February 19th, 2020

CNN Digital Breaks All Records: Largest Digital Audience In History In January 2020

CNN began 2020 with its highest audience numbers in the history of CNN Digital for both total audience and mobile audience, outpacing all competitors for nearly 4 years for U.S. unique visitors, nearly 5 years for video and 9 months for global unique visitors.

Comscore’s monthly competitive report showed record high traffic numbers for CNN, stating that CNN’s digital audience in the U.S. in January 2020 was a record 148 million unique visitors and a record 128 million mobile unique visitors. Competitively, CNN held the position as the #1 global digital news brand in December 2019 (December data is the most current available in Comscore. Internal Adobe Analytics data shows record global traffic in January 2020 as well), and also showed its strength in the U.S., ranking again as the #1 digital news outlet in January 2020 in the key categories of multiplatform unique visitors, mobile unique visitors, multiplatform video starts (Dec. 2019), millennial unique visitors, and political unique visitors, which shows again that more people get their news online from CNN than from any other outlet.

#1 IN GLOBAL DIGITAL NEWS
CNN saw a larger global audience than any other news platform in the world in December 2019, with 165 million unique multiplatform visitors (data most current available), 20 million more than second place BBC and 37 million more than third place The Daily Mail.

CNN.com: 165 Million Multiplatform Unique Visitors

  • BBC – 145 million unique visitors
  • DailyMail.co.uk – 128 million unique visitors
  • Yahoo News – 123 million unique visitors
  • The New York Times Brand – 118 million unique visitors
  • FoxNews.com – 104 million unique visitors

Source: Comscore MMX®, Custom-Defined List, Total Digital Audience, December 2019, Worldwide Rollup. Based on CNN.com entity compared to a custom list of single brand, English-language, global competitors in the News/Information Category, including The United States, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom and Vietnam. CNN Brand entity used prior to October 2018. (December 2019 data is the most current available).

#1 IN MULTIPLATFORM VISITORS
Breaking all records, CNN posted 148 million unique multiplatform visitors domestically in January 2020. This is 34 million more unique visitors than second-place Fox News and 41 million more unique visitors than The New York Times.

CNN.com*: 148 Million Multiplatform Unique Visitors

  • FoxNews.com – 114 million unique visitors
  • The New York Times Brand – 109 million unique visitors
  • NBCNews.com – 93.3 million unique visitors
  • WashingtonPost.com – 92.6 million unique visitors
  • DailyMail.co.uk – 89 million unique visitors

Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, Custom-Defined List, Total Digital Audience – Desktop Persons 2+ and Total Mobile Persons 13+, January 2020, U.S. Based on CNN.com entity compared to a custom list of single brand competitors that are also in the News/Information Category. CNN Brand entity used prior to October 2018.

#1 IN MOBILE UNIQUE VISITORS 
CNN’s mobile audience continued to top 100 million unique visitors in January with an all-time record of 128 million mobile unique visitors – 33 million more mobile unique visitors than both second-place Fox News and third-place The New York Times.

CNN.com: 128 Million Mobile Unique Visitors

  • FoxNews.com – 95.1 million unique visitors
  • The New York Times Brand – 95.0 million unique visitors
  • Dailymail.co.uk – 84 million unique visitors
  • NBCNews.com – 83 million unique visitors
  • WashingtonPost.com – 79 million unique visitors

Source: Comscore Mobile Metrix®, Custom-Defined List, Total Mobile Persons 13+, January 2020, U.S. Based on CNN.com entity compared to a custom list of single brand competitors that are also in the News/Information Category. CNN Brand entity used prior to October 2018. 

#1 IN MULTIPLATFORM VIDEO STARTS
CNN again ranked as #1 in digital video with 522 million multiplatform video starts, generating 210 million more video starts than its nearest competitor Fox News in December 2019 (data most current available).

 CNN.com: 522 Million Multiplatform Video Starts

  • FoxNews.com – 312 million video starts
  • Yahoo News – 290 million video starts
  • ABCNews.com Sites – 153 million video starts
  • MSN News – 123 million video starts
  • MSNBC TV – 116 million video starts

Source: Comscore Video Metrix®, Custom-Defined List, Total Audience – Desktop Persons 2+ and Total Mobile Persons 18+ and OTT Persons 2+, December 2019, U.S. Based on CNN.com entity compared to a custom list of single brand competitors that are also in the News/Information Category.  CNN Brand entity used prior to October 2018. (December data is the most current available)

#1 IN MILLENNIAL REACH 
CNN saw a larger audience of millennial multiplatform unique visitors (between the ages of 18-34) than any other competitor in January 2020 with 42 million.

CNN.com: 42 Million Millennial Unique Multiplatform Visitors 

  • The New York Times Brand – 30 million millennial unique visitors
  • Dailymail.co.uk – 28 million millennial unique visitors
  • WashingtonPost.com – 27 million millennial unique visitors
  • NBCNews.com – 24 million millennial unique visitors
  • FoxNews.com – 23 million millennial unique visitors

Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, Custom-Defined List, Digital Audience Persons 18-34, January 2020, U.S. Based on CNN.com entity compared to a custom list of single brand competitors in the News/Information Category. CNN Brand entity used prior to October 2018.

#1 POLITICAL NEWS SOURCE
CNN Politics continued to reign on top of all political news sources at the start of Election Year 2020, as the #1 ranked political news destination in January 2020 with 58 million multiplatform unique visitors, 50 million mobile unique visitors and 74 million multiplatform video starts (December 2019) . January 2020 was the second biggest month ever for CNN Politics mobile audience behind December 2019. CNN Politics has remained the #1 online political news outlet since March 2015 when the first person declared their candidacy for president in the 2016 race.

CNN Politics: 58 Million Multiplatform Unique Visitors

  • TheHill.com –34 million unique visitors
  • Politico.com – 31 million unique visitors
  • Fox NewsPolitics– 24 million unique visitors
  • MSNBC TV – 15.4 million unique visitors
  • NBCNews.com Politics – 14.7 million unique visitors

Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, New/Information – Politics, Total Digital Audience – Desktop 2+ and Total Mobile 13+, January 2020, U.S.; Comscore Video Metrix®, CNN Politics, Total Audience – Desktop 2+, January 2020, U.S. CNN Politics has been #1 in the competitive rank in multiplatform views since March 2015.  

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