Here’s some proof that fantasy sports help propel the mainstream media websites – ESPN and Yahoo both saw their readership totals dip in January, one of the few non-fantasy sports months of the year. The most significant drop, though, occurred at CBS Sports, although it’s so large, one would think there has been an error. Also, Fox seems to be closing the gap on the Big 2. To change things up a bit, we’re going to look at a number that we don’t usually scrutinize – just how long people are sticking around once they visit each of the major players. As usual, many thanks to our tipster who is privy to these numbers and continually shares them with us.
1. ESPN, 19.16 million uniques (down from 20.6 in December). Of note – one of its top roll-ups with Sherdog, a Mixed Martial Arts website that drew 518,000 uniques.
Average minutes per visit: 7.6
2. Yahoo, 19.07 million uniques (down from 21.6 in December). Of note – Rivals continues to soar – 6.6 million uniques.
Average minutes per visit: 8.4
3. Fox Sports, 17.22 million uniques (up from 17.1 in December). Of note – Scout is slowly improving – 2.3 million uniques.
Average minutes per visit: 4.0
4. NFL Internet Group, 15.36 million uniques (down from 18.5 in December). Of note – we had our best month ever (200,000 uniques), which topped 14 NFL teams. Everyone gets lucky once, right?
Average minutes per visit: 5.1
5. AOL Sports, 10.44 million uniques (up from 9.1 in December). Of note: Believed to be their best month ever.
Average minutes per visit: 3.1
6. NBA Internet Network, 5.7 million uniques (same as December).
Average minutes per visit: 3.7
7. College Sports TV, 5.3 million uniques (down from 5.4 in December).
Average minutes per visit: 3.6
8. MLB.com, 5.2 million uniques (down from the Mitchell Report-inflated 6.2 in December).
Average minutes per visit: 4.3
9. Sports Illustrated, 5.1 million uniques (down from 5.4 in December). Of note – expect SI to possibly rise into the top five for February, thanks to the SI Swimsuit Issue (we’ll do a post on it later, and yes, Anne V remains the hottest) and the millions of readers it will generate.
Average minutes per visit: 7.6
10. World Wrestling Entertainment, 4.4 million uniques.
Average minutes per visit: 6.0

Other notes: Where is CBS Sports, you ask? Down to 11th, with 3.7 million uniques. That’s a massive drop from 6.1 million uniques in December. Is this a name change thing? Perhaps millions of visits were not counted? Were readers scared off by the website’s facelift? It seems like something is amiss, because that’s a significant drop. As pumped as we are about our improvement, you guys are only spending 0.7 minutes on the site (the best: Two cricket websites, over 20 minutes per visit. Go figure). Bummer. We’re going to be tinkering with ideas on how to keep you around longer.