RushLimbaugh.com Nearly Doubles Year-Over-Year Audience

and Generates Highest Traffic Since November 2016 Election

 March 23, 2020, New York, NY – RushLimbaugh.com, the website of conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh, posted its largest monthly audience since November 2016.  According to TheRighting’s exclusive analysis of February 2020 mobile and desktop traffic based on Comscore data, RushLimbaugh.com generated 2,390,000 unique visitors last month, an 88% year-over-year (YOY) gain compared to February 2019 when it attracted only 1,273,000 unique visitors.  Each weekday, Limbaugh’s website posts transcripts broken down by specific segments of the popular daily radio talk show. 

 Howard Polskin, President and Chief Curator, TheRighting, cited three reasons contributing to the surge in traffic.  “Mr. Limbaugh attracted much more attention than usual in February,” said Polskin.  “On February 3, he revealed his lung cancer diagnosis.  The next day, Limbaugh received the Presidential Medal of Honor during the president’s nationally televised State of the Union address.  And on February 24 he broadcast an extremely controversial segment on his radio show charging that coronavirus was overhyped and weaponized against Trump.” (Access transcript here.)

 Both the Washington Examiner and Washington Times posted triple-digit YOY increases in unique visitors in February 2020 reflecting the robust news environment.  Major stories in the month included the controversial Iowa caucus, the New Hampshire primary, Roger Stone’s sentencing, tensions between Trump and Attorney General Barr, and increased coverage of the intensifying coronavirus outbreak in the United States.  The Examiner recorded its 14th consecutive month of YOY increases in unique visitors.

 Foxnews.com led all conservative news websites with 106,067,000 unique visitors in February 2020, a 4% uptick.  However, the three leading US mainstream news sources that TheRighting regularly tracks, experienced much larger gains.  CNN attracted 23 million more unique visitors in February 2020 compared to February 2019 for a 20% change; the New York Times was up 16.6 million unique visitors (+18%); and the Washington Post rose by seven million unique visitors (9%). 

 Leaders and Laggards Among Top 20 Conservative Websites for February 2020

(by unique visitor percentage increase/decrease from year ago)

Leaders:

·      Washington Examiner (+115%)

·      Twitchy (+115%)

·      Washington Times (+114%)

Laggards:

·      Washington Free Beacon (-35%)

·      Breitbart (-31%)

·      TheBlaze (-28%)

 Each month, TheRighting examines Comscore data on dozens of prominent conservative websites that post original content.  TheRighting ranks the top 20 conservative websites on the basis of unique visitors and also provides data on whether unique visitors have increased or decreased year over year.  That information is posted on the Metrics section of TheRighting’s website.

 TheRighting also publishes an A-Z Guide to Right-Wing Media  on its website and updates it regularly.  The guide features descriptions about prominent right-wing media websites.

 Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, Custom-defined list, including, but not limited to Foxnews.com, Breitbart.com, DailyCaller.com, WashingtonExaminer.com, WesternJournal.com, Washingtontimes.com, Total Digital Audience, February 2020, U.S.

Interested in more news about right-wing websites curated especially for mainstream audiences? Subscribe to our free daily newsletter.