January’s comScore multiplatform digital rankings for sports showed some significant shifts from the typical pecking order within the category. ESPN led all sports sites in reach for the 23rd consecutive month with a total of 88.1 million unique users. But CBS Sports with a total of 58.6 million uniques rose to third place behind ESPN and NFL for the first time in at least several years and for the first time since mobile-based traffic became the dominant share for most entrants in the category. CBS Sports’ rise was fueled in large part by 247Sports.com, which posted a site record total of 22.8 million uniques during January, and has grown its traffic more than 50% since August. CBS Sports in December acquired 247Sports.com after a lengthy content and marketing partnership. Meanwhile, the Yahoo Sports-NBC Sports digital alliance topped ESPN for a second consecutive month in average minutes spent per visitor during the month, posting a total of 74.4 to ESPN’s 73.6. ESPN’s overall consumption total of 6.481 billion minutes did lead the category during January, but was off sharply from its total of 7.594 billion minutes in December.
| RANK |
SITE |
UNIQUES (000) |
| 1) |
ESPN |
88,115 |
| 2) |
NFL Internet Group |
61,251 |
| 3) |
CBS Sports* |
58,624 |
| 4) |
Yahoo Sports-NBC Sports Network** |
58,218 |
| 5) |
Fox Sports Digital-Sporting News Media |
56,254 |
| 6) |
USA Today Sports Media Group*** |
54,833 |
| 7) |
Bleacher Report-Turner Sports Network^ |
52,296 |
| 8) |
SB Nation |
47,559 |
| 9) |
Sports Illustrated sites# |
29,367 |
| 10) |
MLB |
15,276 |
| 11) |
MSN Sports |
15,118 |
| 12) |
Deadspin.com |
11,390 |
| 13) |
NHL Network |
10,257 |
| 14) |
theScore Inc. |
8,861 |
| 15) |
CBS Local Sports |
8,669 |
| RANK |
SITE |
TOTAL TIME SPENT (MINUTES) |
| 1) |
ESPN |
6.481 billion |
| 2) |
NFL Internet Group |
1.705 billion |
| 3) |
CBS Sports* |
1.150 billion |
| 4) |
Yahoo Sports-NBC Sports Network** |
4.330 billion |
| 5) |
Fox Sports Digital-Sporting News Media |
1.013 billion |
| 6) |
USA Today Sports Media Group*** |
658 million |
| 7) |
Bleacher Report-Turner Sports Network^ |
1.64 billion |
| 8) |
SB Nation |
346 million |
| 9) |
Sports Illustrated sites# |
246 million |
| 10) |
MLB |
318 million |
NOTES: * = Includes 247Sports.com. ** = Includes Rivals.com, ThePostGame.com, Rotoworld and FanDuel. *** = Includes 81 local Gannett-owned newspaper sites, 23 Gannett-owned broadcast TV sites, USA Today High School Sports, The Big Lead and ForTheWin. ^ = Includes NBA.com, NCAA.com and WNBA.com. # = Includes 120 Sports, National Football Post and the FanSided Network.
