The April comScore reach rankings of the most-trafficked U.S. sports sites included several notable shifts from March, continuing a period of marked change within the industry. Yahoo held its typical slot atop the list with a total of 47.6 million unique visitors. But MLB jumped from 12th in the March rankings to fifth during April with the start of the '12 baseball season, posting 16.2 million uniques, up 66% from the prior month. Turner Sports Digital conversely fell from fifth in March to eighth in April without the traffic push of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. ESPN, which again fell to third in the rankings amid a continuing neck-and-neck reach battle with FoxSports.com on MSN, maintained its typical, large lead among sports sites in consumption with an average of 84.2 minutes per visitor during the month.
TOP SPORTS SITES FOR APRIL, RANKED BY UNIQUE VISITORS |
RK | SITE | UNIQUES (000) | RK | SITE | UNIQUES (000) |
1 | Yahoo Sports | 47,624 | 9 | NFL Internet Group | 13,073 |
2 | FoxSports.com on MSN | 34,364 | 10 | SB Nation | 9,661 |
3 | ESPN | 34,338 | 11 | BleacherReport.com | 9,647 |
4 | USA Today Sports
Media Group* | 22,663 | 12 | Sports Illustrated sites | 9,183 |
5 | MLB | 16,228 | 13 | Sporting News on AOL | 9,031 |
6 | CBS Sports | 15,129 | 14 | Active.com sites | 7,134 |
7 | NBC Sports** | 14,816 | 15 | Big Lead Sports by FSV | 5,932 |
8 | Turner Sports Digital*** | 13,556 | | | |
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NOTES: All numbers do not include wireless traffic. * = Sites include 81 local Gannett newspaper sites, 23 Gannett-owned broadcast TV station sites, HighSchoolSports.net and BNQT Media Group. USA Today also continues to fold in traffic assignments from various affiliates in the Big Lead Sports network following the January purchase of Big Lead Sports, resulting in the two separate listings. ** = Includes NHL.com. *** = Sites include NBA.com, NASCAR.com, PGATour.com, PGA.com, NCAA.com and WNBA.com.
