Mail Online continued to close the gap on Guardian.co.uk in January despite record traffic at both sites, new figures from ABCe show.
The website of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday had 17.9 million monthly unique users in January, up 164 per cent year-on-year, and was just 1.8 million users shy of the figure posted by Guardian.co.uk – the closest any site has come to catching the figure of the market-leading site since September 2001.
Guardian.co.uk, which was still known as Guardian Unlimited during the January audit period, continues to set the pace for national newspaper websites with a record 19.7 million unique users in January, a figure up 23 per cent year-on-year.
The Sun Online and Times Online also achieved record traffic in January.
Times Online was up more than 38 per cent year on year to 15 million unique users.
Over 13 million unique users visited the Sun’s website during a month when it boasted several high-profile exclusives, including a video which appeared to show Amy Winehouse smoking from a crack pipe. At the time, the Sun said more than one million people had viewed its video online within only a few days of publication.
Telegraph.co.uk recorded 65 per cent year-on-year growth to 12.3 million unique users.
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