With over 1.13 billion clicks in June, AI platforms are fast becoming significant traffic drivers, especially for news and media
AI’s Growing Role in Web Traffic
In June 2025, AI platforms sent over 1.13 billion referrals to the world’s top 1,000 websites—a 357% year-over-year increase, according to market intelligence firm Similarweb.
- While still a fraction of Google Search’s 191 billion referrals, the rapid rise signals a paradigm shift in how users find content online.
- The surge is largely driven by ChatGPT, which accounts for more than 80% of all AI-generated referrals.
News and Media See Biggest Gains
The news and media category experienced a 770% increase in AI referrals compared to June 2024—though this growth is uneven and shaped by platform access policies.
- Yahoo topped the list with 2.3 million AI referrals, followed by Yahoo Japan (1.9M), Reuters (1.8M), The Guardian (1.7M), India Times (1.2M), and Business Insider (1.0M).
- The New York Times, which blocks AI access due to its lawsuit against OpenAI, saw limited benefit from this AI-driven surge.
At the same time, publishers are bracing for “Google Zero”—a scenario in which Google no longer drives meaningful traffic to news websites, further increasing the stakes for emerging AI referral channels.
AI Overviews Impact Click-Through Behavior
The click-through behavior associated with AI Overviews in Google is also becoming a flashpoint:
- A Pew Research Center study found that only 8% of users clicked through when AI summaries appeared in search results.
- When no AI summary was shown, click-through rates nearly doubled to 15%, indicating that AI may be suppressing user engagement with source links.
This is reshaping the digital publishing landscape, especially for outlets that rely heavily on search traffic.
E-Commerce, Tech, and Education Categories Also See Gains
AI referrals are rising across multiple sectors, not just media:
E-Commerce:
- Amazon (4.5M), Etsy (2.0M), and eBay (1.8M) led in June.
Tech and Social Media:
- Google (53.1M) saw the most referrals, followed by Reddit (11.1M), Facebook (11.0M), and GitHub (7.4M).
Other Notables Across Categories:
- YouTube (31.2M)
- Wikipedia (10.8M)
- NIH.gov (5.2M)
- ResearchGate (3.6M)
- Zillow (776K)
- Zara (325K)
These trends suggest that AI platforms are increasingly influencing discovery and decision-making, not just information consumption.
What’s Driving the AI Referral Boom?
The traffic explosion stems from a few key factors:
- AI chatbots becoming default search entry points for users seeking quick answers.
- Platforms like Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini joining ChatGPT in indexing and linking to external sites.
- A growing shift in user behavior, where AI assistants are becoming gateways to the web, not just endpoints.
Looking Ahead: Is AI the New Front Page?
AI referral growth is promising, but still dependent on access and transparency. Websites blocking AI crawlers may sacrifice traffic for data control. Those embracing AI platforms could see new referral streams, but risk losing brand visibility inside opaque AI interfaces.
- Publishers and platforms now face a strategic choice: fight AI, partner with it, or build their own discovery layers.
- Meanwhile, legal and ethical debates—like those surrounding OpenAI’s use of scraped content—will shape how sustainable this referral model becomes.
