In December 2024, the news website with the most monthly visits in the United States was nytimes.com, with a total of 463.07 million monthly visits in that month. In second place was cnn.com with close to 357 million visits, followed by foxnews.com with just over a quater of a million. Online news consumption in the U.S. Americans get their news in a variety of ways, but social media is an increasingly popular option. A survey on social media news consumption revealed that 55 percent of Twitter users regularly used the site for news, and Facebook and Reddit were also popular for news among their users. Interestingly though, social media is the least trusted news sources in the United States. News and trust Trust in news sources has become increasingly important to the American news consumer amidst the spread of fake news, and the public are more vocal about whether or not they have faith in a source to report news correctly. Ongoing discussions about the credibility, accuracy and bias of news networks, anchors, TV show hosts, and news media professionals mean that those looking to keep up to date tend to be more cautious than ever before. In general, news audiences are skeptical. In 2020, just nine percent of respondents to a survey investigating the perceived objectivity of the mass media reported having a great deal of trust in the media to report news fully, accurately, and fairly.

In November 2024, Google.com was the most popular website worldwide with 136 billion average monthly visits. The online platform has held the top spot as the most popular website since June 2010, when it pulled ahead of Yahoo into first place. Second-ranked YouTube generated more than 72.8 billion monthly visits in the measured period. The internet leaders: search, social, and e-commerce Social networks, search engines, and e-commerce websites shape the online experience as we know it. While Google leads the global online search market by far, YouTube and Facebook have become the world’s most popular websites for user generated content, solidifying Alphabet’s and Meta’s leadership over the online landscape. Meanwhile, websites such as Amazon and eBay generate millions in profits from the sale and distribution of goods, making the e-market sector an integral part of the global retail scene. What is next for online content? Powering social media and websites like Reddit and Wikipedia, user-generated content keeps moving the internet’s engines. However, the rise of generative artificial intelligence will bring significant changes to how online content is produced and handled. ChatGPT is already transforming how online search is performed, and news of Google's 2024 deal for licensing Reddit content to train large language models (LLMs) signal that the internet is likely to go through a new revolution. While AI's impact on the online market might bring both opportunities and challenges, effective content management will remain crucial for profitability on the web.

In February 2024, YouTube was the leading website for media in Vietnam based on traffic, with total visits amounting to over *** billion. VnExpress, a Vietnamese news website belonging to FPT corporation, was the second-most popular website in the same period based on the number of website visits.

Franceinfo.fr was the most visited news site in France in July 2024, with more than *** million unique visitors. Online publications LeFigaro.fr and Bfmtv.com rounded out the top three with around *** million and *** million visits, respectively. Newspaper consumption trends in France A survey on newspaper and magazine readership in France revealed that roughly ** percent of adults engaged with printed or digital newspapers regularly as of 2021, whereas another ** percent of respondents stated they never read newspapers of any sort. While interest in the news has remained strong over the years, data also showed that spending on print media in France has continuously declined for over a decade. There is no denying that the proliferation of social media and other digital platforms that deliver news in real-time and around the clock has caused many print publications to experience declines in readership and relevance. Online news is the latest craze The latest data on online news audiences in France indicated that approximately ** percent of internet users visited news websites in 2021. This share grew from just over ** percent in 2015, highlighting the ever-increasing appeal of online publications among French readers. Many of the country’s most popular newspapers have consequently moved online to combat dwindling audiences, and looking at a readership breakdown of Le Figaro, for example, this shift has proven to be immensely successful. Meanwhile, readers are also consuming more news content via smartphones than ever, with Le Monde and Le Figaro leading news applications in France boasting over ** million visits in 2022.

According to data gathered in the final quarter of 2024, the most popular news wesbites in the United States were Yahoo! and NBC.com, with 57 percent of respondents reporting that they had a positive opinion of each publication. Ranked joint second were CBS.com, and CNN's website.

Bild.de is the most visited news portal in Germany. The online version of the German tabloid daily newspaper Bild Zeitung recently raked in *** million online and mobile visits. Spiegel and Bild ******* was also among the most visited websites in Germany overall. The word “Bild” itself means “picture”, “image” or “view”. While one of the best-known online newspaper versions in German-speaking countries clearly has its established place among online news consumers, non-tabloid media is also in demand on the internet, even if it is being outrun in visitor rankings. T-Online's news website came in second. Initially known to users as an email provider, it saw growing brand awareness among consumers in recent years. Online news: a challenging industry Just as the print media market is facing a number of challenges, the market of online news is becoming fiercely competitive by the hour. Digitalization and the rise of information consumption on mobile devices contribute massively to this, and subsequently so do changing habits and even demands from media consumers. Additional factors influencing visitor traffic for online news media are general user trust in media, desired consumption time, attention spans, and a news website being mobile-friendly or not.

