The average size of the web page is equal to the size of the installer Doom

^{Note. The arithmetic average does not accurately reflect the real picture.}

Finally, the moment came when you can honestly say: web is doomed, and this will not be an exaggeration. According to the statistics of HTTP Archive , in April 2016 the average size of the web page was equal to the size of the installer of the cult game Doom .

Remember this game with a built-in 3D rendering engine, numerous levels, maps, sprites and sound effects? All this is now equal to one average web page.

The graph above clearly demonstrates what is called the obesity crisis sites (by the way, the article on obesity sites on Habré takes 12.2 MB). For some reason, the average size of text-based pages has been steadily growing for many years in a row. The good news is that in recent months, growth has slowed down a bit, but the trend is still frightening. What was considered a “fat” page yesterday is today considered the norm, and tomorrow will be a model of elegant design.
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Did the web pages have more information? Why does a page with a tweet of a few words take up more megabytes?

If you analyze the HTTP Archive statistics, you can see several interesting trends . For example, if you compare the size of the web pages of top 10 sites with all other sites.



As you can see, on the most popular websites web pages are much smaller in size than on the rest. And one more interesting thing: while the entire web gradually grows fat, the most popular sites become easier!

A smart reader will notice that there are several search engines among the top 10 sites, so it’s easier for them to keep themselves in shape. But still, the second point remains: the reduction of their volume.

2015 was clearly a year of crisis for the web, writes Ronan Cremin, lead web developer at Afilias Technologies. - Many events signal how low the performance has gone: iOS implemented ad blockers, Facebook and Google announced technologies to speed up web page load, even the NY Times compared online advertisements with alcohol: as Homer Simpson said, alcohol - This is the cause and solution of all life problems. The same can be said about online advertising, because of which, to a large extent, web pages are being expanded. Not surprisingly, more and more users are deciding to install ad blockers, and after Safari in iOS, developers of other browsers are considering integrating the ad blocker into a standard browser.

The problem is that we do not pay attention to performance, says Ronan Kremin: “The new JavaScript module of the gallery? Sure why not? Wow, the new web font looks good here, why not add a new analytics tool, since we're here? Should I reduce the picture to 6000 pixels? Oh, the browser will take care of it instead of us. ”

In principle, what is happening now is quite normal. This is often the case with technologies - they go from early experiments to excessive abuse, and then everything settles down to its normal state. It seems that the performance of web pages now also gradually becomes a priority. Slowly but surely, changes are occurring. For example, WordPress added support for responsive images in version 4.4 - this alone should significantly affect the average size of web pages on the Internet, because under WordPress 26% of all websites operate. Drupal 8 does the same thing.

Feedback will begin to appear. When key sites improve their performance, the rest will seem even slower. Google may even go further - and lower the position of "slow" sites in search results. Then the need for optimization will reach even the most stolidly.