End-of-year DNSFilter Report: What We Learned From DNS Stats

As we ring in the new year, we wanted to take a look back at internet traffic over the last 365 days—along with all of the different discoveries we made.

Our DNS data helped us uncover a lot of interesting trends in 2021, and we spent the most time on crypto by far. Our CEO, Ken Carnesi, explored domains related to the Monero cryptocurrency and what that means for the future of crypto. We also did our best to declare a winner in the streaming wars, share every single need-to-know DNS stat, and explain why Facebook went down (and why it took so much of the internet with it).

We saw an unexplained rise in TikTok traffic, and we hypothesized that a new feature was responsible. Since our investigation, they’ve become the No. 1 most-trafficked site according to recent rankings.



That initial spike we saw in February is now nothing compared to the steady growth TikTok has seen on our network, particularly since September of this year. After traffic plummeted on Christmas Day, traffic skyrocketed to double its usual traffic between the 26th and 29th of December.

Could this be another influx in DNS queries related to an update? Or is that report correct, and this is the new normal. If we include the TikTok ecosystem domains associated with the app as a single domain, it would be the No. 1 domain on our network.

But doing that would be unfair to Microsoft, Apple, and the other top-placing sites that have an ecosystem all their own.

So what were the top sites on DNSFilter in 2021? And what did we block the most? Let’s find out.


The top domain of 2021 was Microsoft, followed closely by Apple, two different Akamai domains, and finally Amazon. It shouldn’t be too surprising that Microsoft is at the top of the list since it powers so much web infrastructure related to our working lives.

As for the most-blocked domains, the numbers aren’t all that different…


Microsoft is such a popular domain, plenty of our users block it. They also block ad-related domains like Doubleclick, social media sites like Facebook, government sites like Bldrdoc.gov, and shopping sites like Gv2.com.

These sites relate to our most-blocked categories (excluding threats):


IT, business, advertising, social networking, and media sharing topped the lists of categories our users wanted to block. Now as for threats…


It’s not that surprising that there are more proxy sites than there are phishing sites in 2021, so we wind up blocking more of them. Our users seem to be concerned with blocking the ability to bypass filtering (we can’t blame them) as well as privacy.

When you tall it all up from January through November 2021, this is how many threats we blocked:


In December alone, not included in the above numbers, we blocked nearly 50 million threats.

We expect more of the same in 2022. The threats will evolve, and we’ll be here to protect you from them.

Want a downloadable full threat report of 2021? Make sure to check it out the DNSFilter Domain Threat Report here!

Search
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.
Latest posts
What the ISO 27001 Regulation Means for DNS Security in 2025 What the ISO 27001 Regulation Means for DNS Security in 2025

Why DNS Security Matters for ISO 27001 Certification

DNS security is more than just a technical concern—it’s a pillar of ISO 27001 compliance. As businesses work to protect sensitive data, secure network infrastructure, and meet regulatory requirements, DNS security solutions play a critical role in achieving ISO 27001 certification and ensuring compliance with evolving security standards.

Platform, Fires, and You: Navigating the Fine Line Between Operations and Development Platform, Fires, and You: Navigating the Fine Line Between Operations and Development

The Old-School Operations Role: Backbone or Bottleneck?

In the early days of IT, the operations team was the unsung hero—the silent, and often siloed, force that kept everything running. They were responsible for the infrastructure: Servers, databases, and networks that powered the business. They managed deployments, monitored systems, and ensured uptime. If it was working, no one noticed them. If it wasn't? Well, then the questions started: "Wha...

The Hidden Risks of Refreshing Old Threats The Hidden Risks of Refreshing Old Threats

When Vintage Goes Viral (In All the Wrong Ways)

Remember that time you found your old Tamagotchi and thought, "Hey, this could be fun again"? Well, cybercriminals are having a similar nostalgic moment, but instead of resurrecting digital pets, they're breathing new life into outdated malware and long-forgotten data breaches. Welcome to the world of recycled cyber threats, where everything old is terrifyingly new again.

Explore More Content

Ready to brush up on something new? We've got even more for you to discover.