Explore rankings that highlight both the top-performing and underperforming news sites. These rankings demonstrate that fast-loading, user-friendly articles are achievable—even when incorporating subscriptions and advertising.
The rankings are based on a 3-day rolling average, assessed on the mobile versions of articles using Google Lighthouse.
Known Issue: In process of fixing a data collection issue (Feb 7th, 2025)
Audits for performance using Google Lighthouse wth a focus on Mobile. Typically every site is tested at least once per day.
Speed Index is one of five metrics tracked in the Lighthouse report but is the primary focus of this audit. It is recommended that you never optimize against a single metric.
Historical data for most sites goes back to 2021. You can find all past data in spreadsheet format here:
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Performance Score: A metric used to evaluate a website's overall speed and responsiveness. It combines key performance indicators, like First Contentful Paint (FCP), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), and others, into a single score (usually 0–100). A higher score reflects a faster, more user-friendly experience.
Speed Index: A web performance metric that measures how quickly the visible content of a webpage is displayed during loading. It calculates the average time at which visible parts of the page are rendered, with lower scores indicating faster visual progress and a better user experience.
First Contentful Paint (FCP): This measures the time (seconds) it takes for the browser to display the first piece of content (like text, images, or graphics) visible to the user. It indicates the start of the visual loading experience.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This measures the time (seconds) it takes for the largest visible content element (like a hero image, headline text, or video) to fully render. It reflects when the page’s main content is likely to be ready for user interaction.
Effective webpage performance isn't just about loading content—it’s about creating a seamless user experience. Developers, designers, and product teams must collaborate to optimize how pages are built and delivered.
Consider this: while a 1,700-word article might weigh about 10KB in terms of just text, the fully-loaded page—complete with HTML, JavaScript, CSS, images, third-party scripts, and ads—can balloon to anywhere between 2MB and 12MB, depending on the site. For perspective, the first Harry Potter ebook (including cover art) was just 1.1MB.
You have to ask: where did we go wrong?
This service exists to help product owners and developers alike monitor their own sites and benchmark against peers. It provides the insights needed to advocate for improvements, fostering a faster web and, by extension, a better user experience—especially for those where data is expensive or slow.
On a purely self-interested level, a faster web translates to tangible benefits for publishers: better ad load times, higher CPMs, improved Viewability scores, and increased time-on-site. In fact, addressing basic loading issues and deferring some page elements can yield ad revenue differences in double-digit percentages.