How Many Reviews Are There Online?

Reviews are the number 1 driver of trust for people all over the world. Reputation is earned, and AI has instigated a return to this. For the first 30 years of the internet, the waters were muddied by spammers and grey-hat SEO, manipulating the search results. Now we are returning to this tried and true metric being the number 1 reason a product is bought.

How many reviews are there online? Worldwide. In Total.

By my calculations there are more than 5 billion reviews online worldwide. 

Methodology and Data Verification

This is an approximate figure based on data discovered on Backlinko, where Brian Dean revealed that there were around 308 million reviews on Yelp at the start of 2025. This fugure was traced back to Yelp itself in a press release, summarising 2024. The artcile also stated hat the number was 7% higher than the year before, 2023. 

Yelp accounts for around 6% of all searches on the internet. So I just needed to work out what 100% was if 6% is 308 million. That came to 5,133,333,333 aka over 5 billion reviews online. We are now in November so it's safe to say well over 5 billion reviews on all platforms.

Other Review Statistics

69% of people are happy to leave a review if you ask them. This is a big reason why BTO (brand trust optimization) is so important. When you don't ask you don't always get. Only 42% of people leave a review when they have interacted with a business. If you ask in the appropriate way and if you optimize, you can double the number of reviews for your company. 

57.5% of all brand reviews in the world are on Google Maps. (source: Google AI Mode)

81% of people read reviews on Google before deciding whether to buy a product or service. This is the 2024 figure (sourced from AI Mode). Up from 73%. The trust trend is peaking soon.

What are the best reviews?

Personal recommendations were the most valuable signal before the internet. Getting recommended by friends, family, or work colleagues was the most important signal during the Google Search era too. Although not when it came to ranking websites. Google used backlinks to rank sites. Over time links were devalued as SEOs tried to manipulate rankings. 

During 2025 we saw the rise of alternatives to organic search. ChatGPT has been the major player, and most people take the recommendations from AI as a serious recommendation. More than other online reviews, because of the method of receiving them. In voice mode people feel more connected, and trust is enhanced. 

When you combine a personal recommendation with an AI recommendation. You are going to see the best conversion rates. Optimize everything and you will gain trust and be fruitful. Remember that just like links, review velocity is a ranking factor, so don't sleep once you have a few.