MediaTel

Guardian.co.uk once again broke records, and remained the most popular national newspaper website over the month of December.

According to data released by ABCe, the Guardian website clocked up nearly 37 million users in the run up to Christmas. This comes on the back of an already impressive run, as this is the fourth month in a row the website has come out on top of the nationals audited by ABCe. In November, Guardian.co.uk was the first of the sites to break through the 35 million users mark.

Mail Online gained 1.6 million users in December, keeping it in second place. The Daily Mail's website has seen a huge spike in popularity over the past year, and hit the top spot during the summer months. In September 2009, Mail Online fell to third place; since then users have remained steady at around the 30 million mark. December shows a YOY increase of 67%.

Taking December's third place is Telegraph.co.uk, with 30.7 million unique users - a loss of 100,000 since November, but it also reports a healthy YOY increase of 46%. In September 2009, Telegraph.co.uk reached over 30 million users for the first time.

Sun Online is in fourth place but with significantly less users than the top three. December saw 20.9 million people browsing the site, up 700,000 on November 2009. Sun Online peaked in February 2009 with 27 million unique users, which has been attributed to the intense coverage of Jade Goody's final weeks.

Times Online lost one million users over December, sending it below the 20 million mark, resulting in 19.8 million unique users.

Mirror Group lost nearly one million users, resulting in 9.7 unique users in December, but has increased its audience by 87% in the past twelve months. Independent.co.uk, on the other hand, gained in popularity, with 400,000 more users logging on around the festive period. 2010 might see the Independent Newspapers website crawl out of last place if this trend continues.

December also marks the fourth month in a row that the top three websites have remained above 30 million unique users. Despite a shake-up of the traditional running order in recent months, Guardian.co.uk, Mail Online and Telegraph.co.uk, have proved their popularity with some impressive audience retention.

Data to form this report can be found in the Online database. For any assistance please contact the helpdesk on 020 7439 7575.