February Traffic Drops at Majority of Top Conservative Websites

Sixty percent of top conservative websites posted year-over-year declines in unique visitors last month, according to TheRighting’s exclusive analysis of February mobile and desktop traffic based on Comscore data. Of the twenty websites listed in TheRighting’s February top conservative websites chart, 12 showed decreases in YOY traffic.

YOY unique visitors to Foxnews.com dropped by 25 million, the largest slide of any conservative website. It represented a 24% YOY drop. Other major conservative websites experiencing February declines included the Washington Examiner, the Washington Times and National Review. (Here’s TheRighting’s complete top 20 conservative website chart for February.)

For the fourth consecutive month, Newsmax registered triple-digit YOY gains in traffic. The increasingly popular website joined The Daily Wire and Bongino.com generating significant audience increases in February, bucking the downward trend for most right-wing websites.

“A softer news environment in February featuring a less confrontational president impacted the traffic to conservative websites,” said Howard Polskin, President and Chief Curator, TheRighting. “The year 2020 was one of the most consequential since 1969, which resulted in consumers flocking to news outlets. Unless there are some major unforeseen news developments for the rest of 2021, I predict more year-over-year audience declines in the coming year. In particular, traffic in March 2021 will probably drop precipitously because it will be contrasted to audience numbers from a year ago, which was boosted by extraordinary consumer interest in the beginning weeks of the pandemic.”

Leaders and Losers Among Top 20 Conservative Websites for February 2021 (by unique visitor percentage increase/decrease from year ago)

Leaders

• Bongino.com (+155%)
• The Daily Wire (+139%)
• Newsmax (+126%)

Losers

• Washington Examiner (-56%)
• Washington Times (-55%)
• PJ Media (-48%)

Of the three U.S. mainstream news websites followed regularly by TheRighting, only CNN.com posted YOY gains in unique visitors in February. CNN.com generated 145,937,000 unique visitors in February 2021, a 7% increase. Washingtonpost.com saw its YOY audience fall 7%, while The New York Times brand sagged by 16%.

The number of unique visitors for three conservative-friendly social media sites for February 2021 are as follows:

• Rumble (9,979,000; +6% vs year ago)
• Parler (4,323,000; year-ago data not available)
• MeWe (3,457,000; +367% vs year ago)

Each month, TheRighting examines Comscore data on dozens of prominent conservative websites that post original content. TheRighting ranks the top 20 conservative websites on the basis of unique visitors and also provides data on whether unique visitors have increased or decreased year over year. That information is posted on the Metrics section of TheRighting’s website.