The Most Engaging Stories of 2025
Our 2025 edition of The Most Engaging Stories reflects a year in which political figures dominated discourse around the world while violence, celebrity tributes, and health and science also found significant readership.
Coverage of high-profile deaths, like those of beloved actors Gene Hackman and Diane Keaton, drove massive readership, as did reporting on violent flashpoints like the Charlie Kirk shooting. Audiences also flocked to investigations into Trump-era national security lapses, clashes inside the GOP, and the expanding web of stories tied to Elon Musk and Jeffrey Epstein. At the same time, deeply human narratives, from families navigating health crises to communities upended by extreme weather, showed how personal vulnerability also shaped some of the year’s most resonant stories.
The most engaging story of the year comes from Stephanie Giang-Paunon, Christina Shaw, and Lauryn Overhultz at Fox News for their reporting into the mysterious circumstances surrounding Gene Hackman and his wife’s deaths. The second most engaging story is The Atlantic’s The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans and the third is The New York Times’ She Was Ready to Have Her 15th Child. Then Came the Felony Charges.
BBC had the most entries on the list, spanning political reporting like Isas, cars and pensions: How the Budget affects you to pop culture stories like Eurovision: ‘What the Hell Just Happened’ to the UK entry?. Their top story — Death of Hackman and wife ‘suspicious enough’ for investigation, police say — came in at number 5.
Selected from more than 41 million pieces of content, and totaling 187 billion minutes of engaged time, the stories featured reflect the variety of coverage we saw across the world this past year. Get started with the top stories and themes below, and view the full list here.
The 10 Most Engaging Stories of 2025
- FOX NEWS | Gene Hackman and wife’s deaths called ‘suspicious,’ bodies showed signs of ‘mummification’
- THE ATLANTIC | The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
- THE NEW YORK TIMES | She Was Ready to Have Her 15th Child. Then Came the Felony Charges.
- ABC NEWS | Officials release video, plead for public’s help in tracking down person of interest in Charlie Kirk shooting
- BBC | Death of Hackman and wife ‘suspicious enough’ for investigation, police say
- THE NEW YORK TIMES | Inside the Explosive Meeting Where Trump Officials Clashed With Elon Musk
- THE NEW YORK TIMES | It’s Just a Virus, the E.R. Told Him. Days Later, He Was Dead.
- CNN | A ‘bright star’ helicopter pilot, a daughter of immigrants and figure skating champions are among DC air collision victims
- BBC | Isas, cars and pensions: How the Budget affects you
- CNN | What we know about Charlie Kirk shooting suspect Tyler Robinson
The most engaging themes of 2025
Politics
Though not the record-breaking election year of 2024, politics still dominated audience attention as political stories on our list accounted for more than 182 million minutes of engaged time. Political stories in the top 10 included a New York Times report on Elon Musk clashing with Trump officials and The Atlantic’s report that “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.”
Crime
With two stories in the top 10 – ABC News’ “Officials release video, plead for public’s help in tracking down person of interest in Charlie Kirk shooting” and CNN’s “What we know about Charlie Kirk shooting suspect Tyler Robinson” – coverage of the Charlie Kirk shooting was one of the most engaging stories of the year as readers sought clarity on the suspect, the sequence of events, and the motive. Other top stories covered political violence, school shootings, and an act of terrorism on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
In Memoriam
While the most engaging story of 2025 is Fox News’ reporting into the mysterious circumstances of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa’s, deaths, the list features several other outlets’ original reporting on the investigation as well as tributes to the actor that resulted in more than 44 million minutes of engaged time. Readers also gravitated toward obituaries and retrospectives for other notable entertainers like Diane Keaton, Robert Redford, and Anne Burrell.
10 years of top stories
This is our 10th year celebrating our customers’ most engaging stories. Let’s look back at the top story from each year starting in 2015.
2015: THE ATLANTIC | What ISIS really wants
2016: FIVETHIRTYEIGHT | 2016 Election Forecast
2017: THE ATLANTIC | My family’s slave
2018: CNN | CNN’s Anthony Bourdain dead at 61
2019: THE ATLANTIC | What really happened to Malaysia’s missing airplane
2020: POLITICO | Coronavirus will change the world permanently. Here’s how.
2021: THE WASHINGTON POST | ‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’: In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor
2023: LOS ANGELES TIMES | ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry dead at 54, found in hot tub at L.A. home
2024: CNN | The father of the Georgia school shooting suspect has been arrested and charged, authorities say
Want to go deeper? Revisit our recaps for past years here: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020
How we determine the most engaging stories
The quantitative factors
Our Data Science team analyzed more than 41 million pieces of content published in 2025, representing more than 187 billion minutes of engaged time. The top 1000 articles were then sorted by Total Engaged Minutes*, individually reviewed and categorized, and narrowed down to 110 stories based on a series of qualitative criteria outlined below.
How we calculate Total Engaged Time
Total Engaged Time is the total amount of time visitors spent actively reading and interacting on pages. Read more about our engagement metrics.
* Editor’s note: The engagement data was compiled through December 12, 2025.
The qualitative factors
Each year we assemble a cross-functional team of readers and curators from inside Chartbeat to determine the criteria for this list. Beyond Total Engaged Minutes, we want to ensure the list celebrates original reporting. More difficult to determine is the criteria for stories that do not make the list, but these include:
- Live blog coverage that assembled content across multiple news cycles
- Listicles comprised primarily of social media reposts or images
- Sports scores, box scores, and individual league rankings
- Quizzes, games, and interactives that do not contain reporting and/or are continually updated throughout the year
Didn’t make the list? Get a demo of Chartbeat to see how you can increase engagement across your site.
