This article originally appeared on INMA.org.
While it only took one night to declare the next president of the United States of America, those who have been following the campaign know there is plenty more to the story that began as a rematch, made way for a late entrance by Kamala Harris, and eventually culminated in the reelection of Donald Trump.
Along the way, Tubular Labs and Chartbeat tracked billions of pageviews, engaged minutes, social video views, and cultural trends at our Election Headquarters.
Here’s what we learned.
Election traffic increased in 2024
In 2020 and 2024, pageviews began rising steadily the day before the election and peaked the day after. This year, that peak reached 414 million pageviews, a 72% increase from the same period in 2020. With a higher peak and a more decisive electorate, pageviews to election content declined 65% the next day, a much more precipitous rate than in 2020.
When comparing engagement during the same period, 2024 election content had a lower Average Engaged Time before and during election day, but then rose above 2020 levels in the days after the election. Across the whole week, Average Engaged Time was higher in 2020 (39.8 seconds) than 2024 (37.4 seconds), reminding us that real-time content optimization is necessary for engagement to keep pace with traffic.
The most engaging topic on news sites was the economy
Throughout the election, readers consistently spent more time engaging with topics like education and economic policy than abortion or immigration.
From June through October, audiences spent an average of 460,000 hours per day engaging with articles related to the economy, and in the last full week before the election, engagement with the topic surged 107%.
Other topics like climate change and Israel / Palestine rose and fell with breaking news like natural disasters and military operations, but did not have the same staying power.
Engaging with the candidates affected how readers engaged with other topics
On news sites, a higher percentage of those reading about Kamala Harris also read about key issues like immigration and abortion while a higher percentage of those reading articles about Donald Trump read articles mentioning the economy or the war in Gaza.
Trump readers were 1.4x more likely to read articles about the economy than Harris readers, and the latter were 4.7x more likely to read articles about border policy.
On social video platforms, engaging with the candidates’ own channels could also predict other topics of interest. For example, both Harris’s and Trump’s YouTube audiences were more likely to watch videos about guns, racism, and other social issues. Two video topics Trump’s audience was much more likely to watch were national security (21x) and terrorism (23x).
These differences serve as a reminder that social audiences consume content differently than homepage audiences and audience interest can even vary from platform to platform.
Trump never trailed on social media
Outside of the days immediately following their single debate, Donald Trump maintained a distinct advantage in video views over Kamala Harris. Trump’s views peaked at 2.25 billion following his assassination attempt, and during the month of October, he averaged over 191 million more daily views than his opponent.
A prime example of Trump’s reach on social media can be found in his appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience which earned 40 million YouTube views in just four days.
Preparing for another Trump bump
If engagement with breaking news during the campaign is any indication, another Trump bump could be on the horizon. Let’s look at a few of the biggest stories from the last year to understand where we might be heading.
In May, about 15 minutes after Trump was found guilty in his hush-money case, engagement with Trump-related content soared to a peak of 294,292 pageviews per minute, and didn’t return to pre-verdict levels until June 1.
In July, the day before the attempted assassination on Trump, pageviews related to the former president were around 40 million and engaged time was about 1 million hours. The day after the shooting, pageviews soared by 5x to 220 million, while engaged time grew by 3x.
On election night, engagement for both candidates climbed steadily from 4PM EST until 11PM EST. After the race was called early the next morning, engagement soared for the president-elect and outpaced Ms. Harris by 1.8X, a sign of where audience attention could go over the next four years.
Interested in more election data? Get the full story at Chartbeat and Tubular’s Election Headquarters.
