As Covid-19 changed the world, audiences turned to CNN for its global coverage in March and April 2020, registering the largest audience numbers in history.

In the US, April 2020 saw 173 million unique visitors and March saw 184 million unique visitors – an all-time record – and nearly 70 per cent of the total US internet audience in March, according to Comscore.

Globally, March 2020 registered an astounding 259 million unique visitors to CNN Digital properties – an increase of nearly 100 million users from one year ago, according to Comscore.

In multiplatform video, CNN Digital surpassed ESPN in March and was only behind YouTube, Facebook, Hulu, Vevo, Yahoo, and Netflix in digital video streams, making CNN the largest original video publisher.

Additionally, 17 out of the top 20 days in CNN Digital history occurred in 2020, according to Adobe Analytics.

CNN’s historic audience interest in this global story far outpaced all competitors digitally, with CNN holding the #1 position in March and April 2020 in the key categories of global news, domestic unique visitors, mobile news, multiplatform video, and millennial audience (March 2020 data is the most current available for both global traffic and multiplatform video rankings). CNN has retained the #1 position for nearly 4 years for US unique visitors, nearly 5 years for video and one year for global unique visitors. March and April 2020 also marked CNN Politics’ best months on record.

#1 IN GLOBAL DIGITAL NEWS IN MARCH 2020
CNN saw a larger global audience than any other news platform in the world in March 2020, with an astounding 259 million unique multiplatform visitors (March 2020 data most current available) – an increase of nearly 100 million global unique multiplatform visitors from March 2019. CNN began covering the Covid-19 story early on, with reporters in Asia reporting from the epicenter of the virus’ initial spread.

CNN.com: 259 Million Multiplatform Unique Visitors in March
– BBC – 257 million unique visitors
– The New York Times Brand – 217 million unique visitors
– Washington Post – 174 million unique visitors
– Yahoo News – 165 million unique visitors
– The Guardian – 160 million unique visitors

#1 IN U.S. MULTIPLATFORM VISITORS IN MARCH AND APRIL 2020
The last two months brought a historic level of audience traffic to CNN from users seeking out reliable and trusted information. This resulted in a record-high 184 million unique multiplatform visitors domestically in March 2020, the biggest month on record, and 173 million unique multiplatform visitors domestically in April 2020, the second largest month in history. The New York Times, Washington Post and NBC News also saw historic growth, while Fox News fell to #5 in March.

CNN.com: 173 Million Multiplatform Unique Visitors in April 2020
– The New York Times Brand – 136 million unique visitors in April
– FoxNews.com – 121 million unique visitors in April
– WashingtonPost.com – 116 million unique visitors in April
– NBCNews.com – 101 million unique visitors in April
– USAToday.com – 97 million unique visitors in April

CNN.com: 184 Million Multiplatform Unique Visitors in March 2020
– The New York Times Brand – 163 million unique visitors in March
– WashingtonPost.com – 145 million unique visitors in March
– NBCNews.com – 143 million unique visitors in March
– FoxNews.com – 135 million unique visitors in March
– USAToday.com – 113 million unique visitors in March

#1 IN MOBILE UNIQUE VISITORS IN MARCH AND APRIL 2020
With more and more people turning to their mobile devices for news and information, CNN saw a record high mobile audience of 159 million mobile unique visitors in March 2020 and 149 million in April, marking it as the 15th and 16th months in a row for an audience of more than 100 million unique visitors on mobile devices.

CNN.com: 149 Million Mobile Unique Visitors in April 2020
– The New York Times Brand – 115 million mobile unique visitors in April
– FoxNews.com – 100 million mobile unique visitors in April
– WashingtonPost.com – 97 million mobile unique visitors in April
– NBCNews.com – 87 million mobile unique visitors in April
– USAToday.com – 84 million mobile unique visitors in April

CNN.com: 159 Million Mobile Unique Visitors in March 2020
– The New York Times Brand – 141 million unique visitors in March
– NBCNews.com – 127 million unique visitors in March
– WashingtonPost.com – 120 million unique visitors in March
– FoxNews.com – 115 million unique visitors in March
– USAToday.com – 97 million unique visitors in March

#1 IN MULTIPLATFORM VIDEO STARTS IN MARCH 2020
CNN’s multiplatform video coverage saw incredible engagement in March with 848 million multiplatform video starts (data most current available), with more than half a billion video start lead over second place Yahoo News. Competitively outside the news category, CNN Digital surpassed ESPN in March and was only behind YouTube, Facebook, Hulu, Vevo, Yahoo, and Netflix in digital video streams, making CNN the largest original video publisher.

CNN.com: 848 Million Multiplatform Video Starts in March
– Yahoo News – 321 million video starts
– FoxNews.com – 297 million video starts
– MSN News – 219 million video starts
– ABCNews.com Sites – 205 million video starts
– NBCNews.com – 203 million video starts

#1 IN MILLENNIAL REACH IN MARCH AND APRIL 2020
March also brought the largest millennial audience (between the ages of 18-34) to CNN in history with 55 million unique millennial multiplatform visitors in March, while April saw its third biggest audience with 45 million in April – trailing November 2016 by 1 million unique visitors.

CNN.com: 45 Million Millennial Unique Multiplatform Visitors in April
– The New York Times Brand – 38 million millennial unique visitors in April
– WashingtonPost.com – 29 million millennial unique visitors in April
– USAToday.com – 25 million millennial unique visitors in April
– NBCNews.com – 24.5 million millennial unique visitors in April
– FoxNews.com – 24.2 million millennial unique visitors in April

CNN.com: 55 Million Millennial Unique Multiplatform Visitors in March
– The New York Times Brand – 48 million millennial unique visitors in March
– WashingtonPost.com – 46 million millennial unique visitors in March
– NBCNews.com – 41 million millennial unique visitors in March
– USAToday.com– 32 million millennial unique visitors in March
– FoxNews.com – 31 million millennial unique visitors in March

#1 POLITICAL NEWS SOURCE IN MARCH AND APRIL 2020
As the 2020 Presidential Election Campaign evolved and governments around the world responded to COVID-19, CNN Politics ranked again as the #1 political news destination in March and April 2020 with a record-high 96 million multiplatform unique visitors in March and 93 million multiplatform unique visitors in April – CNN Politics’ best months on record. CNN Politics has remained the #1 online political news outlet since March 2015 when the first person declared their candidacy for president in the 2016 race.

CNN Politics: 93 Million Multiplatform Unique Visitors in April
– TheHill.com – 59 million unique visitors in April
– Politico.com – 51 million unique visitors in April
– Fox News Politics – 42 million unique visitors in April
– NBCNews.com Politics – 38 million unique visitors in April
– MSNBC TV – 21 million unique visitors in April

CNN Politics: 96 Million Multiplatform Unique Visitors in March
– NBCNews.com Politics – 69 million unique visitors in March
– TheHill.com – 65.44 million unique visitors in March
– Politico.com – 65.37 million unique visitors in March
– Fox News Politics – 48 million unique visitors in March
– MSNBC TV – 24 million unique visitors in March

Categories: Articles, Consumer Behaviour, Content, Research