ESPN Down To Third In Latest ComScore Rankings; Te'o Helps Deadspin Crack Top 15

ESPN in January fell to third among U.S. sports sites in the monthly comScore reach rankings for the first time since August. Yahoo Sports ended a five-month, back-and-forth battle with ESPN for the top overall spot, leading the list for the second straight month with a total of 41.24 million unique visitors. The January list does not include the digital content and marketing partnership between Yahoo and NBC Sports that will ultimately create a joint listing in comScore rankings. Fox Sports, ranking second with a total of 39.44 million unique visitors, branded its January total as its best non-event driven month ever, and its second-best of any month behind the London Olympics-fueled total of 44.98 million uniques posted in August. Deadspin.com, meanwhile, entered the chart at No. 14 with 5.18 million uniques, its total boosted significantly by breaking the Manti Te'o fake girlfriend story. ESPN again led in consumption among U.S. sports sites in January with an average of 72.9 minutes per visitor during the month.

RANK	SITE	UNIQUES (000)
1	Yahoo Sports*	41,244
2	FoxSports.com on MSN	39,438
3	ESPN	38,145
4	USA Today Sports Media Group**	23,510
5	Bleacher Report-Turner Sports Network***	21,533
6	NFL Internet Group	21,182
7	CBS Sports	18,849
8	NBC Sports^	15,431
9	SB Nation	11,710
10	Sports Illustrated Sites	11,059
11	Sporting News on AOL	10,641
12	MLB	7,069
13	Active.com sites	6,433
14	Deadspin.com	5,180
15	Stack Media	4,432

NOTES: All numbers do not include wireless traffic. * = includes Rivals.com and ThePostGame.com. ** = Includes 81 local Gannett newspaper sites, 23 Gannett-owned broadcast TV station sites, USA Today High School Sports, BNQT Media Group. *** = Sites include NBA.com, PGA.com, NCAA.com and WNBA.com. ^ = Includes NHL.com.