traffic to news outlets. A recent Pew Research Center study underscores this trend, revealing that of 69,000 searches conducted by 900 U.S. Google users, 18% featured AI-generated overviews. These summaries resulted in a click-through rate of just 8%, significantly lower than the 15% observed when no AI summary was present. Notably, traffic to news and media websites from AI referrals skyrocketed by 770% since June 2024. In the competitive environment of news media, platforms are beginning to see varied success based on their openness to AI technologies. For instance, Yahoo led the charge with 2.3 million AI referrals in June 2025, followed closely by Yahoo Japan (1.9 million), Reuters (1.8 million), The Guardian (1.7 million), India Times (1.2 million), and Business Insider (1 million). The analysis from Similarweb categorizes AI referrals as any web traffic directed to a domain from AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and others. ChatGPT emerged as the frontrunner in this space, responsible for over 80% of AI referrals to the leading 1,000 domains. Beyond news, Similarweb's analysis explored various other categories, including e-commerce and social media. In the e-commerce sector, Amazon took the lead, with 4.5 million referrals, followed by Etsy and eBay with 2 million and 1.8 million, respectively. Looking at the tech and social media landscape, Google unsurprisingly topped the list with 53.1 million referrals, trailed by Reddit (11.1 million) and Facebook (11 million). The analysis also highlighted that AI referrals were notable across other domains, with YouTube receiving 31.2 million AI-generated visits, further demonstrating the growing role of AI in web traffic dynamics.