Screenshot of Guardian.co.uk
Guardian.co.uk was the most popular UK newspaper website in terms of unique user/browsers in October, according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe).

The site broke the 25 million barrier for unique users unique users for the first time in October with 25,976,046 - a rise of 1,789,624 (7.4 per cent) from the previous month.

Multimedia coverage of the build-up to the US elections and reporting on the ongoing financial crisis were key traffic drivers for Guardian.co.uk, Emily Bell, Guardian News&Media's director of digital content, said in a press release.

The Guardian site also saw a monthly rise in international unique users with 15,836,496 – 61 per cent of its total for October – based outside the UK.

Telegraph.co.uk remained in second place with 23,208,902 unique users - a month-on-month growth of 1.2 per cent from 22,945,934 in September's figures.

The site's non-UK audience also grew by 448,928 to 16,202,201 – 70 per cent of its total unique users for October.

Mail Online leapfrogged Times Online last month to take third spot, posting the largest increase in unique user figures of all the monthly audited national newspaper titles.

The site recorded an 18.3 per cent rise in unique users from September taking the total figure to 21,195,062, while Times Online, though staying above the 20 million mark, posted a month-on-month increase of 0.74 per cent to 20,474,001 unique users.

Mail publisher Associated Newspapers also debuted web traffic stats for the Evening Standard's site this month - the site recorded 1,613,733 unique users and 9,576,634 page impressions.

This month's figures saw gains in unique users for all of the five audited national newspaper websites, including the Sun's site and Independent.co.uk.

The Sun added 1,343,988 unique users from September – a rise of 8.5 per cent, which took its total to 17,127,539 for October.

Positive growth in unique users for Independent.co.uk saw the site tally 8,408,910 for the month, as it posted a 5.1 per cent increase of 412,952 from the last set of monthly figures.

Mirror Group, which records figures for its entire online network of sites, portfolio of websites recorded a total unique user figure of 5,832,594 for the month – a 10.9 per cent month-on-month rise for the group.

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