The Sun website failed to make up much lost ground in December in its first complete month since dropping its paywall.
In common with nearly all other UK newspaper websites audited by ABC, it saw a drop in traffic from November – when all UK news website traffic was boosted by coverage of the Paris terror attacks. The Sun did however achieve the lowest month-on-month drop off the national sites, dropping 5.6 per cent.
It remains in seventh place behind The Independent and Mirror. Press Gazette understands that the month-on-month drop for The Sun was partly due to certain apps being turned off and a seasonal lull in use of its Dream Team fantasy football site.
The Sun also this week dropped its stand-alone politics website Sun Nation. The light-hearted site was launched in March this year, ahead of the UK general election, and at that time was one of the few elements of the site which lay outside the paywall. All Sun politics coverage will now sit on the main site.
Mail Online remains by far the most popular UK newspaper website, attracting an average of 13.2m unique daily browsers across different devices in December.
The fastest growing national newspaper website in December was the Express, up 44.6 per cent year on year.
UK newspaper website ABC traffic figures for December 2015
| Title | Average daily unique users to website, December 2015 | Month-on-month % change | Year-on-year % change |
|---|---|---|---|
| MailOnline | 13,182,486 | -9.9 | 7.67 |
| theguardian.com | 7,847,537 | -15.4 | 33.01 |
| Trinity Mirror Group – Digital | 5,751,104 | -13.63 | 22.42 |
| Telegraph | 4,038,417 | -19.59 | 16.9 |
| Mirror Group Nationals | 3,994,246 | -15.79 | 13.82 |
| The Independent | 2,796,267 | -14.68 | 33.33 |
| The Sun | 1,525,662 | -5.63 | N/A |
| Metro | 1,117,256 | -22.96 | -5.29 |
| express.co.uk | 1,065,378 | -18.72 | 44.62 |
| dailystar.co.uk | 594,230 | -8.8 | 18.84 |
| Manchester Evening News | 558,095 | -4.62 | 34.54 |
| Evening Standard | 440,299 | -15.28 | 61.59 |
| Liverpool Echo | 422,360 | -10.01 | 59.57 |
| Wales Online | 258,964 | -17.78 | 45.17 |
| Newcastle Live | 203,436 | -1.14 | 30.55 |
| Birmingham Mail | 196,824 | -11.69 | 34.96 |
| Teesside Evening Gazette | 101,305 | -1.53 | 40.25 |
| Daily Post (Wales) | 77,177 | 1.26 | 82.27 |
| Coventry Telegraph | 56,067 | -9.41 | 29.13 |
| Huddersfield Daily Examiner | 52,772 | -2.38 | 35.95 |
| Visiter.co.uk | 12,772 | 24.75 | N/A |
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