OpenAI and Temu Lead Digital 100 List for High Volume Websites

Here is what we found by applying the Digital 100 methodology to websites with more than 10 million monthly visits

While it’s more challenging for large websites to achieve double-digit or triple-digit growth rates like the midsize ones featured in our recently released Digital 100 report, OpenAI and Temu are two that pulled it off in 2023. They achieved year-over-year traffic increases of 2,690.6% and 701.4%, respectively, according to Similarweb estimates.

OpenAI is the creator of ChatGPT, the website and app that brought generative AI to national attention, while Temu is the online retailer with roots in China that has achieved tremendous success with tremendous discounts. These are just two of the sites highlighted in our study applying the Digital 100 methodology for recognizing digital business growth to very large websites.

By design, the Digital 100 reports released last week for the US and other countries recognize small-to-midsize businesses that have achieved impressive growth, highlighting category-by-category winners. In general, the minimum qualification for consideration was that a website averaged at least 100,000 monthly visits in 2023 and 50,000 in 2022. For this report, we looked across all categories at sites that averaged at least 10 million visits in 2023 and at least 5 million in 2022.

Here are some of the highlights:

The Digital 100 10M+ Top 10

Although OpenAI was in business for years before the launch of ChatGPT, traffic to its website exploded after the tool’s launch in late 2022 and kept expanding (despite a few ups and downs) over the course of 2023, when traffic increased by 2,690.6%.

Discount shopping sensation Temu achieved a year over year increase of more than 701.4%, and another online merchant with connections to China, Ali Express, grew traffic by 290%.

The #9 website in this ranking, Snapchat, is better known as a mobile app but improved its web app version in 2023.

Computers, Electronics, and Technology

The category with the most fast-growing domains was Computers, Electronics, and Technology – which covers a lot of ground – with 21, led by OpenAI. Aside from AI, security and privacy were prominent themes among the fast rising websites Ad Block Plus, Proton, Duo Security, and the Brave web browser amongst others.

Games

Fortnite has been an important name in gaming for years, but the brand revitalized itself in 2023, surging ahead during the Black Friday / holiday shopping season and finishing the year with traffic up 237.4%. Gaming news sites Gamerant and Dexerto also increased their traffic by more than 50%.

Sports

Sports Illustrated more than doubled its traffic, with a 104% year-over-year increase, and the college sports site ON3 came close to matching that momentum with a 96.5% increase.

News and Media

Financial publication The Street more than doubled its traffic, with a 106.4% increase, while Fortune, CBS News, and Science Alert achieved double-digit increases.

Finance

Synchrony Bank, which topped our Digital 100 list for financial services last year, notched another 82.2% traffic increase in 2023, while SoFi and CashApp increased web traffic by more than 50%.

The full list

Note that the full list includes a few domains that serve as url shorteners or redirects to other sites, such as a.co for amazon.com, which got more use in 2023. We filtered out 16 pornographic domains, one of which would otherwise have come in at #10.

The Similarweb Insights & Communications team is available to pull additional or updated data on request for the news media (journalists are invited to write to press@similarweb.com). When citing our data, please reference Similarweb as the source and link back to the most relevant blog post or similarweb.com.

Contact: For more information, please write to press@similarweb.com.

Report By: David F. Carr, Senior Insights Manager

Methodology

Disclaimer: All names, brands, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The data, reports, and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb consist of or include estimated metrics and digital insights generated by Similarweb using its proprietary algorithms, based on information collected by Similarweb from multiple sources using its advanced data methodologies. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of such data, reports, and materials and shall have no liability for any decision by any third party based in whole or in part on such data, reports, and materials.

by David F. Carr

David covers social media, digital advertising, and generative AI. With a background in web trends since the 1990s, he’s also the author of "Social Collaboration for Dummies".