CNN Ends 2020 On Top; Ranked #1 Every Month of 2020 in Global, Unique Visitors, Video, Mobile, Millennials & Politics
CNN Ranks as Only Digital News Outlet with More Than 100M Unique Visitors in December
Filling out a historic year for CNN, December 2020 ranked again as one of the highest and strongest months on record, beating out every prior December in history.
CNN retained its position as the #1 digital news destination, according to Comscore, and held the #1 ranking for more than 4 consecutive years for U.S. unique visitors, and for more than one year for global unique visitors by holding the #1 position in every month of 2020 in the key categories of global and U.S. unique visitors, mobile unique visitors, video unique viewers, and millennial unique visitors (October 2020 data is the most current available for global traffic rankings).
#1 IN GLOBAL DIGITAL NEWS IN NOVEMBER 2020
CNN reached more global unique visitors than any other news platform in the world in November 2020, with 241 million unique multiplatform visitors – nearly 37 million unique visitors more than the nearest competitor, the BBC (November 2020 data is the most current available).
1. CNN.com – 241 Million Multiplatform Unique Visitors in November 2020
2. BBC – 205 million unique visitors
3. The New York Times Brand – 169 million unique visitors
4. Yahoo News – 152 million unique visitors
5. FoxNews.com – 149 million unique visitors
Source: Comscore MMX® Multi-Platform, Custom-Defined List, Total Digital Audience, November 2020, 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. (November 2020 data is the most current available).
#1 IN U.S. MULTIPLATFORM UNIQUE VISITORS IN DECEMBER 2020
CNN saw 151 million unique multiplatform visitors domestically in December 2020, ranking as the only digital news outlet in the U.S. with more than 100 million multiplatform unique visitors. CNN finished off the year with its 9th highest U.S. Multi-Platform monthly unique visitor number ever in December 2020. New York Times Brand, Washingtonpost.com and USAToday.com all saw year over year gains as well while FoxNews.com saw their lowest unique visitor number in December 2020 since May 2018 and fell to fifth behind CNN, New York Times Brand, Washingtonpost.com, and USAToday.com. Coming off the election high, while the competitive set saw smaller declines in U.S. Multi-Platform unique visitors month over month in December 2020, FoxNews.com dropped nearly a third (-32%) of its unique visitors from November to December 2020. From a year-over-year vantage point, CNN also saw double digit growth in U.S. Multi-Platform unique visitors in December 2020 vs. December 2019 (+14%), in line with positive YoY growth trends from New York Times Brand, Washingtonpost.com and USAToday.com, while FoxNews.com saw double digit declines in U.S. Multi-Platform unique visitors from December 2019 vs. December 2020 (-10%).
1. CNN.com – 151 Million Multiplatform Unique Visitors in December 2020
2. The New York Times Brand – 99 million unique visitors
3. WashingtonPost.com – 97 million unique visitors
4. USAToday.com – 88.1 million unique visitors
5. FoxNews.com – 87.9 million unique visitors
Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, Custom-Defined List, Total Digital Audience – Desktop Persons 2+ and Total Mobile Persons 13+, December 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 IN DECEMBER 2020
CNN saw 133 million mobile unique visitors in December 2020, marking two straight years of more than 100 million unique visitors exclusively on mobile.
1. CNN.com – 133 Million Mobile Unique Visitors in December 2020
2. The New York Times Brand – 86.2 million mobile unique visitors
3. WashingtonPost.com – 85.6 million mobile unique visitors
4. USAToday.com – 79 million mobile unique visitors
5. NBCNews.com – 76 million mobile unique visitors
Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, Custom-Defined List, Total Mobile Persons 13+, December 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. Historical claim based on Comscore Mobile Metrix®, Custom-Defined List, Total Mobile Persons 13+, U.S. for October 2020 and prior months.
#1 IN UNIQUE VIDEO VIEWERS IN NOVEMBER 2020
CNN’s lead in video continued in November 2020 with 70 million unique video viewers. Of news outlets, CNN has been ranked #1 in unique video viewers since the metric was introduced more than 4 years ago. With more unique video viewers and minutes spent than on any other news publisher, CNN continued to deliver users the most engaging video experience. CNN was the fourth-largest entity within the overall digital video ranking in November 2020, following only YouTube, Hulu and Vevo, making CNN the largest original video publisher. (November 2020 data is the most current available)
1. CNN.com – 70 Million Multiplatform Video Unique Viewers in December 2020
2. NBCNews.com – 39.2 million unique video viewers
3. FoxNews.com – 38.8 million unique video viewers
4. ABCNews.com Sites – 37 million unique video viewers
5. Yahoo News – 27 million unique video viewers
Source: Comscore Video Metrix®, Custom-Defined List, Total Audience – Desktop Persons 2+ and Total Mobile Persons 18+ and OTT Persons 2+ where tagged, November 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. Also based on CNN.com entity compared to a custom list of single brand competitors that exclusively provide original video content. CNN Brand entity used prior to December 2018. Competitive claim outside of the news category is based on a custom list of single brand competitors from the Top 100 video properties list.
#1 IN YOUNG ADULTS REACH IN DECEMBER 2020
CNN again ranked as the largest news brand accessed by young adults with 38 million unique young adult multiplatform visitors in December 2020 (young adults defined as users between the ages of 18-34).
1. CNN.com – 38 Million Young Adult Unique Multiplatform Visitors in December 2020
2. The New York Times Brand – 27 million young adult unique visitors
3. WashingtonPost.com – 23 million young adult unique visitors
4. USAToday.com – 21.01 million young adult unique visitors
5. NBCNews.com – 20.97 million young adult unique visitors
Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, Custom-Defined List, Total Digital Audience Persons 18-34, December 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 IN DECEMBER 2020
During the month following the 2020 US Election, CNN Politics ranked again as the #1 political news destination with 75 million multiplatform unique visitors. CNN Politics has remained the #1 online political news outlet in unique visitors since January 2016 – nearly five years.
1. CNN Politics – 75 Million Multiplatform Unique Visitors in December 2020
2. TheHill.com – 49 million unique visitors
3. Politico.com – 45 million unique visitors
4. Fox News Politics – 27 million unique visitors
5. NBCNews.com Politics – 25 million unique visitors
Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, News/Information – Politics, Total Digital Audience – Desktop 2+ and Total Mobile 13+, December 2020, U.S.
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Contact:
emily.kuhn@cnn.com