Most of the top newsbrands in the US saw web traffic growth in October following two months of declines.
All but one of the ten most-visited news sites in the US, and almost four in five of the top 50, grew their visits compared with September.
Thirty websites in the top 50 also saw their visits grow year-on-year in October, as well as eight of the top ten.
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.
It was followed by USA Today (185.3 million, up 41.6% year-on-year) and the website of People magazine (157.4 million, up 32.3%), which were the only other top-ten sites to see double-digit growth compared with 2023.
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.
The broader traffic bounce back may reflect increased news interest in the run-up to the US election, which happened in the first week of November. The Fox web traffic decline contrasts with the network’s reported surge in TV viewership around the election.
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.
It was followed by The Daily Dot (28.2 million, up 200.7%), Real Clear Politics (23.3 million, up 158%) and Newsweek (111.3 million, up 110.9%). British news site The Independent (34.8 million), which claimed in November to have become the biggest British-born news site in the US according to Comscore data, also notched 70.4% year-on-year growth.
Month-on-month, CNN’s traffic stayed largely flat, growing 0.3%. At the start of October the site deployed a new paywall, which does not appear to have immediately hurt its web visits.
Fox also lost approximately 1% of its US web visits in October compared with the month before. The fastest-growing top-ten site month-on-month was USA Today, followed by aggregator Google News (122.4 million, up 8.6%) and People.
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. Newsweek (up 20.1%), The Atlantic (26.6 million, up 16.2% month-on-month), The Washington Post (109.7 million, up 8.7%) and Substack (53.9 million, up 7.9%) were similarly among the fastest growers.
On the other end of the scale the fastest year-on-year traffic losses were seen by the Los Angeles Times (25.8 million, down 30% on October 2023), the Daily Mail (104.1 million, down 22.8%) and Fox News.
Despite its robust politics offering, Axios (23.3 million) was the top 50 site with the largest monthly traffic fall, losing 17.4% of its visits compared with September. It was followed by The Independent (down 12.4% month-on-month) and Business Insider (64.3 million, down 11.8%).
Since November Similarweb has excluded the figures for edition.cnn.com in its report to Press Gazette since they are counted under the main domain. Visits to edition.cnn.com however make up a very small share of all visits to the CNN domain in the US.
Similarweb generates its traffic data by applying machine learning and modelling to the statistically representative datasets that the company collects. 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. The sites in the list are based on Similarweb’s classification of news and media publishers, although Press Gazette refines the list to exclude some sites with a less journalistic focus.
Continue reading for previous months’ coverage of the top 50 websites for news in the US:
September 2024
Almost all the top 50 news sites in the US saw traffic fall in September, deepening a decline that began in August.
But for most publishers visits have nonetheless improved year-on-year, with three-fifths of the top 50 recording traffic increases of at least 10% compared with September 2023.
All of the ten most-visited news sites in the US saw traffic drop compared to August. The contraction was sharpest at Yahoo Finance (down 11.3% month-on-month to 144.4 million visits) and third-placed Fox News (down 11.2% to 260.2 million).
In August eight of the top ten publishers saw month-on-month decline, which marked a correction after an eventful July (in which the Paris Olympics kicked off, Joe Biden left the US presidential race and Donald Trump was shot).
Major news events in the US in September included Hurricane Helene hitting North Carolina, a second failed assassination attempt against Trump, and the first TV debate between him and Kamala Harris.
In September the shallowest traffic falls were recorded at The New York Times (down 1.9% to 355 million) and Forbes (down 2.1% to 113 million). Despite the drop September’s ranking reflects the first time Forbes has entered the US top ten after jumping three places to ninth. Google News (visits down 6.7% to 112.7 million), meanwhile, fell out of the top ten.
CNN, which was again the most visited site in the US, saw visits fall 4% to 424 million. The site has since rolled out its inaugural paywall, the effects from which will only become visible next month.
The Daily Mail (down 7.5% month-on-month to 113 million), which was the ninth most popular news site in the US in both July and August, dropped in September to tenth.
The only riser within the top ten, besides new entrant Forbes, was People, which was up one spot despite visits dropping 9.5% month-on-month to 147.2 million.
