Everyone assumes the web is mobile-first. But across over 420,000 tracked link clicks, desktop quietly came out ahead — 57.6% desktop versus 41.6% mobile.
57.6%
Desktop
41.6%
Mobile
0.8%
Tablet
The headline
Across over 420,000 clicks on 5,700+ tracked links, desktop took the largest share. The gap is not huge, but it is the opposite of the "mobile dominates everything" narrative you usually hear about web traffic. Tablets are a rounding error.
Desktop: 242,282 clicks · Mobile: 174,805 clicks · Tablet: 3,315 clicks
Why
The headline isn't that mobile is dead — it's that the kind of links people bother to track skews toward desktop audiences. Shortened and instrumented links are disproportionately marketing, newsletter, and B2B destinations. Those clicks tend to land during the working day, often from a desktop browser open at a desk.
Email is a big driver here. A large slice of tracked links live inside newsletters and campaign emails, and a meaningful share of that audience reads email on a laptop or desktop client. B2B and SaaS links — documentation, demos, pricing pages — are even more desktop-heavy, because people open them while working rather than while scrolling a phone.
General web browsing really is mobile-first. But the moment you filter down to links worth wiring up with UTMs and a custom domain, the audience shifts toward larger screens. That is the contrarian point of this report: aggregate mobile-share charts don't describe the traffic that link trackers actually see.
Browsers
Of clicks where a browser could be identified, Chrome leads by a wide margin at 55.3%. Safari sits second at 26%, and Edge takes 14.8% — a notably high share that reinforces the Windows-at-work picture. Firefox rounds out the set at 3.8%.
Operating systems
Despite desktop's lead in raw device share, the operating system breakdown is strikingly even. Windows (33.7%), Android (32.4%), and macOS (31.9%) land within two points of each other, with Linux at 1.9%. Android keeps mobile firmly in the picture even as desktop edges the overall count.
Methodology
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).
This report uses aggregate, anonymized data only. It contains no personal data — no individual links, users, email addresses, IP addresses, cities, or raw user agents.
Frequently asked questions
In this dataset, desktop slightly leads. Desktop accounted for 57.6% of tracked clicks, mobile for 41.6%, and tablets for 0.8%. That runs counter to the common "mobile-first" assumption, but it reflects the mix of links people track: marketing, B2B, and link-in-bio destinations are frequently opened on work computers and during the business day.
Tracked and shortened links skew toward marketing, newsletter, and B2B use cases. Those audiences often read email and click campaign links from a desktop browser at work, where Chrome and Edge on Windows dominate. General web browsing is more mobile-heavy, but the subset of links worth instrumenting with UTMs and custom domains tends to be opened on larger screens.
Chrome is the clear leader at 55.3% of clicks where a browser could be identified, followed by Safari at 26% and Edge at 14.8%. The combined Chrome and Edge share is consistent with a desktop-heavy, Windows-leaning audience.
The split is remarkably even across the top three: Windows at 33.7%, Android at 32.4%, and macOS at 31.9%, with Linux at 1.9%. The near three-way tie shows that while desktop edges out mobile overall, the underlying platforms are well balanced.
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).
No. The report is built entirely from aggregate, fully anonymized distributions. It contains no individual links, users, email addresses, IP addresses, cities, or raw user agents — only grouped counts and the percentages derived from them.
Country-level share of tracked clicks across 5,700+ links.
Day-of-week and hour-of-day patterns in tracked clicks.
The share of clicks that arrive from tagged sources.
Track any URL and see device, browser, and location.
Measure clicks, devices, and locations on every link.
Browse every original-data report in one place.
Track Link breaks every click down by device, browser, OS, and country in real time. Create a tracked link and watch the data land.
Start tracking for free