Guardian.co.uk narrowly missed breaking the 30 million monthly unique user barrier in January, according to offically audited traffic figures from ABCe released today.
The Guardian News and Media site grew its total audience by 51.26 per cent year on year to reach 29,811,671 unique users last month.
It was 3.9 million users ahead of the second-ranked Telegraph.co.uk, which was the biggest year-on-year riser – up 109.78 per cent to 25,904,722.
Mail Online and Times Online swapped positions again last month, with the Times regaining third position on 22,898,300, an increase of 51.77 per cent on January 2008.
The Mail website trailed by 20,000 users, with a January traffic figure up 27.78 per cent year on year to 22,877,431.
Sun Online was up 64.46 per cent in a year, with 21,910,839 unique users in January.
Independent.co.uk broke the 10 million mark and was the second fastest-growing national newspaper on a year-on-year basis.
Its monthly unique user figure was 10,240,271 – up 108.2 per cent year on year.
The Mirror Group’s network of websites – including Mirror.co.uk, SundayMirror.co.uk, People,co.uk, DailyRecord.co.uk and SundayMail.co.uk – recorded 6,646,495 unique users in January.
This was a 25 per cent increase on December, but an audited year-on-year comparison is not available because the Mirror Group did not join ABCe until last March.
According to unofficial figures supplied by Trinity Mirror, the sites had 4,056,568 unique users last January.
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