In the fourth quarter of 2025, Average Engaged Time remained highest in Central/Eastern Europe, social traffic increased across multiple regions, and reader loyalty saw a sharp increase in Africa.
Read on for more audience insights from our Q4 research below.
Compare to our previous insights: Q3 2025 | Q2 2025 | Q1 2025
Average Engaged Time remained highest in Central / Eastern Europe
Readers in Central/Eastern Europe remained the most engaged audience in Q4 with 33.6 seconds of Average Engaged Time. The Middle East and Africa followed with 33.3 and 27.5 seconds, respectively. Engaged time across various regions continued to decline from the previous quarter.
Mobile traffic declined in most regions
Publishers across all regions are seeing their traffic from mobile audiences decline, with Africa and Southeast Asia both saw a decrease of 8%. Mobile remained a dominant source of traffic, however, with all regions seeing at least 61% of pageviews come from mobile devices.
Search traffic decreased across most regions
45% of pageviews in Central Asia came from search engines in Q4, down from 53% in Q3. Most regions saw decreases from this referral source with the exception of Southeast Asia and the Middle East, where search traffic either saw a slight increase or remained the same.
Social traffic increased across multiple regions
Despite a 3% decrease from Q3, Southeast Asia continues to receive the most pageviews from social platforms. Regions like North America, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Northern Europe saw increases of up to 2% from this traffic source.
Reader loyalty increased sharply in Africa
Both Southern Europe and North America had the highest percentage of pageviews come from loyal readers at 42%. Other regions like Africa and Central Asia saw an increase in reader loyalty by 5% and 1%, respectively.
How does your audience stack up? Chartbeat Cohorts helps benchmark your site’s traffic and engagement against comparable publishers across regions — request a demo to learn more.
Takeaways from our fourth quarter research
Average Engaged Time across the globe is 26 seconds.
Average Engaged Time ranged from 33.6 seconds in Central / Eastern Europe to 23.2 seconds in Southern Europe. Overall, Average Engaged Time remained relatively unchanged from Q3.
Audiences remain mobile first.
Though multiple regions saw declines in mobile traffic, mobile traffic is still the largest source of traffic, with at least 61% of site visits occurring on mobile devices.
Pageviews from search are decreasing.
All regions except Southeast Asia and the Middle East saw a decrease in pageviews from search engines in the fourth quarter. This is likely a result of AI’s growing impact on search.
While search traffic is declining, overall traffic to publishers in the Chartbeat network remains steady, a sign that audiences continue to trust their preferred sources for news and entertainment despite changes to the way they find them.
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