Average webpage is now as big as first Doom

Individual pages of websites are currently on average as large as the files required to install Doom, the game classic that appeared in 1993. That’s what web developer Ronan Cremin calculated.

The Doom install image is approximately 2250 kilobytes in size and according to figures from Http Archive the average size of a web page is currently 2301kB. Ronan Cremin predicted in July 2015, already the time when web pages would be as large as the installation files for Doom. In the end, he was wrong with his calculation for two months, because the growth in page size has slowed down slightly.

That web pages are now the size of a full game is not just a remarkable fact; Cremin also wants to make a point. He believes that more attention should be paid to the size of web pages. After all, Doom is a game with a 3d render engine, multiple levels and accompanying sound effects. In 2016, websites struggle to display one page with the same file size.

Cremin does note that web pages of the top ten most visited websites have actually become smaller in recent years. In 2014 that category was still good for about 1500kB per page, now it is less than 1200kB. According to Cremin, the growth of web pages is not only the result of advertisements, but also because of the many features that are added, such as web fonts and analytics. Cremin’s message is that developers have not focused enough on performance and web page size in recent years.