September saw the re-entry of The Atlantic into the top 50 (visits down 0.2% month-on-month but up 15.2% year-on-year to 22.9 million) after it dropped off in August. Far-right website Gateway Pundit, which entered the chart at 48th last month, has in turn fallen out of the top 50.
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 only site to see a larger rise in visits compared with August was CBS News, where traffic rose 20.7% to 92.5 million, translating to a five-place rise on the charts.
Another notable riser was local publisher SF Gate (up six places to 36th on the back of a 0.4% month-on-month traffic drop, to 29.3 million) and libertarian blog Zero Hedge (25.2 million), which rose five places to 40th despite a 7.7% traffic decline.
The UK’s The Independent, which has been on a US expansion campaign, saw some fruits from that bid in September: it was one of the four sites to see month-on-month traffic growth (rising 5.7% to 39.7 million) and notched year-on-year growth of 88.3%, the fourth highest overall.
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. The Sun recently made steep cuts at its US operation.
After Athlon the fastest-growing site in the US year-on-year was The Daily Dot (up 174.2% year-on-year to 29.2 million), which entered the top 50 for the first time in August. They were followed by Newsweek, where visits rose 115.1% year-on-year to 92.6 million. Newsweek’s rapid rise up the charts has stalled in recent months: having been in the top ten in July it fell out last month and in September placed 14th.
All but two of the ten most-visited sites in the US in September saw year-on-year traffic growth. New top ten entrant Forbes was also the fastest-growing site in the group, seeing visits rise 48% compared with September 2023. It was followed by People magazine (up 37.8%), USA Today (up 29.6% to 166 million) and The New York Times.
The two top ten sites to see year-on-year traffic declines were Fox News (down 0.7%) and Mail Online, where visits dropped 7.2%.
August 2024
Two-thirds of the top news sites in the US saw traffic shrink month-on-month in August following a bumper July.
But the picture is rosier over a longer timespan, with three-quarters of the top 50 publishers seeing year-on-year growth in visits in August.
The contraction is particularly pronounced among the top ten US news sites by traffic, where eight publishers saw visits drop compared to July.
In July every site in the top ten saw month-on-month traffic growth, likely driven by blockbuster news events including the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s departure from the presidential race.
But in August People.com (162.6 million visits) and Yahoo Finance (162.8 million) were the only top ten sites to continue growing their traffic, by 3% and 2% respectively.
The biggest drop came at CNN, which saw visits fall 16% to 441.4 million. It nonetheless remained the most-visited news site in the US, a position it has held since Similarweb updated its data model in June and pushed the site ahead of The New York Times.
The New York Times maintained its position in second place, with 361.8 million visits, and Fox News was third on 293 million.
Yahoo Finance and People both shuffled up the board one spot to sixth and seventh place respectively, pushing the New York Post (150 million visits, down 7% year-on-year) down to eighth.
Mail Online remained steady at ninth place with 122.2 million visits while Google News (120.8 million) jumped three places to tenth despite losing 4% of traffic month-on-month, displacing Newsweek (115.7 million) from the top ten.
Further down the rankings The Daily Beast was the highest debuting publication, entering the top 50 at 39th place after seeing traffic rise 22% month-on-month to 30 million. The other new entrants in August were Dailydot.com (29.8 million, 40th place), NJ.com (26.6 million, 47th) and Newsbreak.com (25.7 million, 50th).
The four sites that dropped off the top 50 to make room for them were climate site The Cooldown, which had been enjoying a rapid traffic rise in recent months, local publishers Patch.com and KSL.com, and current affairs magazine The Atlantic.
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. It was followed by UK news site The Independent (up six places with 37.6 million) and the Los Angeles Times (up five places with 28.5 million).
Among all top 50 sites The Daily Dot grew fastest month-on-month, seeing traffic rise 25%.
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. The site received 374% more visits in August 2024 than in August 2023, reaching 29.6 million. The next fastest growth was at Newsweek, where traffic rose 158%, and the Daily Dot (88%).
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. July’s fastest year-on-year riser, USA Today, followed in second place in August.
