{
  "kind": "tracker",
  "studySlug": "citation-sources",
  "slug": "top-cited-domain-tracker",
  "title": "Top cited domains in the live index",
  "description": "Current head domains in Trakkr’s live public citation graph.",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-10-14",
  "lastTested": "2026-10-14",
  "sourceStudyUrl": "/trakkr-research/citation-sources",
  "sourceStudyTitle": "AI Citation Index",
  "claimIds": [
    "citation-sources:youtube-share",
    "citation-sources:google-share",
    "citation-sources:top-three-share"
  ],
  "relatedSlugs": [
    "answer:how-concentrated-is-the-ai-citation-landscape",
    "answer:does-ai-rely-more-on-reference-sites-than-the-open-web",
    "fact:the-citation-graph-spans-hundreds-of-thousands-of-domains"
  ],
  "methodologySummary": "Built from 80,769,585 citation appearances across 725,777 unique domains in the latest valid snapshot for 1,928 tracked brands, observed from October 3, 2025 to October 14, 2026.",
  "limitations": [
    "The index is a changing panel of tracked brands and prompts, not a random sample of all AI responses.",
    "Domain share is observational. It does not establish causal influence or reveal the full retrieval set.",
    "The hand-maintained source taxonomy is partial: 88.40% of citation appearances remain in “other”.",
    "Model attribution, response-level citation denominators, geography, raw prompts, and raw responses are not retained in the public aggregate."
  ],
  "keywords": [
    "AI citations",
    "citation sources",
    "AI source preferences",
    "domain authority in AI"
  ],
  "schemaHints": {
    "pageType": "WebPage",
    "includeDataset": true,
    "includeItemList": true,
    "itemListName": "Top cited domains in the live index"
  },
  "summary": "YouTube, google.com, and Reddit form the current head, but together account for only 5.82% of citation appearances.",
  "keyFacts": [
    {
      "label": "YouTube share",
      "value": "2.75%",
      "detail": "youtube.com ranks first with 2,222,347 citation appearances.",
      "claimId": "citation-sources:youtube-share"
    },
    {
      "label": "google.com share",
      "value": "1.56%",
      "detail": "google.com ranks second with 1,261,575 citation appearances.",
      "claimId": "citation-sources:google-share"
    },
    {
      "label": "Top three domain share",
      "value": "5.82%",
      "detail": "YouTube, google.com, and Reddit together account for 5.82%.",
      "claimId": "citation-sources:top-three-share"
    }
  ],
  "benchmarkRows": [
    {
      "label": "Top three domain share",
      "value": "5.82%",
      "note": "YouTube, google.com, and Reddit together account for 5.82%."
    },
    {
      "label": "Citation appearances",
      "value": "80.8M",
      "note": "80,769,585 appearances in the verified October 14, 2026 snapshot."
    },
    {
      "label": "Unique domains",
      "value": "725,777",
      "note": "Distinct normalized domains in the current brand snapshots."
    }
  ],
  "rankedItems": [
    {
      "name": "youtube.com",
      "value": "2.75%",
      "detail": "The current top cited domain in the public citation index."
    },
    {
      "name": "google.com",
      "value": "1.56%",
      "detail": "The second-ranked domain in the current snapshot."
    },
    {
      "name": "reddit.com",
      "value": "1.50%",
      "detail": "The third-ranked domain in the current snapshot."
    },
    {
      "name": "en.wikipedia.org",
      "value": "1.35%",
      "detail": "The fourth-ranked domain in the current snapshot."
    },
    {
      "name": "linkedin.com",
      "value": "0.68%",
      "detail": "The fifth-ranked domain in the current snapshot."
    }
  ],
  "changes": [
    {
      "title": "YouTube still ranks first",
      "detail": "youtube.com holds 2.75% in the verified October 14, 2026 snapshot."
    },
    {
      "title": "google.com moves up to second",
      "detail": "google.com holds 1.56%, up from fifth place in the August snapshot. English Wikipedia is now fourth, down from second."
    },
    {
      "title": "The top three hold 5.82%",
      "detail": "The observed head is measurable, but the index does not assign a causal reason for those rankings."
    }
  ]
}