Sixteen years of first-party scan data — 578 million scan events, 68 million QR codes — answering the question most industry studies skip: what happens after someone scans?
Key findings
Seven findings, each backed by a number from the QRStuff platform dataset.
Dynamic QR scans declined 12.2% from 2024 (100.5M) to 2025 (88.2M) — post-surge normalisation, not channel collapse. Volume remains 2.7× above the 2018–2019 pre-pandemic average.
Source: QRStuff platform data. See Scan Trends chapter.
Of external QR destinations point to deep pages, not homepages. In a Q1 2025 sample of 63,691 external URLs, only 11.8% were generic home pages. QR is a bridge to specific digital experiences.
Source: Q1 2025 destination sample. See Destination Intelligence chapter.
Of external QR destinations carry visible campaign tracking parameters at creation. Among the highest-traffic codes, that rises to 12.5% — a 3.2× lift that reveals a structural measurement gap.
Source: Q1 2025 destination sample. See Measurement Gap chapter.
The half-life of a dynamic QR code created by a registered user has risen from ~5 months (2019 cohort) to 13 months (2024 cohort). Casual anonymous codes stay flat at ~5 months — the gap is the clearest sign QR is professionalising.
Registered-user scope only. Platform-wide half-life is flat (~4–6 months). See Lifecycle chapter.
India rose from #3 (4.8%) in full-year 2024 to #2 (7.0%) in full-year 2025 — the largest single-year scan-volume rise in the dataset. Germany climbed from #6 to #4 (5.3%); Turkey fell from #10 to #24. Comparable bi-weekly extracts both years.
Full-year 2024 vs 2025 geography. See interactive rank-change chart and Geography chapter.
Creation-year type mix shows QR evolving beyond URL links: WiFi, vCard, and utility types grew share from 2009–2025 while dynamic (tracked) codes became the majority of new creations. Milestone geography panels show Asia-Pacific gaining scan share.
Ex-Visualead creation cohorts. See Scan Trends chapter and interactive portal.
Of marketers report connecting QR scans to revenue — yet QR scan volumes remain at mainstream scale. Almost nobody connects scans to revenue, and that gap is the report's central finding.
Source: Uniqode State of QR Codes 2026 (survey of 524 U.S. marketers). See Measurement Gap chapter.
Report structure
Five research chapters, each targeting a distinct question that marketing, product, and operations teams ask about QR codes. Every chapter links to an in-depth page and an interactive data view.
Chapter 1
In a Q1 2025 sample, 82.7% of external destinations were deep pages. Combined quarterly samples (n=26,808) show documents & files, forms, and real-estate tours as the largest labelled deep-page categories after generic specific pages.
Read Destination IntelligenceChapter 2
The long arc of QR: from 5,813 scans in 2009 to a peak of 100.5M in 2024, then 88.2M in 2025. A 16.1% CAGR from 2018 positions QR as established infrastructure, not a pandemic fad.
Read Scan TrendsChapter 3
Comparable full-year 2024 and 2025 extracts: 101.9M geolocated scans across 239 countries in 2025. The US leads at 36.3%; India rose to #2 at 7.0% and Indonesia to #3 at 5.7%. Rank-change slopegraph in the interactive portal.
Read Geography DataChapter 3b
Creation-year type mix (2009–2025) and geography milestone panels show QR shifting from URL-only links toward WiFi, forms, and tracked dynamic codes — with scan share moving east across Asia-Pacific.
Read Scan TrendsChapter 4
Only 3.9% of QR destinations carry visible campaign tracking at creation. High-traffic codes show 12.5% — a 3.2× lift. The gap between QR reach and QR measurement is the defining challenge for marketers in 2026.
Read Measurement GapChapter 5
Multi-cohort survival analysis across six years of registered-user QR codes. The half-life of a registered user's dynamic code rose from 5 months (2019) to 13 months (2024). About half (48–53%) of dynamic codes are scanned in year one.
Read Lifecycle AnalysisStatistics
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Quick answers
QR scan volumes on the QRStuff platform have normalised after the pandemic-era surge. Dynamic scans reached 88.2 million in 2025, down 12.2% from 100.5 million in 2024 but 2.7x above the 2018–2019 pre-pandemic average. The compound annual growth rate from 2018 to 2025 was 16.1%.
In a Q1 2025 sample of 63,691 external QR destinations on the QRStuff platform, 82.7% pointed to deep pages (specific URLs with meaningful path components) and 11.8% pointed to homepages. QR codes are most often used to bridge physical contexts to specific digital experiences — forms, documents, media, and social profiles — not generic web entry points.
QRStuff recorded 88,206,725 dynamic QR code scans in 2025 and 100,470,117 in 2024 — a 12.2% year-over-year decline. These are platform totals, not an estimate of all global QR activity.
In QRStuff's comparable full-year 2024 and 2025 geography extracts (~101.9M geolocated scans in 2025 across 239 countries), the United States led with 36.3% of scans (down from 40.1% in 2024). India rose from third to second at 7.0%, Germany from sixth to fourth, and Turkey fell from tenth to twenty-fourth. The top 10 countries accounted for 72.6% of 2025 scans. Both years use the same bi-weekly chunked extract method.
Most don't — yet. Only 3.9% of external QR destinations in the QRStuff Q1 2025 creation sample carried visible campaign tracking parameters (UTM, gclid, etc.). However, high-traffic QR programmes show higher tracking rates: 12.5% of the top-scanned destinations carried campaign parameters, a 3.2x lift over the creation average. A separate 2025 marketer survey by Uniqode found only 12% of marketers connect QR scans to revenue.
QR code durability has increased significantly for codes created by registered users on the QRStuff platform. The half-life of a registered user's dynamic QR code rose from approximately 5 months (2019 cohort) to 13 months (2024 cohort). About half of dynamic QR codes (48–53%) are scanned at least once in their first year. Lifecycle patterns vary greatly by content type and campaign maturity.
The QRStuff State of QR Codes Report 2026 is a free market-facing industry report built from QRStuff's first-party platform data — one of the longest-running QR datasets available, covering dynamic scan logs from 2009 through 2025. It covers long-term scan trends, destination intelligence, lifecycle analysis, geography, and the QR code measurement gap. Download the PDF free or explore the interactive data portal.
Data provenance
This report is built from QRStuff's first-party platform data — read-only aggregate extracts from a MySQL replica of the QRStuff production database. Dynamic scan logs span 2009 through 2025. The public data tier contains aggregate-only outputs; no raw URLs, customer names, account IDs, or device identifiers are published.
Data was extracted in three phases: core scan and destination data (June 2025), geography census (June 2026), and lifecycle analyses (June 2026). The underlying SQL is reproducible and versioned for audit purposes.
Full methodology details: Interactive portal methodology tab · PDF Chapter 10
For journalists & researchers
Full citation
QR Code Generator Inc. (2026). The QRStuff State of QR Codes Report 2026. QRStuff. https://www.qrstuff.com/scan-report/
Preferred anchor text (for links)
QRStuff State of QR Codes Report 2026Embed link
<a href="/scan-report/">QRStuff State of QR Codes Report 2026</a>All statistics should be attributed to "QRStuff platform data" or "QRStuff State of QR Codes Report 2026." External statistics (Juniper Research, Pew, Uniqode, NRA) retain their original attribution. See the statistics page for per-stat source lines.
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