Traffic to top tech publications has plummeted since 2024, new analysis shows

"The report pulled U.S. organic traffic estimates using Ahrefs for ten major English-language tech publications, including Wired, CNET, Mashable, The Verge, and PC Mag. Growtika then compared each publication's peak traffic month in 2024 to January 2026. The publications had a combined peak traffic of 112 million in 2024. In January, those same publications only saw 47 million organic visits, a drop of 65 million."

"The Verge saw the third steepest decline, falling from over 5.3 million organic visits in February 2024 to just 790,000 visits in January 2026. That's an 85% drop. Seven of the outlets had at least a 50% loss in traffic, with CNET and PCMag sneaking under that at 47% and 41% traffic declines, respectively."

"The report's author writes that it can't prove causation, but does speculate the roll out of Google's AI Overviews is contributing to the decline. For one, most of the publications began to see their traffic fall off most sharply in the second half of 2025, which corresponds with the expansion of AI Overviews, particularly for 'how to' explainers and gadget and gear guides."

Major tech publications including Wired, CNET, Mashable, The Verge, and PC Mag experienced significant organic traffic declines between 2024 and January 2026. Combined traffic fell from 112 million visits at peak in 2024 to 47 million in January 2026, representing a 65 million visitor loss. The Verge suffered the steepest decline at 85%, while seven of ten publications lost at least 50% of traffic. CNET and PCMag experienced smaller declines at 47% and 41% respectively, with Mashable showing the least impact at 30%. The sharpest traffic drops occurred in the second half of 2025, coinciding with Google's AI Overviews expansion, particularly affecting how-to guides and product reviews that now display answers directly in search results.

Read at Nieman Lab