Early web applications relied on static HTML to present information on the web. As these applications evolved, they became more dynamic, initially pulling data from a single backend database. However, as websites grew more complex, the need arose to gather data and content from multiple databases, both within and outside the organization.
APIs became essential for this process, enabling web applications to retrieve and display information from various sources. Today, an average web application may make dozens or even hundreds of API calls just to load a single page, and users can generate thousands of API calls in a single day. This makes APIs a crucial component of modern web applications.