Insight Out: The Midyear Metrics Issue
With June in the rearview and July heating up, now’s the time to pause, soak in the summer vibes (at least for those of us above the equator), and zoom out on a whirlwind first half of the digital year.
In this edition of Insight Out, we're diving right into generative AI’s real metrics, the social media soap opera, and the bigger digital stories behind the headlines, including a FIFA Club World Cup moment that's turning heads for more than just the score.
GenAI's main character era is still just beginning
Between Q4 2024 and Q1 2025, every major GenAI player saw a serious lift, including DeepSeek and Grok, which muscled their way into the spotlight this year.
GenAI tools are growing way faster than the social heavyweights. Makes sense! After all, Instagram and TikTok already live rent-free on most phones. But if things keep trending this way, ChatGPT could be just as baked into daily life. Imagine explaining that to your 2019 self.
Top 10 Overview: GenAI had a glow-up. Social is still climbing. The top dogs are hitting snooze.
Zooming out to the year-over-year view, GenAI is racing ahead like it just got a triple shot of espresso. Social platforms are still moving, but more of a slow scroll than a rocket ship. And those top 10 traffic magnets? Google, YouTube, Facebook. Still huge, but barely budging. It's giving legacy energy.
Gemini is fast on ChatGPT’s heels
ChatGPT landing in the top five most-visited sites is a flex, for sure. But now the question is whether it can keep growing at that pace.
Gemini is still behind by nearly 5 billion visits, but the gap is closing. Its growth rate is picking up speed, and OpenAI is clearly paying attention. When the numbers start shifting this fast, you don't wait for a headline to make a move.
Right as Gemini started gaining ground, ChatGPT hit a speed bump. The AI giant just logged its first traffic dip since December 2024. While it's not the only one (most of the global top 10 saw declines too!), it's probably not all that comforting for the team at OpenAI. Meanwhile, the only site to see real gains was Reddit, which is low-key acting like seasonality doesn't apply to them.
The billion-dollar bet on FIFA’s next big thing
FIFA is sparking backlash. Again. (What else is new?) This time it's because of the new 32-team Club World Cup that concluded on Sunday. Fans, players, and managers are divided down the middle.
The timing is brutal, landing right after a packed season and during a heatwave in the host nation, the US.
So why exactly did this tournament come to be? Well, sports network DAZN shelled out $1 billion for exclusive streaming rights. (A few months ago, the network also struck an investment partnership with Saudi Arabia’s SURJ Sports Investment—for, you guessed it, $1 billion.)
And did it work? Depends on who you ask.
After announcing that all matches would stream for free, DAZN's traffic spiked. We're talking up 300% month-over-month and 367% year-over-year!
DAZN actually fits how people watch sports now. Mobile-first, easy to navigate…nothing like the legacy feel of linear TV.
Plus, DAZN's app installs jumped, especially when stacked against a veteran sports competitor, ESPN. The momentum is real.
FIFA numbers didn't live up to the hype
FIFA 's traffic rose 207% in June compared to May. In total, the site brought in 33.34 million visits. However, that’s still below the 35.96 million seen during the Women's World Cup in August 2023, and well under December 2022 levels.
For a tournament packed with superstar talent and global fan bases, the digital response felt quieter than expected.
Cardiff says “Hello” to travelling Oasis fans
Summer is always concert season, but this one came with extra volume. Oasis kicked off their long-awaited reunion, not in London, not in Manchester, but in Cardiff.
Traffic to the "Cardiff" segment on Booking.com saw a year-over-year jump that weekend. The fans showed up. So did the clicks.
Birmingham takes a final bow
Just 116 miles from Cardiff, Ozzy Osbourne played his last show in Birmingham, closing out the final performance by Black Sabbath's original lineup.
It's the UK's second-largest city and Ozzy's hometown, but it usually ranks fifth in overall visits. That weekend, though, Birmingham owned the stage.
That's it for this month, but we'll be back soon with more data, drama, and digital plotlines!