CNN (425 million) remains the most-visited news site in the US despite an 11.8% year-on-year decrease in traffic — the only fall among the top ten besides Fox News (258.1 million), which lost 22.5% of its October 2023 traffic. Thirty websites in the top 50 also saw their visits grow year-on-year in October, as well as eight of the top ten. The Los Angeles Times (23.7 million visits) and Washington Post (102.4 million) saw the sixth and eighth largest drops, falling by 7.9% and 6.6% respectively compared with October. Among the top ten most-visited sites specifically, all but two sites saw some year-on-year growth. The biggest traffic pullback in the top ten was at USA Today (143.6 million, down 29.4%), followed by CNN (356.6 million, down 22.5%) and Fox News (253.6 million, down 17%). Some 32 sites grew their total number of website visits year on year, according to Similarweb.
Among the top ten sites in the US, three were up compared to June 2024 (New York Times, People, BBC and Google News) and seven saw an increase compared to May. This is despite The Independent seeing the biggest year-on-year fall in traffic, down 56% to 16.4 million. In July, BBC saw a 15% month-on-month drop in views following the launch of a dynamic paywall for users in the US at the end of June. September was a busier news month, including the assassination of right-wing activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk. Syndication website MSN saw the biggest drop year on year among the top ten by more than a third (39.5% to 144 million visits). Athlon Sports followed Forbes in year-on-year traffic decline with a drop in visits of 48% to 290.3 million, along with AP News (down 46% to 78.5 million visits).
ABC News (83.5 million visits) saw the most growth between June and July, increasing traffic 81%. The largest gains month-on month were at political and hard news sites, again reflecting a historic July for news. The most notable result of the change appears to be that it has bounced CNN (525 million visits) ahead of The New York Times (385.7 million) to retake the top spot on the traffic ranking. Year-on-year, however, the fastest growth was at sports publisher Athlon Sports, which has been the case among the US top 50 every month since May.
Month-on-month, however, all but one of the top ten saw traffic rise in March compared with February. Among the ten most-visited news sites in the US, the AP was followed by People magazine (158.3 million, up 14%) for year-on-year growth, then by aggregator Google News (121.1 million, up 9%) and The New York Times (492.5 million, up 6%). The Atlantic saw a jump of more than 40% month on month amid its blockbuster story published on 24 March revealing its editor had been accidentally added to a Trump administration group chat about military strikes in Yemen.
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Also possibly reflecting interest in the US presidential election, the fastest monthly growth among the top 50 was seen at Real Clear Politics, where visits were up nearly 40% compared with September. Among the broader top 50 news sites in the US, sports news site athlonsports.com (34.7 million) continued its reign as the fastest-growing publisher, nearly quadrupling its web visits compared to October 2023. Among the ten most-visited news sites in the US, Forbes (118.4 million visits) saw the greatest growth, increasing 42.7% compared with October 2023 and 4.7% compared with September 2024.
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AP News (98.8 million, up 21%) and Variety (43.8 million, up 19%) also saw growth of over or close to a fifth. Fastest-growing was long-standing sports publisher Athlon Sports, which entered our top 50 for the first time in 33rd place (35.9 million visits, up 962% year-on-year). People meanwhile retook fifth place following its strong growth, with Yahoo Finance (154.4 million) falling into seventh.
- The New York Times maintained its position in second place, with 361.8 million visits, and Fox News was third on 293 million.
- The site has since rolled out its inaugural paywall, the effects from which will only become visible next month.
- The sharpest month-on-month fall was seen at January’s fastest grower, The Los Angeles Times.
- Some 32 sites grew their total number of website visits year on year, according to Similarweb.
- Fastest-growing was long-standing sports publisher Athlon Sports, which entered our top 50 for the first time in 33rd place (35.9 million visits, up 962% year-on-year).
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The same two sites topped the table for monthly growth with visits to Athlon Sports up 126% and visits to Moneywise up 70% compared to April. It was followed by two News Corp titles, foxnews.com (269.1 million visits) and nypost.com (160.8 million), which were both up 8% month-on-month. The only sites to see visits decline month-on-month were the US website of the UK’s The Sun newspaper (37.1 million) and Athlon Sports (27.5 million), which both dropped 3%.
All of the top-ten most-visited news sites in the US saw traffic growth when compared with June, according to figures from digital intelligence platform Similarweb. Among the top ten news sites by US traffic People magazine again saw the most year-on-year growth in August, having also been the fastest annual growers in April, May and June. The biggest riser already on the charts was progressive news site Raw Story, which climbed eight spots to 37th place on the back of a 24% month-on-month traffic increase to 33.2 million. The contraction is particularly pronounced among the top ten US news sites by traffic, where eight publishers saw visits drop compared to July. Going the opposite direction, however, was the US outpost of fellow British publisher The Sun (22.2 million visits), which dropped 15 places to 50th on the back of 34.9% month-on-month and 65.1% year-on-year traffic declines. Athlon Sports (up 218.4% year-on-year to 35 million) was the fastest riser in the ranks of the top 50, jumping eight places to 33rd on the back of 18% month-on-month traffic growth, the second most growth of any publisher in the top 50.
The biggest month-on-month decline was seen at NBC News, dropping 30% to 67.7 million visits. The New York Post (down 33% to 97.7 million visits) and USA Today (down 32% to 125.4 million) had the second and third biggest year-on-year declines within the top ten sites in October. In total 35 sites saw month-on-month decline, with Variety decreasing the most (down 22% to 17.4 million visits), followed by The Sun (down 16% to 21.9 million) and US News (down 14% to 19.6 million). Some 15 sites saw month-on-month growth, with Newsweek the most visited site to see a boost – up 21% to 82.3 million. Datasets are based on direct measurement (i.e. websites and apps that choose to share first-party analytics with Similarweb); contributory networks that aggregate device data; partnerships and public data extraction from websites and apps. Similarweb generates its traffic data by applying machine learning and modelling to the statistically representative datasets Olika speltyper that the company collects.