📊 2026 data
Video chat and online dating statistics (2026)
As of April 2026, 6.12 billion people use the internet (73.8% of the world population) and 5.79 billion hold a social media identity. Around 380 million people use an online dating service, and more than half of global web traffic comes from mobile.
This page gathers the public figures that describe the random video chat and online dating market. Every data point comes with its source, the date it was measured and the date we last read it. No in-house numbers, no unsourced estimates.
Last updated :
At a glance
Internet and social media adoption
Share of the world population, April 2026.
- Use the internet73.8%
- On social media69.9%
- Offline26.2%
DataReportal — Digital 2026 Mid-Year Global Update Report
Mobile or desktop?
Share of global web traffic, Q2 2026.
- Mobile51.5%
- Desktop48.5%
Statista — Mobile web traffic share worldwide
Key figures
Each row links to the source that publishes the figure.
| Indicator | Value | Measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internet users worldwideNumber of people using the internet. | 6.12B | DataReportal — Digital 2026 Mid-Year Global Update Report | |
| Internet penetrationShare of the world population online. | 73.8% | DataReportal — Digital 2026 Mid-Year Global Update Report | |
| Social media identitiesActive accounts; one person may hold several. | 5.79B | DataReportal — Digital 2026 Mid-Year Global Update Report | |
| Social media penetrationShare of the world population concerned. | 69.9% | DataReportal — Digital 2026 Mid-Year Global Update Report | |
| New social identities in one yearGrowth over the previous 12 months — more than 800,000 a day. | +294M | DataReportal — Digital 2026 Mid-Year Global Update Report | |
| Online dating usersWorldwide estimate, all services combined. | 380M | Statista — Online Dating, Worldwide (Market Forecast) | |
| Online dating users expected by 2030Global market projection. | 475.1M | Statista — Online Dating, Worldwide (Market Forecast) | |
| Share of web traffic from mobileExcluding tablets, quarterly measurement. | 51.5% | Statista — Mobile web traffic share worldwide | |
| Omegle shutdownAfter 14 years, following lawsuits and repeated abuse. | November 8, 2023 | NPR — Video chat site Omegle shuts down after 14 years | |
| Chatroulette launchBuilt by Andrey Ternovskiy, then a 17-year-old high-school student in Moscow. | November 16, 2009 | Wikipedia — Chatroulette |
A market driven by video
Online dating involves around 380 million people worldwide, a figure market projections take to 475 million by 2030. At the same time, almost every internet user opens at least one social or messaging platform each month: talking online with people you don't know is no longer a niche habit, it is a mass behaviour.
Life after Omegle
On 8 November 2023, Omegle shut down after fourteen years. Its founder explained that the financial and psychological cost of fighting abuse and lawsuits was no longer sustainable. Millions of users moved to other chatroulettes — that shift is exactly why 'Omegle alternative' searches are still so strong.
Video chat happens on mobile
More than half of global web traffic now comes from mobile. For a chatroulette, that drives everything: camera permission in the mobile browser, vertical framing, data usage, load time. A service that is uncomfortable on a phone cuts itself off from most of its audience.
Sources
Accessed on August 20, 2026.
Method
We only publish figures from organisations that publish them themselves (DataReportal, Statista, reference press, Wikipedia for historical facts). Values are quoted as-is, with no recalculation or extrapolation. Audience measurements vary by methodology: a mobile traffic share counted in sessions is not comparable to one counted in HTTP requests, which is why the source is named on every row.