Here are the Top 20 U.S. news websites (June/July 2025) by monthly traffic, with a crisp 20‑word summary for each:
| Rank | Site | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yahoo News (yahoo.com) | Popular portal combining aggregated news, finance, sports, and entertainment; ranks #1 U.S. news destination (Media Nation) |
| 2 | New York Times (nytimes.com) | Leading national newspaper’s online edition; strong investigative, opinion, international coverage, maintaining top readership. According to DanKennedy.net The Times recorded 444.9 million unique visitors in May 2025 |
| 3 | CNN (cnn.com) | Major 24/7 cable news website; global, political, breaking coverage, though traffic dipped ~28% (~351 M visits) |
| 4 | Fox News (foxnews.com) | Conservative-leaning cable outlet’s website; top-tier traffic (~273 M/month), down ~24% post-AI rollout |
| 5 | MSN News (msn.com) | Microsoft-hosted aggregator combining news from multiple sources; ranks top 5 in U.S. |
| 6 | People.com | Celebrity‑focused magazine’s site; strong entertainment coverage with high engagement (~158 M visits) |
| 7 | Google News (news.google.com) | News aggregator launched by Google; remains among the top‑10 traffic drivers |
| 8 | USA Today (usatoday.com) | National news outlet; broad coverage but audience down ~17% year‑on‑year |
| 9 | Associated Press (apnews.com) | Wire-service turned consumer site; experienced fastest growth among top‑ten, up ~44% |
| 10 | New York Post (nypost.com) | Tabloid-style news; ~120 M visits but down ~25% |
| 11 | CNBC (cnbc.com) | Business/economic news leader; saw ~34% year‑on‑year growth to ~136 M visits |
| 12 | NBC News (nbcnews.com) | Broadcast network’s national news site; consistently among top 15 U.S. traffic rankings. |
| 13 | Reuters (reuters.com) | International wire-service; U.S. site ~62 M visits and ~38% y‑o‑y growth |
| 14 | Newsweek (newsweek.com) | Legacy weekly revived digitally; ~96 M visits and strong growth |
| 15 | The Atlantic (theatlantic.com) | Intellectual monthly; ~30 M monthly visits, up ~40% |
| 16 | Axios (axios.com) | Short‑form political/business news site with ~32 M visits and rising traffic |
| 17 | The Cooldown (thecooldown.com) | Climate‑focused news startup; ~52 M visits, fastest grower month‑over‑month |
| 18 | Breitbart (breitbart.com) | Right‑wing opinion/news; ~39 M visits, up ~29% |
| 19 | Substack (substack.com) | Newsletter platform hosting many authors; aggregated ~73 M visits, +60% growth |
| 20 | Athlon Sports (athlonsports.com) | Sports‑specialist site; ~40 M visits, incredible +693% growth reflecting booming niche interest |
Context & Trends
- These rankings are based on June–July 2025 SimilarWeb data compiled by Press Gazette (Press Gazette).
- Launch of Google AI Overviews in May 2024 triggered steep traffic declines for many major sites (CNN –28%, Fox –24%, People –?), shifting toward zero‑click searches (Wall Street Journal).
- While giant legacy sites maintain dominance, niche & ideological outlets (Cooldown, Athlon, Breitbart) are gaining ground rapidly.
