The latest Ipsos iris data for May shows most of Australia’s major news brands lost audience month-on-month, even as Yahoo (Australia) News posted the standout result, growing its audience by 12.3 per cent to 5.35 million, the largest gain of any on the list.
Just over 21 million people used a news website or app in May, reaching 93.2 per cent of online Australians aged 14 and over, with users spending around 3.39 hours in May reading news online.
Nationally, the alleged abduction of a five-year-old girl in Alice Springs and the subsequent arrest of a 47-year-old Northern Territory man was a top news story.
Other trending Australian stories included the 2026 Federal Budget, along with singer Delta Goodrem’s performance at Eurovision and the NRL first State of Origin game, including Queensland fullback Kalyn Ponga’s send off.
The Middle East conflict continued to dominate headlines, along with red carpet coverage of the 2026 Met Gala, the UK’s local elections, the deaths of five international divers in the Maldives and Premier League football final winners.
The career category continued its record growth in May, with its highest audience growth year-on-year for the third month in a row, increasing by 6.3 per cent. This was followed by events and attractions (up 2.9 per cent), energy suppliers/utilities (up 2.8 per cent), technology (up 2.07 per cent) and entertainment (+1.95 per cent).
The May report showed that 22.57 million Australians aged over 14 used the internet during the month, on par with the previous month’s data and spent an average of 4.96 hours daily online.
The most consumed categories in May were search engines (22.47 million), social networking (22.46 million), online media (22.45 million), technology (22.41 million), and entertainment (22.18 million).
Australians’ love for the big screen reignited in May, with audiences using movies and cinema websites and apps reaching 5.9 million nationally, the second highest online audience for the category on record.
This was fuelled by major box office releases including the highly anticipated Devil Wears Prada sequel, the Michael Jackson biopic Michael, Mortal Kombat II and Project Hail Mary.
Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of online Australians aged over 14 visited Events, Hoyts, Palace or Village cinema websites or apps in May.
Hoyts Cinemas’ website and apps reached 2.56 million Australians in May, up 33.9 per cent year-on-year, while audiences for Event Cinemas’ website and apps also increased to just over 2 million, up 4.7 per cent year-on-year. Village Cinemas and Palace Cinemas recorded similar audience growth, increasing by 19.2 per cent and 17.0 per cent respectively.
The total time spent viewing movies and cinema websites and apps also grew by more than 20 per cent year-on-year.
The new data directly aligns with national box office figures, showing that last month was the biggest May of all time for Australian cinemas, with box office sales reaching a record $119 million.
