Insights
2025 Digital 100 “Big Winners” Include Substack, Just Answer, and NYTimes Games App
Visitors to justanswer.com rose 81%, NYTimes Games users up 135%. Substack increased web visitors 37% and app users 139%.
The Similarweb Digital 100 report, released today, features expanded coverage of the fastest-growing apps as well as the fastest-growing websites.
The Digital 100 report for the US covers nine industry categories plus the Big Winners, which are the fastest-growing digital players from among the top 250 websites and the top 5% of apps across all industries. In addition to naming 10 website winners and 10 app winners per category, Similarweb named a #1 website, a #1 app for each category, plus a Digital Winner that achieved the best-combined website and app growth.
Among the US Big Winners, Substack captured the Digital Winner award for growing its website audience by 37% and app monthly active users by 139%, according to Similarweb estimates. Just Answer won the top website with 81% growth, and NYTimes Games won as the top app with 135% growth.
In addition to the US, Similarweb released versions of the Digital 100 for the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, India, and Brazil. The Digital 100 report ranks digital players by industry. For the US, the industries covered are Apparel & Accessories, Beauty & Wellness, Consumer Electronics, Food & Drinks, Home & Garden, News & Media, Personal Finance, and Travel & Tourism. We’ve included some details about the News & Media (US) category below because of its overlap with Big Winners.
Substack was recognized in two categories:
- In Big Winners:
- Digital Winner for cross-platform growth for its website (visitors up 37%) and app (139% monthly active user growth)
- In the top 10 Big Winners websites, Substack was #6 behind some other media sites like Newsweek
- In New & Media, Substack had the #1 fastest-growing app
Just Answer leads website rankings; ChatGPT weighs in at #9
Just Answer, a web portal promising “real help from real professionals” rather than algorithmic results, had the fastest unique visitor growth among the Big Winners sites at 81%. That growth has not come without controversy – the IRS has opened an inquiry into the website’s use of gig workers – but put it ahead of many more established brands.
A more famous answer-generating website, ChatGPT, also made the Big Winners list, ranked #9 in the US and higher in some other countries (France #1, UK #3, Australia #4). In the US, ChatGPT’s unique visitors were up 33% in 2024, which is impressive growth on top of the rapid adoption that followed its November 2022 launch.
Newsweek came in at #2 on the Big Winners list, and about half of the Big Winners web domains belonged to News & Media websites.
Top apps focus on entertainment and commerce
While news drove growth for the top websites, in apps Americans seemed to be looking for an escape from the news. The New York Times is on the top apps list, but for the app that provides access to word games and puzzles that have become an increasingly important part of the newspaper’s digital portfolio.
Along with the growing gaming interest from users of the NYTimes, the #2 app on the list, Brawl Stars, grew its app audience 120% in 2024. Brawl Stars is a multiplayer online battle arena, Another game, Dice Dreams, a multiplayer dice game, grew its user count 53%.
Ecommerce and ordering apps included Panda Express, Depop – Buy and Sell Clothes, and Costco (+35%).
News and opinion sites prominent among the Big Winners websites
News and opinion websites were prominent among the Big Winners, benefitting from interest in the US presidential election. Newsweek ranked as the #2 Big Winners website, partly on the strength of its positioning as a relatively neutral and nonpartisan source of reporting.
Substack may have benefitted from the opposite trend toward more opinionated and partisan publishing. While Substack may not have an overall partisan bias, like some of the other News & Media winners, its newsletter distribution platform is popular with independent opinion writers of all stripes.
Substack ranked as the #1 News & Media app.
Websites with more explicit partisan biases included right-leaning gbnews.com, livefoxnow.com, tuckercarlson.com, fox56news.com, and the Spanish-language okdiario.com, as well as left-leaning newrepublic.com.
One trend favoring these websites is that they tend to get a strong social media lift from ideologically aligned readers.
However, Newsweek doesn’t fit this trend toward partisanship, and neither does Ground News, the News & Media digital winner with a 63% gain for its website and 50% for its app. Ground News promises to help readers filter out media bias.
These are just a few excerpts from the Digital 100 report for the US. See the full list of winners and click below to download a copy of the Insights Report on the most important digital trends revealed by the results.
The Similarweb Press Office can pull additional or updated data on request for the news media (write to press@similarweb.com). When citing our data, please reference Similarweb as the source and link back to the most relevant blog post or similarweb.com/blog/insights/.
Disclaimer: All names, brands, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The data, reports, and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb consist of or include estimated metrics and digital insights generated by Similarweb using its proprietary algorithms, based on information collected by Similarweb from multiple sources using its advanced data methodologies. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of such data, reports, and materials and shall have no liability for any decision by any third party based in whole or in part on such data, reports, and materials.
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