Google searches per U.S. user fell nearly 20% YoY: Report

U.S. Google searchers are searching far less than a year ago, according to a new Datos/SparkToro report. The data suggests Google isn’t losing users — it’s losing repeat searches.

Why we care. Google still dominates search, but it’s changing in significant ways. Fewer searches per user means fewer opportunities for clicks, ads, and traffic — even if total search volume looks steady.

By the numbers. Google desktop searches per user fell nearly 20% year over year, based on clickstream data from tens of millions of U.S. users.

• That drop stands in sharp contrast to Europe, where searches per user declined by just 2% to 3%.
• Even with fewer searches per person, traditional search still makes up about 10% of all U.S. desktop activity — a share that stayed nearly flat throughout 2025.

What’s driving the drop. AI-powered answers and instant results are the most likely cause, according to the report:

• Users increasingly get what they need without running multiple follow-up searches.
• Zero-click searches remain high but are no longer accelerating, leveling off in the low-20% range by year-end.
• Repeat searches and clicks within Google-owned properties show only minor changes, indicating behavior has settled at current levels.

AI is reshaping search. AI is being layered into search, not pulling users away from it. Despite constant AI hype, the report found:

• AI tools still account for less than 1% of total U.S. desktop activity (0.77%), even after strong year-over-year growth.
• Google AI Mode remains small, at about 0.06% of U.S. desktop events by December, though adoption continues to rise steadily.

Queries get longer. One of the clearest behavioral changes is how people search. Per the report:

• Mid-length queries of six to nine words are growing fastest in the U.S.
• Very long queries of 15 words or more remain rare but show higher volatility, signaling experimentation.
• Overall, users seem more comfortable expressing complex needs directly in search.

Discovery gets harder. Search-driven discovery is more concentrated — and tougher to break into. Post-search destinations remain largely unchanged, according to the report:

• YouTube, Reddit, Amazon, Wikipedia, and Facebook still dominate.
• ChatGPT climbed to No. 7 among U.S. search destinations, making it one of the few meaningful movers.
• Quora dropped out of the top 15.

AI’s dominant few. Traffic from AI tools overwhelmingly flows to established platforms — Google, YouTube, GitHub, and Wikipedia — not to new or independent publishers. Among AI platforms:

• ChatGPT remains the leading AI tool in the U.S., reaching roughly one-quarter to one-third of desktop AI users.
• Google’s Gemini emerged as the clear No. 2, growing steadily throughout 2025 and overtaking DeepSeek.
• Other tools, including Claude, Perplexity, and Copilot, remain niche with no breakout adoption.

What they’re saying. Rand Fishkin, co-founder and CEO of SparkToro, said in the report:

“The big highlight here is the decline in # of Google searches/searcher from 2024–2025. It’s a nearly 20% decline in the US, though only 2–3% in the EU/UK. Other studies have shown that Google is sending less traffic than in years past, especially to the long-tail of the web, and I suspect that AI answers have dramatically altered the way many users engage with Google, answering their questions before they ever need to click on an organic result or perform a second/third/fourth search.”

The report. Q4 State of Search report

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