Australians love their entertainment, with 21.8 million, or 98 per cent of the population aged 14+ using an entertainment website or app in May, and Gen Z is leading the charge, according to the latest Ipsos iris data.
Online consumption of entertainment sites and apps during May increased by +3 per cent year on year, and Australians spent 20 per cent of their online time, or almost one hour a day, in May on entertainment related content.
A staggering 99.4 per cent of Gen Z have used an entertainment website or app in May, making them the most likely of all generations to use this type of content online. Gen Z spends 28 per cent more time than other age groups on entertainment and are 50 per cent more likely to engage with comedy content.
There are differences in the entertainment content that Gen Z men and women use, although social video and music are very strong across both. Gen Z men spend 75 per cent more time on the entertainment category than their female counterparts driven by their greater consumption of online games, while women account for 78 per cent of entertainment (social) video audiences.
The chart below shows the Entertainment brands’ ranking during May 2025 by online audience size for Gen Z (women and men aged 14-24).
Australians spending longer consuming online news content
In the News category, Australians spent 5.3 hours in May consuming news content online, which was up +8.0 per cent compared to the previous month and +8.4 per cent compared to the same time last year. Interestingly, the same number of people are consuming news content, but they are spending more of their time on news.
A total of 21.4 million people used a news website or app in May, reaching 96.5 per cent of online Australians aged 14+.
There has been a swathe of global and local trending news events that are capturing Australians’ attention online. In Australia, The Labor Party’s landslide win in the Federal Election, the NSW mid-north coast floods, and the continuing mushroom poisoning trial dominated local news events. Globally, the Papal Conclave in Rome and the election of the first American Pope Leo, and ongoing conflicts including the Pakistan – India attacks in Kashmir, the Israel – Hamas conflict and the Ukraine conflict with Russia, plus celebrity news such as the Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs trial and the New York Met Gala dominated online reading.
The chart below shows the News brands’ ranking during May 2025 by online audience size.
Time spent online continues to rise in May
- Australians aged 14+ spent 4.8 hours per day, or 148 hours, on average online in May which was an increase of +4.7 per cent compared to the same time last year.
- Ipsos iris, Australia’s digital audience measurement currency endorsed by IAB Australia showed that 22.12 million people aged 14+used a website or app in May.
- The most consumed website and app categories in April were social networking (22.1 million), search (22 million), technology (21.9 million), retail (21.8 million) and entertainment (21.8 million).
- The Automotive (+8.9 per cent), Events & Attractions (+4.6 per cent), Sports (+3.3 per cent) and Careers (+2.3 per cent) categories experienced the highest month on month audience growth in May.
- Categories with the largest year on year audience increases were recorded by the Automotive (+11 per cent), Homes & Property (+10.9 per cent), Career (+7.3 per cent), and Health (+5.4 per cent) categories.
News Corp
News Corp Australia is the nation’s leading news and information publisher, according to Ipsos iris May 2025 rankings released today.
News Corp Australia reached four in five online Australians in May with 17.95 million people visiting the company’s sites, with an engaged reach of 149 browser page views per person, up
12.5 per cent month-on-month.
News Corp Australia is the top news and information publisher in the News category at an organisation level among major brands, leading in both audience and engaged reach:
- Audience of 14.5 million, 538 million browser page views (PVs), an engaged reach of 36 browser page views per person
- Average time spent of 44:08 minutes per person
- In video, the company has an audience of 2.0 million, with 53 million video views for the month.
Managing director and publisher free news and lifestyle, Pippa Leary said: “Our network of trusted news and lifestyle sites effectively engages audiences, leading to better results for our clients. It’s rewarding to see our engaged reach at the network level grow this month, with three times more reach than Nine and 12 times more than the ABC.
“Our comprehensive coverage of the 2025 federal election attracted and retained a highly engaged audience. By providing audiences with valuable information that encouraged them to explore our content more deeply, we saw a significant increase network-wide.”
In the News category at the brand level:
- News.com.au delivered the highest engaged reach in the top 10
○ Audience of 11.8 million and 270 million browser PVs
○ Engaged reach of 22 page views pp*. This is compared to an engaged reach of 16 page views pp for nine.com.au, and 11 page views pp for ABC News
○ The site had an average time spent of 25:00 minutes per person
In the Lifestyle category at the brand level:
- Taste.com.au delivered the highest engaged reach in the top 5
○ Audience of 4.5 million and 68 million browser PVs
○ Engaged reach of 15 page views pp - Vogue Australia
○ Audience of 594,000 and 19 million browser PVs.
○ Engaged reach of 32 page views pp, more than double the previous month
In the Sports news category at the brand level:
- SuperCoach – delivered the highest engaged reach in the category
○ Audience of 299,000 and 36 million browser PVs
○ Engaged reach of 121 page views pp
Ipsos iris is Australia’s digital audience measurement currency endorsed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the trade association for online advertising in Australia, providing accurate data about the 22 million Australians aged 14+ who access a wide variety of digital content and services across Smartphone, PC/Laptop and Tablet devices.
