Biggest websites for news US: Top 50 updated each month

All but eight of the 50 most-visited news sites in the US saw traffic growth in March compared to February, with a third seeing at least 10% growth in the longer month. Men’s Journal was the fastest growing top-50 news website in the US in May, quadrupling its traffic compared to the same month a year earlier. Of the 50 biggest news websites by visits in June, 34 saw month-on-month growth (up from 15 in May) and 29 saw a year-on-year increase (up from 14 last month). Al.com saw the biggest month-on-month growth at 14%, and was one of just six websites to see an increase in visits compared to July. The only other site in the top ten to see growth both compared to September 2024 and August 2025 was The New York Times, up 9% month on month and 3% year on year to 461.6 million visits in first place.

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In the broader top 50 both climate news site The Cooldown (25.4 million, up 123.1% month-on-month) and sports news site Athlon Sports (54.1 million, up 38.7%) saw significant growth compared with November. Among the ten most-visited news sites in the US almost every publisher posted traffic gains in January, with the UK-based BBC in particular (125.8 million visits, up 13%) re-entering the top-ten. 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. Climate news site The Cooldown (51.6 million visits, up 52%) was the fastest grower month on month, followed by The Atlantic (30.4 million, up 43%). 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.

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UK newsbrand The Independent (25.7 million, up 44%) also made the top ten for growth, ranking 39th in the top 50. Newsweek was the fastest-growing news site in the US in February while climate news startup The Cooldown entered the list in 42nd position, according to Press Gazette’s latest ranking. The Daily Mail remained the best-ranked British newsbrand in the ranking (rank 11, 113 million visits), just ahead of the BBC (rank 12, 106.9 million).

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 that the company collects.

• 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 biggest month-on-month web traffic declines were also the New York Post (down 15% to 97.7 million visits), followed by Newsweek (67.8 million) and CNN (297.1 million), both down 14%.
• Men’s lifestyle magazine Men’s Journal recorded the highest year-on-year and month-on-month growth among the top 50 news websites in the US in December.
• It was followed by India Times (26.8 million visits, up 82% year-on-year), one of several Indian publishers to climb up the rankings in the past year.

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The BBC recorded 100.2 million website visits in the US in July, according to digital intelligence platform Similarweb. 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. India Times (up 33% to 26.9 million), aggregator Newsbreak (32.2 million) and Alabama-focused al.com (18.9 million) also saw double-digit year-on-year growth in August. The New York Post (down 34% to 93.5 million) and MSN (down 28%) saw the biggest year-on-year declines in the top ten. Sign up for Press Gazette’s weekly Future of Media US newsletter on Substack for more stories like this Men’s Journal therefore rejoined Press Gazette’s top 50 ranking, having also featured with significant growth in May and June 2025.