Traffic to the Drudge Report Slides Downward in 2020

By HOWARD POLSKIN, September 30, 2020

 Traffic to the Drudge Report, the right-tilting granddaddy of news aggregators, has decreased steadily in the first eight months of 2020, according to TheRighting’s analysis of Comscore data.  The website has experienced year-over-year (YOY) declines in unique visitors in every month of 2020.  

 The latest numbers available from Comscore show Drudge Report attracting 1,415,000 unique visitors in August 2020 compared to 2,424,000 in August 2019.  That’s a 42% decline.  In July, Drudge’s YOY traffic was down 38% and in June traffic was off by 32%.  You can see the full three-month analysis at the bottom of this page.  

 Drudge’s downward trend contrasts sharply with blistering increase in traffic that news websites have been experiencing since the pandemic struck in March. Other factors in goosing traffic include stories about broad civil unrest throughout the spring and summer and a contentious race for the  presidency. For instance, in July, all conservative websites in TheRighting’s top 20 generated positive YOY increases in traffic.  In August, 19 out of 20 showed audience gains.  

I reached out to Matt Drudge for comment twice via email but he didn’t respond.  In fairness to the Drudge Report, data from at least one other measurement company shows a larger audience to the site.  For instance, in August, data from SimilarWeb revealed that Drudge had 63,220,000 total visits (as opposed to the 1,415,000 unique visitors that Comscore reported).  On the bottom right corner of the Drudge homepage, the site claims 731 million visits during the past 31 days (as of September 30).  

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