FoxSports.com Sees Record Number Of Unique Visitors In August; Yahoo Still Tops ComScores

FoxSports.com on MSN reached an company-record 44.98 million unique visitors in August, according to monthly measurement data from comScore. The figure easily tops the site's prior monthly high of 38.8 million uniques. FoxSports.com on MSN, which for months has held a back-and-forth battle with ESPN for the No. 2 slot among U.S. sports sites, also posted its largest-ever margin over its key rival, as ESPN came in during the month with 37.99 million uniques. Yahoo Sports during the month retained its customary position as the most-trafficked American sports site with 54.09 million uniques. As was the case in July, NBCSports.com enjoyed a significant Olympic-related traffic boost, as the site again placed fourth with a total of 31.86 million uniques. The NFL Internet Group jumped from 12th in July to 6th in August with a total of 19.95 million uniques with the arrival of football season, more than twice its July figure. ESPN retained its usual large lead in consumption with an average of 81.5 minutes per visitor during the month. ComScore recently made changes to its measurement methodology that adjusts weighting within is American measurements due to new U.S. Census data, and also accounts more strenuously for cookie rejection within Safari browsers.