DuckDuckGo’s Once-Rapid Growth Has Slowed, Leaving It Steady But Struggling To Expand Its Market Share

For years, DuckDuckGo was the privacy hero of the search engine world, winning over users tired of being tracked, profiled, and fed ads tailored to their every click. But in 2025, its story looks less like a meteoric rise and more like a controlled glide. The search engine still commands a loyal base, yet its expansion has hit a wall.

Where It Stands Today

• Global market share: 0.54% (5th place worldwide)
• Desktop market share: 0.71%
• Mobile market share: 0.46%
• US market share: about 2% (4th place behind Google, Bing, and Yahoo)

Those numbers aren’t disastrous. In fact, they’re remarkably consistent, showing that DuckDuckGo isn’t losing users en masse. But they also reveal the core problem, growth has slowed to a trickle.

From Surge To Slowdown

Not long ago, DuckDuckGo was on a hot streak. Between 2020 and 2021, daily searches soared 73%. People were freshly aware of online privacy issues, and DuckDuckGo was the easy, tracker-free alternative. But from 2021 to 2022, that surge dropped to just 17% growth. Since then, the curve has flattened.

On mobile in the US, Yahoo even managed to reclaim the #2 spot, pushing DuckDuckGo into third place. That reversal signals not just a loss of momentum, but also the difficulty of maintaining visibility in a market dominated by entrenched players.

Why The Brakes Hit

Several challenges are keeping DuckDuckGo from climbing higher:

• Innovation gap: While Google rolls out constant updates, AI-powered summaries, and ecosystem integrations, DuckDuckGo’s feature set evolves more slowly.
• Privacy limits localization: Protecting user data means less personalization, which can result in weaker local search results compared to data-hungry rivals.
• Lack of default status: Without being pre-installed as the default search option on major browsers or devices, most people have to actively switch to it, and many simply don’t bother.
• Market saturation in its niche: Many who care deeply about privacy have already made the jump, leaving fewer new converts.

A Steady Niche In A Turbulent Market

Even without explosive growth, DuckDuckGo remains a serious player in the privacy-first tech movement. Its user base is fiercely loyal, valuing anonymity over hyper-tailored results. And with ongoing debates about data misuse, government surveillance, and AI-driven profiling, its relevance isn’t fading.

However, the big question is whether DuckDuckGo will find a way to break past its privacy niche. Could it expand its market share with smarter features, better partnerships, or a bold rebranding? Or will it settle into its current role, a respected, stable, but small alternative to the giants?

For now, DuckDuckGo isn’t falling behind, but it isn’t racing ahead either. It’s cruising, steady at altitude, waiting to see if the winds of public opinion shift back in its favor.