Top 50 English-language news sites in the world: Indian brands hit hardest by traffic drops in May
Press Gazette's analysis of the 50 biggest English-language news websites in the world, updated monthly.
More than a fifth of the top 50 English-language news websites in the world saw a year-on-year traffic declines of 20% or more in May 2026, according to the latest Similarweb data.
Four of the five worst-hit newsbrands were based in India.
Some 36 out of 50 newsbrands saw traffic fall by 10% or more compared to the same month last year.
- Top 50 most popular news websites in the UK (monthly ranking)
- Top 50 most popular news websites in the US (monthly ranking)
- Top 50 news websites in the world (any language)
India.com posted the steepest traffic drop, down 78% to 56.2 million visits.
This was followed by the Hindustan Times (down 54% to 138.7 million) and Buzzfeed (down 46% to 60.5 million).
The Indian Express (down 40% to 103.2 million) and India Today (down 34% to 71.2 million) were the next hardest hit.
Just eight newsbrands grew traffic year on year.
Al Jazeera and Substack continued their respective growth streaks in May, having both led growth year on year and month on month since March.
Al Jazeera saw traffic increase by 69% year on year to 210.8 million visits in May, while Substack was up 49% to 169.1 million visits.
The Sun US saw the third-biggest year-on-year growth, up 34% to 30.4 million visits.
The Sun US, which launched in 2020, also led growth on a month-on-month basis, up 43%.
Similarweb has recently changed the methodology used to calculate the global audience for the BBC online. The BBC data is not simply the total of bbc.co.uk and bbc.com, but accounts for .com visits in the UK that get redirected to bbc.co.uk, and visits from elsewhere that get redirected from bbc.co.uk to bbc.com.
April 2026
Just three of the 50 biggest English-language news websites in the world saw month-on-month growth in April.
Some 47 news sites saw a decline in global visits compared to March, according to the latest Similarweb data.
The biggest drops were seen by the Daily Mail (139.9 million visits) and Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera (140.5 million), down by 36% and 33% respectively.
This follows a particularly strong March for Al Jazeera, when the site led year-on-year growth (up 397%) and month-on-month growth (up 233%) reaching 210.8 million global visits.
Despite its month-on-month decline in April, it still recorded the strongest growth year on year among the top 50 sites, up 257%.
Recent traffic spikes for the site likely reflects increased interest in Middle East news after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on 28 February.
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