Breaking local and global news events capture the attention of Australians during April – Ipsos iris data

News

Breaking local and global news events capture the attention of Australians during April – Ipsos iris data

Gaming apps and websites see usage rise to 16.6 million Australians

22 May 2024 – During April, breaking news events both locally and globally captured the attention of Australians across news websites and apps, reinforcing that digital websites and apps are an essential go to source for the big stories that impact the lives of Australians.

The series of breaking news stories surrounding the Westfield Bondi Junction and Western Sydney church stabbings saw audiences flock to news sources for “on the ground” reporting. These tragic events saw Sydney-based news outlets of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Daily Telegraph record online audience increases of around 1 million, the highest ever audiences for these two news brands since Ipsos iris launched in 2023.

Other major news events including the Bruce Lehrmann defamation verdict and Seven Network Sunrise reporter Nathan Templeton found dead  drove readers to online news websites and apps in April, as well as global events including the Iran drone attack on Israel, and King Charles’ and Kate Middleton’s cancer updates.

More than 20.7 million people used a news website or app in April, reaching 96.6% of online Australians aged 14+.

The chart below shows the News brands’ ranking during April 2024 by online audience size.

Ipsos iris, Australia’s digital audience measurement currency endorsed by IAB Australia, showed that overall, 21.5 million Australians aged 14+ used the internet in April and spent on average 4.5 hours per day, or almost 137 hours in the month, online.

The most consumed website and app categories in February were search engines (21.3 million), social networking (21.3 million), technology (21.3 million), retail and commerce (21 million) and entertainment (21 million).

While most category audience numbers remained steady compared to the previous month of March, the gaming category rose by +2.7% and travel was up +2.5%.

Lifestyle websites and apps also saw a significant increase in average time spent per person online for the month, up by 8.3%, with Australians consuming 5.17 minutes more on average than the previous month.

Gamer nation

Gaming on websites and apps was popular during April, with audiences rising by 2.7% on the month prior, which equates to almost 16.6 million Australians aged 14+.

Men aged 14 to 24 are driving the increase in games app and website usage, up +10.2% compared to March.

The other two groups with significant increases in games app and website usage in April were men aged 65+, rising by +9.1%, and women aged 40-54, up +7.3%.   

The chart below shows the changes in audience by age and gender in April compared to March for the Games category.

Ipsos iris, which officially launched in March 2023, provides accurate data about the 20.7 million Australians aged 14+ who access a wide variety of digital content and services across smartphone, PC/laptop and tablet devices.

Notes for editors:

  • Ipsos iris is an independent source of truth for the media industry providing a level playing field for comparison of audience reach and characteristics and supporting the $14.7 billion Australian online advertising market (https://iabaustralia.com.au/resource/online-advertising-expenditure-report-cy23-december-quarter-23/)
  • Ipsos iris provides accuracy in solving cross-device deduplication, the biggest challenge in measuring online audiences, using a single-source multi-device panel measuring activity on 8,000 smartphone, PC, laptop and tablet devices
  • Ipsos iris provides accurate data about the number of people who visit the content of digital publishers and platforms, along with the frequency of visits and time spent by tracking digital audience behaviour across desktop/laptop, smartphone, and tablets.  It uses a hybrid methodology that combines metered data from a high quality, nationally representative, single-source passive panel with site-centric census measurement via media owner tagging.
  • In February 2024, the CTV audience currency integration from a data partnership with OzTAM launched, providing total unduplicated digital audience currency data for CTV, smartphones, tablets, and computers.
  • Ipsos iris is fully privacy compliant and cross-media ready and will continue to evolve with a roadmap of enhancements over 2024 and beyond. It will also be adaptable to changing requirements as the industry develops in future years.
  • The launch of Ipsos iris with monthly data from January 2023 was the culmination of extensive work by the IAB and its Measurement Council that commenced in early 2021 with a strategic review of industry requirements. Ipsos was awarded the IAB’s endorsement, having best met the standards on criteria across all areas of product along with criteria for operations and a future roadmap. 
  • Further information can be found at: https://iris-au.ipsos.com/