The Daily Mail has closed the circulation gap between it and the Sun newspaper to just over 5,000 copies, once bulk sales are removed.
The Sun sold 1.2m copies in February this year, according to new ABC figures, but 66,859 of these were sold as bulks at a reduced rate.
With bulks removed, the Sun has a total circulation of 1.14m, compared to the Daily Mail’s 1.13m circulation – a difference of 5,500 copies.
The Sun remains the best-selling daily newspaper in the UK, but daily freesheet the Metro has the largest distribution at 1.42m.
UK national newspaper circulations for February 2020 (source: ABC)
| Publication | Total ABC Feb 2020 | Year-on-year % change | Bulks |
| Metro FREE | 1,419,614 | 0% | |
| The Sun | 1,206,595 | -11% | 66,859 |
| Daily Mail | 1,134,184 | -4% | |
| The Sun on Sunday | 1,022,485 | -11% | 66,861 |
| The Mail on Sunday | 962,084 | -5% | |
| Evening Standard FREE | 787,447 | -8% | |
| The Sunday Times | 633,567 | -11% | 49,629 |
| Daily Mirror | 441,934 | -10% | |
| The Times | 359,960 | -11% | 52,911 |
| Sunday Mirror | 356,621 | -13% | |
| Daily Express | 289,679 | -8% | 11 |
| Daily Star | 274,808 | -15% | |
| Sunday Express | 245,629 | -10% | 15 |
| i | 215,932 | -7% | 47,558 |
| Daily Star – Sunday | 158,101 | -21% | |
| The Observer | 155,021 | -4% | |
| Financial Times | 155,009 | -10% | 28,008 |
| Sunday People | 137,275 | -12% | |
| The Guardian | 126,879 | -5% | |
| Sunday Mail | 103,939 | -14% | |
| Daily Record | 103,222 | -12% | |
| City AM FREE | 85,738 | 0% | |
| Sunday Post | 84,947 | -19% | 538 |
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