The digital sports media category in March began to rebound from a marked retreat earlier this year, posting a double-digit percentage gain in consumption and a slight increase in reach totals during the month. The overall U.S. audience for digital sports media across online and mobile platforms rose to 178.9 million, up slightly from 177.2 million during February. Overall sports content consumption rose to an average time spent per user of 100 minutes, up 25% from 80 minutes in February. The figure, however, is still down from 117 minutes per user in March ’16. ESPN led the category for the seventh straight month and for the 36th time in the last 37 months with a reach total of 82.5 million unique visitors. Its consumption total of 68.3 minutes per user also led the category, and both figures were up by double-digit percentages from February. The Bleacher Report-Turner Sports Network, meanwhile, jumped from seventh in reach metrics to second during March with a total of 60.3 million uniques, buttressed in part by record totals for March Madness Live.
|
RANK
|
SITE |
UNIQUES (000)
|
|
1
|
ESPN |
82,489
|
|
2
|
CBS Sports* |
63,835
|
|
3
|
Bleacher Report-Turner Sports Network** |
63,678
|
|
4
|
Fox Sports-SI Group-Perform Media*** |
62,645
|
|
5
|
Yahoo Sports-NBC Sports Network# |
55,212
|
|
6
|
USA Today Sports Media Group^ |
48,966
|
|
7
|
SB Nation |
45,394
|
|
8
|
NFL Internet Group |
30,975
|
|
9
|
MLB |
24,415
|
|
10
|
Minute Media^^ |
17,881
|
|
11
|
MSN Sports |
15,971
|
|
12
|
NHL Network |
11,486
|
|
13
|
Active.com sites |
9,336
|
|
14
|
WWE |
8,297
|
|
15
|
Deadspin.com |
8,203
|
|
RANK
|
SITE |
TOTAL TIME SPENT (MINUTES)
|
|
1
|
ESPN |
5.63 billion
|
|
2
|
Bleacher Report-Turner Sports Network** |
2.49 billion
|
|
3
|
Yahoo Sports-NBC Sports Network# |
2.29 billion
|
|
4
|
CBS Sports* |
1.31 billion
|
|
5
|
Fox Sports-SI Group-Perform Media*** |
785 million
|
|
6
|
NFL Internet Group |
733 million
|
|
7
|
MLB |
564 million
|
|
8
|
USA Today Sports Media Group^ |
497 million
|
|
9
|
SB Nation |
313 million
|
|
10
|
Minute Media^^ |
112 million
|
NOTES: * = Includes 247Sports.com and MaxPreps. ** = Includes NBA.com, NCAA.com and WNBA.com. *** = 120 Sports, National Football Post, The FanSided Network and Sporting News. # = Includes Rivals.com, The Vertical, 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 For The Win. ^^ = Includes The Spun.
