Forty-five of the 50 biggest U.S. news websites drew fewer visits in September than a year earlier, Press Gazette reported on Oct. 8. That works out to 90% of the list, up from 82% in August, according to the British trade outlet's monthly ranking, which relies on traffic estimates from the data firm Similarweb.

The longer trend is even steeper. In an August analysis, Press Gazette found that combined monthly visits to the 10 biggest American news sites fell 32% from July 2024 to July 2026, or "almost a third." Across the full top 50, visits peaked at 4.9 billion in July 2024 and fell to 3.1 billion this July, a decline of 37%.

Several familiar names fell hard in September. Newsweek dropped 61% from a year earlier, the steepest fall on the list, while the Daily Mail fell 53%, though an April domain switch may affect its numbers. Axios and CNN each lost 48%. Only five sites grew, including the newsletter platform Substack, which rose 26%.

The losses are not even. The New York Times, the biggest site on the list, was roughly flat compared with three years ago, while USA Today peaked at 203.5 million visits in November 2024 and then slid to 89.9 million by this July.

Press Gazette points to several possible causes, including Google's AI Overviews, the search summaries that reached all American users in May 2024, along with readers drifting to social media and solo creators and the rise of AI chatbots. Yet its data does not prove one cause, because search's share of visits barely moved, from 31% in 2023 to 30% this year, and AI chatbots sent less than half of 1% of visits on average.

Other data point the same way. Axios, using its own Similarweb data on about 100 top news sites, reported in September that their U.S. traffic has fallen sharply since peaking in 2024, while referrals from AI chatbots remain far too small to make up the loss. Chartbeat, which tracks traffic for publishers, found that referrals from Google Search across its network fell about 40% from July 2025 to July 2026, Search Engine Journal reported.

Newsrooms are already reacting. USA Today's parent company said in August that falling search traffic was part of why its monthly readership shrank, and its chief executive, Mike Reed, said it may withhold its content from Google, though he would rather strike a paid licensing deal.

One caution: Press Gazette ranks today's top 50 sites and looks back, so sites that shrank out of the list are not counted.

What we know: Most of the biggest American news sites are drawing fewer visits than a year ago, and the 10 largest are down 32% from July 2024, according to Press Gazette.

What we don't: How much of the drop comes from AI search, and whether loyal readers who come straight to news sites can make up the loss.