The Sun website saw the biggest month on month increase in the short month of February, rising 7 per cent compared with January, to just over 2m unique browsers per day according to ABC.
The title still has a mountain to climb since ending its online paywall in November and has less than half the 4.2m average daily browsers of the free Mirror website. But it is currently planning a major relaunch of the site and has been widely recruiting editorial staff.
Express.co.uk was the fastest growing national newspapers website, up 40.3 per cent year on year to 1.2m daily unique browsers. This reflects the fact that over the last year the Express has begun devoting major editorial resources to its website.
The Independent also managed strong year on year growth, up 22 per cent to 2.9m average daily browsers. The title will lose its print edition at the end of this month.
The Guardian was up 21 per cent year on year to 8.9m daily browsers. But the high web traffic has not been turned into revenue for the title which yesterday revealed that it is set to post a £58.6m loss for the year to the end of March.
Mail Online remains top with 14.3m unique daily browsers globally, but posted a rare year on year decline, of 2.2 per cent, suggesting that its explosive growth may have finally begun to level out.
Trinity Mirror's regional websites, which are also audited on a monthly basis by ABC, all managed strong year-on-year growth last month with Wales Online leading the pack – up 55 per cent year on year to 343,425 average daily browsers.
ABC unique browsers equate to different devices accessing the sites.
Newspaper website ABC figures for February 2016
| Title | Avg daily unique browsers | % change month on month | % change year on year |
|---|---|---|---|
| MailOnline | 14,383,578 | -2.55 | -2.17 |
| theguardian.com | 8,872,392 | 1.23 | 20.78 |
| Trinity Mirror Group – Digital | 6,466,958 | -8.34 | 17.54 |
| Telegraph | 4,328,890 | -6.13 | 7.57 |
| Mirror Group Nationals | 4,195,021 | -13.01 | 5.22 |
| The Independent | 2,921,273 | -12.31 | 21.68 |
| Trinity Mirror Regional Network | 2,331,469 | -4.35 | 32.7 |
| The Sun | 2,046,792 | 7.16 | |
| Metro | 1,188,978 | -16.16 | 5.03 |
| express.co.uk | 1,176,494 | -15.94 | 40.3 |
| dailystar.co.uk | 685,769 | -23.92 | 14.58 |
| Manchester Evening News | 645,015 | -6.97 | 40.75 |
| Liverpool Echo | 498,062 | -10.37 | 22.71 |
| Evening Standard | 479,367 | -4.53 | 47.44 |
| Wales Online | 343,425 | 5.02 | 55.13 |
| Chronicle Live | 233,563 | -8.48 | 28.22 |
| Birmingham Mail | 228,724 | -0.84 | 25.91 |
| Teesside Evening Gazette | 115,466 | 2.19 | 35.14 |
| Daily Post (Wales) | 96,870 | 14.22 | 52.81 |
| Coventry Telegraph | 65,593 | -5.73 | 29.33 |
| Huddersfield Daily Examiner | 61,805 | 3.4 | 38.22 |
| Visiter.co.uk | 11,642 | -39.62 |
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