The BBC was up 27% month on month and 19% year on year to a total of 118.6 million visits in the US in September, making it the eighth biggest site by this metric. Across the top 50, 14 sites saw a month-on-month increase in traffic, with US-based politics site The Hill leading growth (up 45% to 44.4 million visits). Only 12 sites saw year-on-year growth across the top 50, with the biggest increase in traffic for The Times of India (up 43% to 25.2 million visits), Substack (up 39% to 74.9 million) and News Break (up 38% to 32.2 million).
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Celebrity news website People and the BBC were the only sites in the USA top ten to post year-on-year traffic growth. The biggest decline among the top ten were at MSN, down 28% year on year and 8% month on month to 168 million visits. The biggest increases were at The New York Times (up 9% year on year to 474.5 million visits) and CNN (up 14% month on month to 356.7 million). Many of the biggest news websites in the US moved back into growth in June, according to the latest data from Similarweb. The biggest decline in the top ten was at syndication website MSN, down 10% month on month and 38% year on year to 145.2 million visits in fifth place.
- The California newspaper, which has seen traffic dip in recent months, recorded 42.3 million visitors last month, up 118% compared with December 2024 according to Similarweb.
- Among the nine websites to lose traffic month-on-month, five saw decreases of 2.1% or lower.
- Visits to bbc.com in the US were down 15% in July as the British public service broadcaster introduced a paywall to users in America.
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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. 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 Eastern European Dairy Consumption Concerns And Profits visits compared to October 2023.
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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. 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. 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. 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 year-on-year drop among the top ten was seen at Gannett’s USA Today, which shed 17% of its March 2024 traffic to attract 134.7 million visits last month. Three in five of the top 50 news websites in the US recorded year-on-year growth, with the biggest percentage increase seen at sports news site Athlon Sports. Rival title The Mirror, which is yet to feature in the top 50 US news websites, grew 631% year on year to 15.1 million visits in April 2025 according to Similarweb data. Substack rose to 19th position with growth of 42.5% year on year to 67.7 million visits in the US for its network of newsletter-driven websites. Only 15 out of the top 50 news websites in the US grew traffic year on year in May, according to the latest data from Similarweb. More than half (29) of the 50 biggest news websites in the US saw a month-on-month decline.