Al Jazeera Leads Global Traffic Surge in March Amid Middle East Events
In March, Qatar-based news site Al Jazeera witnessed a remarkable global traffic growth of almost 400% compared to the previous year, according to the latest Similarweb data. The website recorded 210.8 million global visits, marking a 397% increase year-on-year and 233% month-on-month.
This significant surge in traffic is attributed to increased interest in Middle East news, following reported strikes on Iran by the US and Israel on February 28.
Al Jazeera’s ranking in Press Gazette’s monthly list of the top 50 English-language news websites in the world dramatically improved, rising from 31st place in February to 11th place in March.
Diverse Performance Across Top English-Language News Sites
Overall, 17 out of the 50 biggest English-language news websites globally experienced year-on-year traffic growth in March, while 31 saw declines.
Substack recorded the second-biggest traffic increase year-on-year, up 45% to 169.1 million visits, followed by India-based NDTV, which saw a 32% rise to 199.5 million.
Conversely, some sites faced significant drops. Two India-based sites, India.com and The Hindustan Times, saw their traffic fall by approximately half (58% and 46% respectively). Newsweek experienced the second-biggest fall, down 57% to 49.1 million visits.
Month-on-month, 44 out of 50 sites saw traffic grow compared to February. Reuters had the second-biggest month-on-month growth, up 46% to 119.5 million, followed by Russian website RT (up 38%).
Canadian broadcaster CBC recorded the largest month-on-month decline, down 39% to 62.6 million visits.
Key Factors and Methodological Updates
Similarweb recently adjusted its methodology for calculating the global audience for the BBC online. This change now accounts for .com visits in the UK redirected to bbc.co.uk and visits from elsewhere redirected from bbc.co.uk to bbc.com, aiming for more accurate data.
Historical data from the past year indicates that various global events, such as US presidential election cycles, regional tensions, and the introduction of Google’s AI tools (AI Overviews), have significantly influenced traffic patterns for news websites worldwide. These factors have led to both substantial gains and declines for different publishers across various regions, including India, the US, and the UK.
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