Second COVID-19 wave results in online news traffic spike in South Africa
Narratiive has released its website traffic report for December 2020, which showed that News24, TimesLive, and IOL are the biggest online publications in South Africa.
Narratiive is the official traffic measurement partner of the IAB South Africa and provides accurate traffic and demographics statistics for the country’s top websites.
The latest statistics show that News24 attracted a readership of 12.7 million unique browsers in December.
It was followed by TimesLive with 7.1 million readers, IOL with 5.9 million, BusinessTech with 5.7 million, and EWN with 4.6 million.
The strong performance of these publications during a traditionally quiet month was fuelled by the news of a second COVID-19 wave in South Africa.
The rise of coronavirus cases saw increased restrictions in holiday hotspots and the country moving to alert level 3 on 29 December 2020.
South Africans flocked to online news portals to stay abreast of the latest developments and find out how their holiday plans are affected by the new lockdown rules.
The table below shows the top 20 online publications in South Africa, ranked based on monthly readership.
The second table shows the largest online publishers in South Africa based on their total readership in December 2020.
Biggest South African news publications
| Biggest South African Online Publications | |||
| Website | Publisher | Unique Browsers | Page Views |
| News24 | 24.com | 12,713,534 | 102,256,275 |
| TimesLive | Arena Holdings | 7,065,100 | 32,172,018 |
| IOL | Independent Online | 5,908,994 | 28,348,853 |
| BusinessTech | MyBroadband | 5,709,495 | 18,001,437 |
| EWN | Primedia Broadcasting | 4,589,095 | 22,328,335 |
| The South African | The South African | 3,972,870 | 11,449,290 |
| ENCA | Sabido | 3,539,399 | 11,099,891 |
| Business Insider | 24.com | 3,204,763 | 14,279,586 |
| SowetanLive | Arena Holdings | 3,166,146 | 12,746,337 |
| Citizen | Caxton CTP | 2,707,884 | 10,498,377 |
| Daily Maverick | The Daily Maverick | 2,537,701 | 9,833,785 |
| BusinessLive | Arena Holdings | 2,105,323 | 6,527,433 |
| Maroela Media | Maroela Media | 1,991,784 | 21,278,357 |
| MSN | MediaMark | 1,939,067 | 15,860,826 |
| Netwerk24 | 24.com | 1,622,318 | 11,729,570 |
| MyBroadband | MyBroadband | 1,589,672 | 5,929,516 |
| Cars | Cars.co.za | 1,584,217 | 19,938,538 |
| Soccerladuma | 24.com | 1,443,087 | 21,281,845 |
| Kick Off South Africa | 24.com | 1,262,200 | 15,420,671 |
| CapeTalk | Primedia Broadcasting | 1,140,262 | 2,158,433 |
| Biggest South African Business Publications | |||
| Website | Publisher | Unique Browsers | Page Views |
| BusinessTech | MyBroadband Media | 5,709,495 | 18,001,437 |
| Business Insider | 24.com | 3,204,763 | 14,279,586 |
| BusinessLive | Arena Holdings | 2,105,323 | 6,527,433 |
| Moneyweb | AME | 1,033,445 | 5,060,504 |
| Bizcommunity | Bizcommunity.com | 203,484 | 686,872 |
| Biggest South African Technology Publications | |||
| Website | Publisher | Unique Browsers | Page Views |
| MyBroadband | MyBroadband Media | 1,589,672 | 5,929,516 |
| Techcentral | NewsCentral Media | 234,740 | 410,415 |
| ITWeb | ITWeb Limited | 130,871 | 240,251 |
| Memeburn | Burn Media | 54,757 | 78,063 |
| Engineeringnews | Creamer Media | 33,958 | 115,400 |
Biggest South African online publishers
| Biggest South African Online Publishers | ||
| Publisher | Unique Browsers | Page Views |
| 24.com | 19,784,658 | 389,031,203 |
| Arena Holdings | 11,609,423 | 56,564,277 |
| MyBroadband Media | 7,123,015 | 23,953,400 |
| Independent Online | 7,011,682 | 35,327,942 |
| Caxton CTP | 6,278,946 | 28,715,737 |
| Primedia Broadcasting | 5,967,157 | 26,544,008 |
| The South African | 3,977,335 | 11,454,752 |
| Sabido | 3,570,552 | 11,474,808 |
| The Daily Maverick | 2,537,701 | 9,833,785 |
| DStv Digital Media | 2,234,703 | 16,093,634 |
| MediaMark | 2,019,365 | 16,238,095 |
| Maroela Media | 1,991,784 | 21,278,357 |
| Highbury Safika Media | 1,883,977 | 6,269,167 |
| Kagiso Media Limited | 1,764,491 | 4,627,556 |
| Cars | 1,584,217 | 19,938,538 |
| Portal Publishing | 1,542,440 | 4,694,938 |
| SABC | 1,502,149 | 4,529,070 |
| DAZN Media | 1,364,256 | 14,994,448 |
| AME | 1,311,312 | 6,252,688 |
| Mail & Guardian Online | 748,135 | 1,634,520 |
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