The Most Engaging Stories of 2024

Our 2024 edition of The Most Engaging Stories reflects a year in which politics dominated discourse around the world while violence, scandals, and human connection also found significant audiences. As told by engagement, readers spent the most time with stories about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the release of the Epstein list, and chance encounters that led to romance and reconnection.

The most engaging story of the year comes from Holly Yan, Isabel Rosales, Mark Morales, and Ryan Young at CNN for their reporting on the tragic shooting at a Georgia high school. The BBC had the second and third most engaging stories with “What we know about the Trump attacker” and “When will Donald Trump take office as president?.”

For the third year in a row, CNN had the most entries on the list, spanning political reporting like “Takeaways from the ABC presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris” to human interest stories like Francesca Street’s “She arranged a date with a guy she met on a plane. When he didn’t show, she unexpectedly met her future husband.“

Selected from more than 38 million pieces of content, and totaling 204 billion minutes of Engaged Time, the stories featured reflect the variety of coverage we saw this past year.

Get started with the top stories and themes below, and view the full list here.

The 10 Most Engaging Stories of 2024

  1. CNN | The father of the Georgia school shooting suspect has been arrested and charged, authorities say
  2. BBC | What we know about the Trump attacker
  3. BBC | When will Donald Trump take office as president?
  4. THE NEW YORK TIMES | How an Instagram-Perfect Life in the Hamptons Ended in Tragedy
  5. CNN | She hit it off with the guy she met at the bar on vacation. Then he sent her an unexpected text message
  6. REUTERS | After assassination attempt, Trump and Biden seek calm, unity
  7. CNN | She arranged a date with a guy she met on a plane. When he didn’t show, she unexpectedly met her future husband
  8. THE WASHINGTON POST | Biden makes stunning decision to pull out of 2024 race
  9. CNN | Takeaways from the ABC presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris
  10. THE INDEPENDENT | The Epstein List: Full list of names revealed in unsealed court records so far

The most engaging themes of 2024

Politics

Audiences spent more than 188 million minutes engaging with the political stories on our list, driven primarily by worldwide coverage of the US presidential election. In the top ten alone, we have coverage of the assassination attempt at a Trump rally, Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race, and Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s lone debate.

Violence

While large scale conflicts like the war in Gaza were less prominent on this year’s list than previous ones, the most engaging story of the year centered on gun violence at an American high school. Other violent episodes that made the list include the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO and the ousting of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

Scandal

For the second year in a row, scandals were one of the most engaging themes, led by the release of the “Epstein list” in January. Other tales of true crime included “The crime that shook Singapore,” “The Kidnapping I can’t escape,” and “A dealer known as ‘Ketamine Queen’ and 2 doctors among 5 charged in death of Matthew Perry.”

How we determine the most engaging stories

The quantitative factors

Our Data Science team analyzed more than 38 million pieces of content published in 2024, representing more than 204 billion minutes of Engaged Time. The top 500 articles were then sorted by Total Engaged Minutes, individually reviewed and categorized, and narrowed down to 100 stories based on a series of qualitative criteria outlined below. Total Engaged Time is the total amount of time visitors spent actively reading and interacting on pages. Read more about our engagement metrics.

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

* Editor’s note: The engagement data was compiled through December 9, 2024.

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