Quick Answer
How many people use DuckDuckGo in 2025?
80 million people use DuckDuckGo worldwide.
For our readers wondering how many people use DuckDuckGo in 2025, we heard you!
Google search has changed the way people get information.
It was good, at least for a couple of decades when people did not realize there are other platforms that can do what it does, but better.
At some point, internet users had just become fed up with Google’s constant tracking of one’s internet activities for ad revenue.
Gone were the days when you have to decline cookies website after website because that too gets tiring after some time.
How Many People Use DuckDuckGo in 2025?
First order of business, let’s talk about how many people use DuckDuckGo in 2025.
According to the company website, 80 million people use DuckDuckGo worldwide for their search needs.
Apparently, what people are looking for nowadays is a search engine that is straightforward, secure, and one that could bring them peace of mind.
This is more important to some consumers’ decision-making process than having a site that everybody else in the neighborhood uses.
For everyone’s information, 4,800 websites are injected with a formjacking code monthly.
In this situation, an attacker secretly inserts a malicious code on a site which would extract data once a user inserts their details on the page.
DuckDuckGo enforces automatic encryption whenever a user visits a site to avoid falling off to these kinds of schemes.
DuckDuckGo Daily Search Count Over the Years
Contrary to the popular belief, DuckDuckGo is not a new service. It launched in 2008 but did not gain its needed traction back then.
Three years after entering the market, it was only processing 170,000 daily searches which is comparatively smaller compared to Google.
During that time, the Alphabet-owned enterprise is already processing 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.1 trillion searches per year.
Take a look at the average number of searches DuckDuckGo processed daily from 2011 to 2021.
- Start of 2011 – the site processed 170,000 daily searches on average during the period
- Start of 2012 – the site processed 630,000 daily searches on average during the period
- Start of 2013 – the site processed 1.64 million daily searches on average during the period. DuckDuckGo hit one million search prompts daily for the first time
- Start of 2014 – the site processed 4.38 million daily searches on average during the period
- Start of 2015 – the site processed 7.14 million daily searches on average during the period
- Start of 2016 – the site processed 10.60 million daily searches on average during the period
- Start of 2017 – the site processed 13.47 million daily searches on average during the period
- Start of 2018 – the site processed 21.13 million daily searches on average during the period
- Start of 2019 – the site processed 34.37 million daily searches on average during the period
- Start of 2020 – the site processed 51.96 million daily searches on average during the period
- Start of 2021 – the site processed 95.27 million daily searches on average during the period
All About DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo boasts 5 million downloads from Chrome Web Store and 10 million downloads from Google Play Store.
But why are people so drawn to its service? The simple answer is that people are already fed up with being tracked with their internet activities.
Moreover, users love that it has a user-friendly interface.
Much like Google Search, DuckDuckGo’s landing page is pretty straightforward. It features a search bar where you will put your query.
Another reason is its counteractive measure against website trackers right before these hidden lurkers load.
The secure search engine leverages what it calls “3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection” which automatically blocks trackers from feeding on a user’s personal data.
No Browser History
DuckDuckGo also prevents websites from collecting a user’s browser history and the footprint of links one clicks during a browsing session.
Meanwhile, users may opt to allow the app to show their frequently-visited sites for easier identification later on.
To wrap up its long list of advantages, DuckDuckGo is free to use! Anyone can download it and use it to search for information as a default search engine.
DuckDuckGo currently occupies only 0.63% of the overall search market worldwide and 2.44% in the US market.
Google remains the dominant player and generates 100 billion searches a month compared to DuckDuckGo’s 2 billion.
Nevertheless, this private search engine has been gaining traction in the past years.
Below is the information from Statcounter Global Stats detailing the company’s share in the global search market from 2012 to 2021.
- 2012 – DuckDuckGo captured only 0.01% of the global search market four years after launching in 2008
- 2013 – the same trend has been observed the following year when it maintained only 0.01% of the global search market
- 2014 – DuckDuckGo’s market share increased slightly to 0.04% during the period
- 2015 – things started changing for the secure search engine and its market share hit 0.11% for the first time
- 2016 – DuckDuckGo captured 0.12% of the global search market during the year
- 2017 – DuckDuckGo captured 0.18% of the global search market during the year
- 2018 – DuckDuckGo captured 0.29% of the global search market during the year
- 2019 – DuckDuckGo captured 0.42% of the global search market during the year
- 2020 – DuckDuckGo captured 0.49% of the global search market during the year
- 2021 – last year, DuckDuckGo’s market share climbed to 0.63%, its highest threshold so far, as more internet users are becoming aware of the risks involved with unprotected online searching
DuckDuckGo’s Valuation
As with many startups, DuckDuckGo also sought financial backing from external investors. It generated a $3 million investment in 2011 and another $10 million in 2018.
The latest and biggest of all came in mid-2021 when it picked $100 million from a number of venture capitalists, which includes WhatsApp founder, Brian Acton.
DuckDuckGo had a total valuation of $74.8 million in 2018. At that time, analysts predicted exponential growth for the company, with a CAGR of 30%.
If such a forecast happens, this will raise its valuation to $740 million in a five-year timeline.
Conclusion
Nowadays, what internet seekers are looking for are simple tools that would promise them a good night’s sleep without worrying whether there will be a breach of their personal information and credit card details the next day.
This is why many are already taking proactive measures and switching their current service provider for something else that could give them better value while paying nothing in return.
Privacy and safety are always preferred more than popularity.
Thanks for reading our article on how many people use DuckDuckGo in 2025.
