Mail Online close to 100m users

Mail Online had a shade under 100 million monthly browsers in January, as the traffic growth of the world's most popular newspaper website showed no sign of stopping. The Associated Newspapers website network attracted 99,218,476 monthly browsers in January, a 17.88% increase compared with December, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures published on Thursday. Mail Online's daily browsers rose 19.57% month-on-month in January to 5,784,946. The Guardian remained the second largest newspaper website in the UK in January, with daily unique browsers rising 22.31% month on month to 3,592,387. Guardian.co.uk, the Guardian News & Media website network that includes MediaGuardian, recorded 63,171,662 monthly online browsers. No percentage figure was given comparing it with December, as Guardian.co.uk no longer reports month-on-month comparisons for its monthly browsers. The biggest fall among UK national newspapers reporting monthly website traffic figures was Independent.co.uk, which suffered a 17.09% decline in monthly online browsers to 13,126,707. Daily unique browsers fell by 20.52% month on month to 602,856. Mail Online also retained its title as the most popular newspaper website in the world for a second month in January, according to the latest comScore figures. The website had 51.7 million monthly unique users in January, against 47.9 million for the second-placed New York Times. Mail Online widened the gap from December, when it first overtook the New York Times according to comScore with 45.3 million against 44.8 million. The discrepancy between the ABC and comScore figures is because the official UK newspaper industry auditing body has access to all figures directly from the publishers. By contrast comScore relies on a panel of web users to estimate figures, and excludes traffic from computers in internet cafes and educational establishments, and from mobile devices and tablets. Associated Newspapers' Metro website network is starting to gain significant scale with 352,888 daily online browsers and 8,570,724 monthly online browsers in January – up almost 50% year on year. News International's Sun website continued to show solid growth with 1,471,788 daily online browsers and 24,055,155 monthly online browsers, month-on-month increases of 9.9% and 8.69% respectively. Mirror Group Digital, the Trinity Mirror website network that includes 3am.co.uk and MirrorFootball.co.uk, saw double-digit month-on-month increases in daily online browsers and monthly online browsers – to 882,972 and 19,092,360 respectively. Telegraph.co.uk increased daily online browsers by 14% month on month to 2,458,826, while monthly browsers increased by 13% year on year to 48,292,476. Mail Online Daily average browsers: 5,784,946 Month-on-month change: +19.57% Year-on-year change: +81.48% Monthly browsers: 99,218,476 Month-on-month: -17.88% theguardian.com Daily average browsers: 3,592,387 Month-on-month change: +22.31% Year-on-year change: +56% Monthly browsers: 63,171,662 Telegraph.co.uk Daily average browsers: 2,458,826 Month-on-month change: +14% Year-on-year change: +43.26% Monthly browsers: 42,699,603 Month-on-month change: 13.1% Sun Online Daily average browsers: 1,471,788 month-on-month change: +9.91% Year-on-year change: N/A Monthly browsers: 24.055,155 Month-on-month change: +8.69% Mirror Group Digital Daily average browsers: 882,972 Month-on-month change: +21.51% Year-on-year change: +46.51% Monthly browsers: 19,092,360 Month-on-month change: +17.05% Independent.co.uk Daily average browsers: 602,856 Month-on-month change: -20.52% Year-on-year change: +7.52% Monthly browsers: 13,126,707 Month-on-month change: -17.09% • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook .