The digital landscape is evolving rapidly, with AI-driven platforms gaining ground as significant traffic referrers. In June 2025, AI platforms generated a staggering 1.13 billion referrals to the top 1,000 websites globally, marking a 357% increase since June 2024. While Google Search remains the dominant traffic source, accounting for 191 billion referrals during the same period, AI referrals are emerging as a formidable force in the digital ecosystem.
News and media websites are witnessing a significant shift in traffic patterns, with many publishers bracing for "Google Zero," a hypothetical scenario where Google ceases to send traffic to websites. Recent data from The Wall Street Journal reveals that AI overviews have been detrimental to news site traffic. A Pew Research Center study found that AI overviews appeared in 18% of 69,000 searches, leading to users clicking links 8% of the time. In contrast, when there was no AI summary, users clicked links nearly twice as much, at 15%.
AI referrals to news and media websites have skyrocketed by 770% since June 2024. Notably, websites that block AI platforms, such as The New York Times, may rank lower due to legal disputes. In June 2025, Yahoo topped the AI referral chart with 2.3 million referrals, followed by Yahoo Japan (1.9M), Reuters (1.8M), The Guardian (1.7M), India Times (1.2M), and Business Insider (1.0M).
Similarweb's methodology for tracking AI referrals includes web referrals from AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, Perplexity, Claude, and Liner. ChatGPT dominates this space, accounting for over 80% of AI referrals to the top 1,000 domains.
E-commerce platforms also experienced a surge in AI referrals, with Amazon leading the pack at 4.5 million referrals in June, followed by Etsy (2.0M) and eBay (1.8M). In the tech and social media category, Google topped the list with 53.1 million referrals, trailed by Reddit (11.1M), Facebook (11.0M), Github (7.4M), Microsoft (5.1M), Canva (5.0M), Instagram (4.7M), LinkedIn (4.4M), Bing (3.1M), and Pinterest (2.5M).
Excluding OpenAI's website due to its heavy reliance on ChatGPT referrals, AI-driven traffic has become a game-changer across various domains. The top AI-referred sites in other categories include YouTube (31.2M), Research Gate (3.6M), Zillow (776.2K), Europa.eu (992.9K), Wikipedia (10.8M), NIH.gov (5.2M), Investing.com (1.2M), Home Depot (1.2M), Kayak (456.5K), and Zara (325.6K).
As AI platforms continue to gain traction in the digital space, their influence on website traffic is becoming increasingly evident. While Google Search maintains its dominance, the rapid growth of AI referrals signifies a new era in digital engagement, with AI-driven platforms poised to reshape the online landscape.