What they did
Ahrefs took the top three visible citations from 1 million Google AI Overviews and checked where each cited page ranked in Google for the same query.
What they found
76.10% of cited pages ranked in Google's top 10. 9.50% ranked between positions 11 and 100, and 14.40% ranked beyond position 100. The first cited URL sat at a median position of 2.
How much weight to give it
The citation count of 1.9 million is very large, and it measures Google's own Overviews rather than third-party assistants, so it speaks directly to ranking as a citation signal.
What it doesn't prove
One vendor, a July 2025 snapshot, and correlation rather than cause. Ahrefs' own later study with better citation detection put the top-10 share at 38%, so treat 76% as period-specific, not fixed.