Which Ethereum Layer 2 Has the Most Users?
By daily activity, Base is the most-used Ethereum Layer 2 in 2026: it leads in daily transaction count and active addresses, and on many days settles more transactions than Ethereum mainnet — together, Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism account for roughly 90% of L2 activity. By capital secured, the ranking differs, with Arbitrum and Base swapping the lead depending on the week and the data provider (L2BEAT, growthepie, or DeFiLlama each use slightly different definitions).
- ✓Base leads L2s in daily transactions and active addresses in 2026
- ✓Base/Arbitrum/Optimism together make up about 90% of L2 activity
- ✓L2s as a group now carry about 94% of all Ethereum transactions
- ✓Value-secured rankings differ — verify the metric definition before quoting it
The two answers hidden in the question
"Most users" has no single number because people count it two ways. On activity — transactions per day and active addresses — Base has led since its consumer growth wave in 2024 and extended the lead in 2026, settling more daily transactions than Ethereum mainnet on a routine basis. On capital — total value secured on the rollup — Arbitrum and Base contend, and the lead changes with the market because the measure is denominated in assets that fluctuate. L2BEAT at various points in 2026 put Arbitrum ahead on value secured while growthepie's data showed Base ahead; neither is wrong, they slice differently.
The context: how concentrated the L2 world is
Layer 2s as a category process around 94% of all Ethereum transactions in 2026 — roughly 30 million transactions per day against about two million on mainnet — and the top three (Base, Arbitrum, Optimism-family) account for about 90% of that. So "which L2 has the most users" is really a question about who leads a market that has already eaten its parent chain's activity.
For verification I use three sources: growthepie for daily-active fundamentals, L2BEAT for value secured and risk stages, and DeFiLlama for chain-level TVL. Each publishes its methodology, which matters more than the headline number. My own stats page tracks the fee side of the same picture, and the live tracker shows what activity costs on the two leading chains right now.