Thirty of the top 50 U.S. news websites experienced double-digit year-on-year traffic declines in February 2026, according to the Press-Gazette website citing Similarweb data, highlighting widespread challenges in digital news consumption.
Only 11 of the 50 largest sites saw year-on-year growth, while just seven recorded month-on-month increases compared to January. ABC News suffered the steepest year-on-year drop, plunging 64% to 18.9 million visits. It also posted the largest month-on-month decline, down 65%.Newsweek followed with a 48% year-on-year fall to 40.5 million visits, ahead of The Independent's 43% drop to 15.1 million.
On the growth side, The Sun led for the second consecutive month, surging 42% year-on-year to 30.7 million visits. Al Jazeera rose 30% to 16.1 million, and The Guardian climbed 21% to 86.6 million.
Month-on-month, Today showed the strongest gain, up 21% to 16.1 million visits, followed by the Los Angeles Times (up 11% to 23.3 million) and Al Jazeera (up 8% to 16.1 million).Biggest month-on-month losers included The Atlantic (down 25% to 19.7 million) and The Independent (down 22% to 15.1 million), after ABC News' sharp fall.
Two local outlets exited the top 50: Al.com (Alabama) dropped 10.9% month-on-month to 14.1 million visits, and the Minnesota Star Tribune fell 48.8% to 8.4 million. They were replaced by Al Jazeera and Today.