London: A new report has revealed that millions of people across the world continue to use weak and predictable passwords in 2025.
A cybersecurity study by Comparitech analysed more than two billion passwords leaked in data breaches this year, finding that the most commonly used one remains “123456.”
Familiar Choices Still Dominate the List
The analysis found that the top three passwords: “123456”, “12345678”, and “123456789”, were used by millions of accounts globally. Also among the top ten were “admin”, “password”, and simple numerical combinations such as “12345” and “1234”.
Comparitech’s top ten most-used passwords were as follows:
123456
12345678
123456789
admin
1234
Aa123456
12345
password
123
1234567890
Almost one in four of the top 1,000 passwords contained only numbers, while 38.6% featured the sequence “123”. Variations of “password” appeared in nearly 4 percent of cases, and “admin” appeared in 2.7 percent.
Short Passwords and Regional Variations
The report also highlighted a few regionally distinctive passwords. “India@123” appeared at rank 53, while “minecraft”, inspired by the popular video game, ranked 100th and appeared nearly 90,000 times.
Experts recommend using passwords with at least 12 characters, as length remains one of the most effective defences against hacking. However, 65.8 percent of passwords examined were shorter than 12 characters, leaving them at higher risk of being compromised.
The findings show that, despite widespread awareness of online security risks, many users continue to choose convenience over safety when protecting their accounts.
