Cloudflare just released their “2024 Year in Review” report – a detailed document that dives into the key trends and patterns shaping the web over the past year.
This annual tradition (which started in 2020) is where Cloudflare brings together insights from their rather massive global network and dataset, and turns all that data into a story about how the online world is evolving.
I’ll be honest with you, it’s my first time paying attention to this report, but I’m really fascinated by the insights that they’ve been able to deliver. It’s an opportunity for all of us (website owners) to explore the forces behind the internet as we use it every day, and perhaps walk into 2025 a little more prepared. 👍
(You can read the original report here.)
“What’s this about anyway and why should I care?”
Cloudflare has its Radar tool and a network spanning more than 330 cities in over 120 countries, processing millions of HTTP and DNS requests every second. The data generated from all this activity powers the insights in the report, providing a unique perspective on everything from AI bot traffic and browser market share to some of the most “dangerous” TLDs on the web (yep, there are those).
Cloudflare also says that this year’s report goes further than the four previous ones (2020-2023), adding new metrics like connection tampering incidents, AI trends, and more.
Understanding these trends – such as where traffic is rising, which devices are most commonly used, and how users reach your content – can help you refine your content strategy for the coming year and more effectively tailor site performance optimizations.
In the sections ahead, I’ll share what I’ve managed to piece together going through the report, what they reveal about the internet in 2024, and what it all means for website owners going forward.
Here’s what’s up:
Key takeaways first
- 🚀 Cloudflare says that global web traffic grew by 17.2% in 2024 alone(!), continuing a multi-year trend.
- 🤔 Growth was relatively flat in the first half of the year but accelerated from August through November.
- 🔥 Google is still the most popular web service overall. Others like Facebook, WhatsApp, Binance, and, of course, OpenAI led their respective categories.
- 📱 Mobile accounted for 41.3% of global web traffic. In some countries, this number goes up to even 70%+.
It’s fascinating that we’re still seeing global web traffic rise this much in just a year. This is startup-level kind of growth, rather than something you’d expect from a technology that’s 40 years old.
More traffic worldwide might sound like a net positive to every website owner, but nuance lies in where that traffic comes from, how stable it is, and perhaps more importantly, where it goes. Martin talked about some of that in his recent look into the ever-changing landscape of Google search and giants like Reddit who seem to be taking over many of the results pages.
Cloudflare’s data indicates that the growth is coming mainly from developing countries and emerging markets (for example, Guinea’s web traffic grew 350%). They also report on outages or even government blocks in certain locations. This means that you should prepare for heavy traffic swings if those emerging markets are important to your operation online.
On the other hand, stable mobile-to-desktop ratios indicate that while the mobile revolution may have plateaued, you still need to refine your user experience for both form factors in equal manner. At the same time, it does seem that mobile use will not continue growing too heavily in the near future any longer.
Winners and losers
- 🏆 Google stayed on top, while OpenAI’s ChatGPT ruled AI chatbots.
- 📱 On mobile, Android dominated in lower-income countries, and iOS took the lead in wealthier regions.
- 🤝 Google search referrals stayed at 88% globally, but local competitors like Naver in South Korea remind us that search ecosystems vary.
- 🎛 Chrome controlled 65.8% of the browser market globally, but Safari’s dominance on iOS means that platform nuances matter a lot.
Understanding where your audience finds you and how they browse is a strategic puzzle.
If you aim to expand in regions adopting new-breed engines or solutions over Google (we mentioned a couple of those over on Themeisle), consider tailoring content and SEO strategies accordingly.
Likewise, if a big chunk of your users are on iOS, doubling down on Safari performance optimization – or compatibility at the very least – sounds smart. For example, performance monitoring solutions like my favorite WebPageTest allow you to emulate specific user browsers when measuring your load times.
But let’s not focus on technical tweaks alone. User devices should also inform marketing spend, localization strategies, and even pricing models.
A word on connectivity
- 🌍 Top countries ranked by internet speed all averaged downloads above 200 Mbps. Spain stood out for speed, latency, and quality.
- 📟 IPv6 adoption crept upward to 28.5%. While IPv4 still reigns, IPv6-readiness helps future-proof sites and drive fast content delivery, especially in markets where IPv6 is common.
Speed and protocol readiness influence how users perceive your brand. If your core audience resides in a broadband-rich environment like the aforementioned Spain, you can safely invest in richer media experiences, real-time interactions, and immersive designs.
However, perhaps beware of complacency. Even high-speed audiences won’t tolerate slow load times due to bloated code or unoptimized images. I’m not breaking any news when I say that if a page takes longer than around three seconds to load, the likelihood of the user bouncing increases significantly. There were reports on that.
On the protocol side, enabling IPv6 isn’t just future-proofing. In certain markets and networks, IPv6 support can (allegedly) deliver snappier connections and position your site as more accessible, potentially giving you an edge over competitors still clinging to IPv4-only setups.
Most hosts these days allow you to configure an IPv6 address for your setup, btw. And it’s usually free, given that the key players of the web try to do whatever it takes to grow IPv6’s popularity.
Security watch
- 🥷 Cloudflare reports to have mitigated 6.5% of total traffic as suspicious or malicious.
- 🤖 The US leads global bot traffic, and cloud platforms make launching automated attacks easier.
- 👾 Older vulnerabilities still matter – such as Log4j.
- ✉️ 4.3% of emails were malicious on average.
- 🛡️ Some TLDs are essentially spam zones.
A rise in malicious traffic and persistent vulnerabilities means site owners still need good security tools working for them. Hardening defenses, maintaining updated WAF rules, and continuous monitoring help keep sites safe and maintain customer trust.
Even when you’re running your site on WordPress, security has never been a set-it-and-forget-it task – basically requiring only installing a plugin. You need to do more.
Cloudflare’s reported mitigation rates rising year-over-year means that there’s more and more threats lurking in the dark. Leaning into security best practices isn’t just risk management, and especially when EU is out there waiting to fine you literally millions of Euros if you fail to protect your users.
And, last but not least, email. If your business relies on email marketing or user communications, understanding threat trends should help you secure your channels. Ensuring your brand’s emails pass DMARC checks and filter out spammy domains preserves reputation and ensures customers actually see your messages.
Cloudflare says that deceptive links and identity fraud are the top threats in email inboxes. Plus, they report that highest percentage of problematic messages come from TLDs like: .bar, .rest, .uno, .best, and .click.
This list of domains looks very surprising to me, and that’s because those aren’t even the cheapest domains. For instance, while registering a .bar will cost you only $3.48, renewing it costs $64. Or maybe spam domains done live out to be two-years-old?
The bigger picture
The Cloudflare data shows that as the internet grows – faster speeds, more devices, richer experiences – it also becomes more complex and at times more dangerous. While infrastructure and user habits evolve, there’s no shortage of attacks, outages, and shifting traffic patterns worldwide.
This complexity is a double-edged sword. On one hand, there are more opportunities to engage with audiences globally, and better tools to analyze and optimize performance.
On the other, more complexity means more risks. Being proactive, staying informed on traffic and security trends, and adopting best practices for site performance, SEO, security, and email deliverability can help you stay ahead in the digital race, but it’s also a lot – a lot(!) – of work. And the to-do list doesn’t seem like it’s going to get any shorter in 2025 either.
I hope these insights will help guide your decisions, making sure your corner of the web brings you only the good stuff!
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