This statistic shows the most popular news websites in India as of **********, based on their number of unique visitors. During that month, The Times of India was ranked first with ***** million unique visitors.

In November 2024, Google.com was the most visited website in Argentina, with approximately 1.36 billion total visits. YouTube.com was in second place with 673 million visits, while the news site Infobae.com counted approximately 165 million monthly visits from Argentinian online audiences. X.com came in thirteenth place with over 59.2 million total visits.

In November 2024, Google.com was the most visited website in Mexico, with approximately 2.83 billion total visits. Its local URL Google.com.mx ranked eleventh, with about 109 million accesses. Social video platform YouTube.com ranked second with 1.28 billion visits. Additionally, the social media platform Facebook.com ranked third with 316 million visits in the examined period.

In November 2024, Fox News ranked first among the most popular multiplatform conservative and right-wing websites in the United States with over 91 million unique visitors from mobile and desktop connections. Outkick ranked second with approximately 7.71 million unique monthly visitors.

As of November 2024, Google.com had the highest average number of monthly visitors from Israel, at 284 million entries. It was followed by YouTube.com with 101 million visitors. Other popular websites included Ynet.co.il and Facebook.com, the former being the most visited news website in the country. Ynet had 65.3 million entries per month and was also the most popular Israeli website in the ranking.

As of July 2024, the most popular news website in Thailand was Thairath online, with around *** million page views. Other popular news websites included Khaosod, Manager online, and Matichon.

In October 2024, Infobae gained the lead position in a ranking of the leading news websites in Argentina with 15.7 million unique visitors. La Nación, which garnered over 14.6 million unique visitors that month ranked second.

In November 2024, Google.com was the most visited website in Colombia, with approximately 1.35 billion total visits. YouTube.com came in second with 701 million total visits. Facebook.com counted approximately 138 million monthly visits from Colombian online audiences.

Pinterest was the leading social media website by the share of visits in Kazakhstan in 2023, accounting for approximately 21 percent of all social media site visits in the country. YouTube ranked second with over 19 percent of all social media site visits nationwide.

As of March 2022, news services was the most visited website category in Czechia, with almost ********************** real users visiting them. Among the rest were then various magazine website categories, or e-commerce websites.

In March 2025, the Walt Disney Company properties were ranked first among the most popular multiplatform web properties in the United States with over 249 million visitors from mobile and desktop connections – popular Disney online properties include Disney Entertainment, which consists of the company's film, television, music, and streaming media assets, and ESPN, among other online services.

In March 2025, ******** accounted for ** percent of all social media site visits in the United States, confirming its position as the leading social media website by far. Other social media platforms, despite their popularity, had to make do with smaller shares of visits across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices combined. ********* ranked second with ***** percent of all U.S. social media site visits, while X (previously Twitter) accounted for ***** percent of the total visits in the country. Additionally, the U.S. is home to the third largest social media audience worldwide. Facebook: mobile vs desktop usage At the beginning of 2022, around ** percent of Facebook users across the globe were using the platform’s social networking services exclusively via mobile phone, while only *** percent reported using their desktop or laptop devices. In September 2022, three Facebook Inc. products occupied some of the leading positions as most downloaded social networking apps on the Apple App Store in the United States. WhatsApp’s messaging platform ranked second with more than *** million downloads, while Facebook and the instant-messaging service Messenger followed ranking third and fifth with *** million and **** million downloads respectively. Social media evolution Between 2012 and 2024, the daily time spent on social networks worldwide experienced an almost constant increase, with users reaching an average of *** minutes per day in 2023, with a decrease to *** daily minutes of engagement in 2024. However, users’ favorite platforms have changed since 2019, and the power balance appears to be shifting further from Facebook’s market dominance. Not only Facebook’s user growth rate is estimated to slow down in the next years, but users belonging to Generation Z appear to prefer video-first social platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.

According to the survey, the most popular news website among Russians as of March 2019 was Yandex News, with nearly ** percent of respondents regularly visiting it. Lenta.ru, owned by Rambler Media Group, was named by *** percent of participants.

The most popular news web page in Russia was Vesti.ru, according to ** percent of respondents surveyed in January 2023. Ria Novosti had the second-highest audience share, measured at **** percent over the same period.