The Metro has climbed ahead of The Sun’s total print circulation for the first time, new ABC figures have revealed.
The free newspaper distributed 1,472,437 copies in February, down 0.25 per cent year-on-year, against The Sun’s 1,465,000 circulation, an 8 per cent drop year-on-year.
The Sun’s figure includes its Saturday edition, whereas the Metro only distributes Monday to Friday.
Metro editor Ted Young said: “This is a massive Metro moment and one which demonstrates the demand for our trusted and loved product with a young, professional audience on their morning commute in every major city every weekday morning.
“As long as the appetite is there, we intend to remain the largest distributed newspaper in Britain.”
The Metro, which is only distributed in England, Scotland and Wales, overtook The Sun in terms of the number of weekday copies the two titles distribute across the UK in June last year.
But February’s figures represent the first time the paper has overtaken the Sun – which sells about 55,500 copies in Ireland and nearly 11,000 copies abroad – in terms of the total numbers distributed overall.
Nonetheless, the Sun remains the UK’s best-selling daily newspaper.
The Mirror and The Telegraph groups both saw the biggest year-on-year circulation falls.
The Sunday Mirror fell 20 per cent to 488,609 copies and the Daily Mirror was down 19 per cent year-on-year to 567,418 copies. Unlike some titles, publisher Trinity Mirror’s figures do not include bulk sales.
The Daily Telegraph sold 374,719 copies, an 18 per cent year-on-year drop, while The Sunday Telegraph sold 297,379, a 17 per cent drop. The Telegraph ended bulk sales in January 2018.
Free newspaper City AM was the only national publication not to see a drop in circulation year-on-year, staying steady at around 91,000 copies.
ABC national newspaper print circulation figures for February 2018 (and online figures below):
| Publication | Total print circulation (Feb 18) | Year-on-year % change | Bulks |
| Metro (FREE) | 1,472,437 | -0.25 | |
| The Sun | 1,465,000 | -7.98 | 118,334 |
| Daily Mail | 1,294,214 | -11 | |
| The Sun on Sunday | 1,244,702 | -9.2 | 118,253 |
| The Mail on Sunday | 1,084,563 | -12.97 | |
| London Evening Standard (FREE) | 886,615 | -1.16 | |
| The Sunday Times | 742,705 | -5.88 | 85,044 |
| Daily Mirror | 567,418 | -19.04 | |
| Sunday Mirror | 488,609 | -20.18 | |
| The Times | 430,119 | -2.48 | 89,942 |
| Daily Star | 392,020 | -10.91 | |
| The Daily Telegraph | 374,719 | -18.06 | |
| Daily Express | 359,691 | -7.54 | |
| Sunday Express | 311,330 | -6.84 | |
| The Sunday Telegraph | 297,379 | -16.64 | |
| i | 254,117 | -4.4 | 60,342 |
| Daily Star – Sunday | 237,369 | -8.24 | |
| Sunday People | 194,824 | -17.93 | |
| Financial Times | 178,899 | -2.92 | 27,638 |
| The Observer | 178,660 | -2.7 | |
| The Guardian | 149,524 | -3.25 | |
| Sunday Mail | 139,638 | -15.98 | |
| Daily Record | 131,802 | -14.18 | |
| Sunday Post | 123,196 | -13.47 | 538 |
| City AM (FREE) | 91,095 | 0.39 |
| Website | Daily Average Unique Browsers (Feb 2018) | Year-on-year % change |
| Mail Online | 13,516,050 | -13.16 |
| Metro | 2,674,191 | 56.32 |
| The Sun | 5,108,004 | 15.81 |
| Trinity Mirror Group – Digital | 9,268,774 | -0.24 |
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
