The Sun has overtaken the Mirror to become the third most popular national newspaper website in the UK as measured by ABC.
The move comes just under two years since The Sun scrapped its online paywall and began again pursuing a free online content strategy.
The Sun website was the second fastest growing in August, behind Metro, up 81.3 per cent to 5.4m unique browers per day. This compares with Mirror Online’s 5.1m total (down 2.9 per cent year on year).
Mail Online remains the most popular UK newspaper website by some margin with 14m unique browsers per day in August (down 7.6 per cent year on year).
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The Guardian is not currently audited by ABC, but internal figures put it in second place on 9.5m browsers per day.
The online-only Independent continues to grow strongly, up 79 per cent year on year to 6.5m browsers per day.
The Telegraph dropped out of ABC website auditing in June when its website had just over 5m unique browser per day. In November 2016 it began charging for access to much of its online content and in June this year its traffic fell 11 per cent year on year.
The Telegraph explained its exit from ABC auditing as follows: “The Telegraph has withdrawn from the monthly online audit conducted by ABC.
“Our decision reflects the changing way in which audiences now consume news, making it imperative that the measurement systems we use take into account people engaging with our brand across a range of platforms.
“We believe this is key to ensuring that the data we provide on our open, registered and subscriber readership is comprehensive and valuable to our advertisers and clients. We continue to work with ABC to provide print circulation figures that are verified to industry agreed standards.”
The Liverpool Echo was the fastest growing regional title audited by ABC on a monthly basis, growing 33 per cent year on year to 796,714 browsers per day – enabling it to overtake the Evening Standard.
UK newspaper website ABC figures for August 2017
*The Guardian is not currently audited by ABC, its figure is an internal one supplied by the publisher
| Title | Avg daily unique browsers | % change month on month | % change year on year |
| Mail Online | 14,068,817 | -6.38 | -7.61 |
| Guardian.co.uk* | 9,499,156 | 7.8 | 17.7 |
| The Independent | 6,525,514 | 6.28 | 78.5 |
| The Sun | 5,350,725 | 5.74 | 81.34 |
| Mirror Group Nationals | 5,110,009 | -2.42 | -2.9 |
| express.co.uk | 2,640,333 | 16.71 | 59.97 |
| Metro | 2,337,194 | -3.57 | 86.77 |
| dailystar.co.uk | 1,040,213 | 7.77 | 7.86 |
| Manchester Evening News | 951,812 | -0.52 | 14.24 |
| Liverpool Echo | 796,714 | 7.18 | 33.19 |
| Evening Standard | 780,113 | -7.71 | 16.01 |
| Wales Online | 423,835 | -4.42 | 32.92 |
| Birmingham Mail | 400,978 | -0.99 | 39.93 |
| Chronicle Live | 296,428 | -5.24 | 10.2 |
| Bristol Post | 155,673 | -6.29 | |
| Hull Daily Mail | 134,072 | 1.47 | 21.4 |
| GazetteLive | 129,721 | -1.21 | 19.21 |
| Nottingham Post | 119,585 | -1.3 | |
| Daily Post (Wales) | 115,484 | -7.7 | 24.85 |
| Coventry Telegraph | 109,935 | 1.11 | 75.38 |
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