Original research

Link Click Statistics (2026):
What over 420,000 Real Clicks Reveal

We analyzed an aggregate, fully anonymized sample of over 420,000 link clicks across 5,700+ tracked links to find out how people actually click — what device they use, where they are, when they click, and whether anyone is tagging their links at all.

Key findings

  • Desktop edges out mobile — desktop drove 57.6% of tracked link clicks vs 41.6% on mobile, the opposite of the mobile-first assumption.
  • Chrome dominates the browser mix at 55.3%, with Safari (26.0%) a distant second.
  • The United States led by country at 27.3% of all clicks, ahead of Russia (10.5%) and India (8.5%).
  • Thursday is the standout day, capturing 23.0% of weekly clicks — nearly a quarter of the week in a single day.
  • Most clicks are first-time visits: 65.3% were unique, 34.7% repeat.
  • Attribution is the big gap — 81.5% of clicks came from links with no UTM tags, so 4 in 5 links can't see their true source.

Device split: desktop edges out mobile

Despite the mobile-first narrative, desktop drove 57.6% of tracked link clicks against 41.6% on mobile, with tablets a rounding error at 0.8%. Tracked links skew toward intentional, considered clicks — newsletters, docs, and work links opened at a desk — rather than casual mobile taps. Read the full device breakdown.

Share of clicks by device type
  • Desktop57.6%
  • Mobile41.6%
  • Tablet0.8%

Desktop: 242,282 clicks · Mobile: 174,805 clicks · Tablet: 3,315 clicks

Browser share: Chrome runs the table

Among clicks where a browser was identified, Chrome accounted for 55.3% — more than double Safari at 26.0%. Edge (14.8%) outpaced Firefox (3.8%), a reminder that if you only QA your destination pages in one browser, Chrome and Safari cover the overwhelming majority of real visitors.

Share of identified-browser clicks
  • Chrome55.3%
  • Safari26.0%
  • Edge14.8%
  • Firefox3.8%

Geography: the United States leads, but the long tail is global

The United States topped the table at 27.3% of all clicks, ahead of Russia (10.5%) and India (8.5%). After the top three the distribution flattens fast into a long, genuinely global tail — Germany, the UK, Tunisia, Iraq, and beyond — so localized landing pages and timezone-aware sends matter more than a single home market suggests. See the full country distribution.

Top 10 countries by share of clicks
  • United States27.3%
  • Russia10.5%
  • India8.5%
  • Germany7.3%
  • United Kingdom6.6%
  • Tunisia3.5%
  • Iraq3.5%
  • Canada1.9%
  • Philippines1.8%
  • Greece1.8%

United States: 114,781 clicks · Russia: 44,234 clicks · India: 35,799 clicks · Germany: 30,718 clicks · United Kingdom: 27,595 clicks · Tunisia: 14,648 clicks · Iraq: 14,578 clicks · Canada: 8,014 clicks · Philippines: 7,722 clicks · Greece: 7,707 clicks

Timing: Thursday is the peak

Clicks are far from evenly spread across the week. Thursday alone captured 23.0% of weekly clicks — nearly a quarter of the week in one day — while the weekend slumped to 9.3% (Saturday) and 9.9% (Sunday). If you only have the bandwidth to schedule one big send, mid-to-late week is where the audience is. See the best time to share a link.

Share of clicks by day of week
  • Monday14.4%
  • Tuesday15.5%
  • Wednesday14.7%
  • Thursday23.0%
  • Friday13.2%
  • Saturday9.3%
  • Sunday9.9%

Monday: 60,656 clicks · Tuesday: 65,143 clicks · Wednesday: 61,981 clicks · Thursday: 96,486 clicks · Friday: 55,463 clicks · Saturday: 39,227 clicks · Sunday: 41,446 clicks

Unique vs repeat: most clicks are first-time

65.3% of clicks were unique first-time visits and 34.7% were repeats. That roughly two-thirds / one-third split means raw click counts overstate reach by about a third — track unique clicks if you want an honest read on how many distinct people a link actually reached.

Unique vs repeat clicks
  • Unique (first-time) clicks65.3%
  • Repeat clicks34.7%

Unique (first-time) clicks: 274,502 clicks · Repeat clicks: 145,900 clicks

UTM tagging: 4 in 5 links fly blind

The biggest blind spot in the data: 81.5% of clicks came from links carrying no UTM parameters at all, with only 18.5% tagged. Four out of five links can't tell you which channel actually drove the click. Adding a consistent UTM scheme is the single cheapest attribution upgrade most teams are leaving on the table. Read the UTM tagging benchmarks.

Tagged vs untagged clicks
  • No UTM tags (untracked source)81.5%
  • Tagged with UTM parameters18.5%

No UTM tags (untracked source): 342,714 clicks · Tagged with UTM parameters: 77,688 clicks

Methodology

How this data was collected

Based on an aggregate, fully anonymized analysis of over 420,000 link clicks across 5,700+ shortened/tracked links on Track Link in 2026. No personal data, individual links, or user information is included — only aggregate distributions (device, browser, country, time, and tagging).

All figures on this page are aggregate and anonymized — they contain no personal data, no individual links, users, IP addresses, or locations beyond country-level counts. Percentages are computed from group-by counts and may not sum to exactly 100% due to rounding and unidentified values. Data pulled June 2026.

See where your clicks really come from

Create tracked links with UTMs, then watch device, country, and timing data land in real time. Start free.

Start tracking for free