Sharp web traffic rises in April for Metro and Mirror

Web traffic to the website for Metro rose by more than 25 per cent for the second month running, according to figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulation. In March the site recorded a 27 per cent increase in unique browsers, followed by a second sharp increase in April of 26 per cent to more than 9.8 million readers.

Metro announced a mobile-first strategy last November when it re-launched its website with a responsive design and 'swipeable' articles. Metro web traffic then dropped by more than 30 per cent the following month.

The commuter title's monthly mobile traffic reached a record of more than 4 million users last month, according to a press release from the news outlet, with mobile representing more than 42 per cent of overall traffic.

The greatest traffic increase in April was reported for Mirror Group Digital. The group recorded a 30 per cent rise in traffic, with 25.1 million unique users during the month.

The Mail Online continued its traffic rise, with a monthly increase of 5.77 per cent to more than 119 million readers globally.

The Telegraph, which has announced that it is to introduce a metered paywall, rose by 5.71 per cent to almost 59 million readers. Guardian traffic also rose, with a monthly traffic increase of 4.68 per cent, reaching nearly 82 million uniques.

Traffic to The Sun's website, which is to introduce a £2-a-week paywall on 1 August, fell by 3 per cent month-on-month to nearly 28 million readers.

Web traffic to the Evening Standard and to the Independent also dropped, falling by 8.06 per cent and 3.74 per cent respectively. The Standard site had almost 4 million uniques in April while the Independent had just over 24 million.

Update: Mail Online achieved its "best day ever for global daily unique browsers in April", according to a press release. The site received 9,558,256 visits on 16 April, the day after the Boston marathon bombings.

The following Monday (22 April) the news site received 9,226,255 global daily uniques, the second best day ever for the site.

According to ABC figures, there were 42,126,862 UK readers in April, out of a total global readership of 119,089,705, which represents a 2 per cent month-on-month increase in UK readers.

The release adds that the Mail Online’s iPhone app received 867,689 unique visitors in April, representing a 3 per cent increase on the previous month. The title's Android app had 560,758 global visitors in April, an increase of 7 per cent month-on-month.

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