U.S. elections offer digital audience data, lessons

By Jack Neary

Content Manager

Chartbeat

Brooklyn, New York, USA

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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 re-election of Donald Trump.

Along the way, we tracked billions of pageviews, engaged minutes, social video views, and cultural trends.

Here's what we learned.

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. 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 Harris also read about key issues like immigration and abortion while a higher percentage of those reading articles about Trump read articles mentioning the economy or the war in Gaza.

Trump readers were 1.4 times more likely to read articles about the economy than Harris readers, and the latter were 4.7 times 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).

We're reminded by these differences that social audiences consume content differently than home page audiences. Audience interest can even vary from platform to platform.

Trump never trailed on social media

Outside of the days immediately following their single debate, Trump maintained a distinct advantage in video views over Harris. Trump's views peaked at 2.25 billion following his assassination attempt. During the month of October, he averaged more than 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 12,265,867 seconds per minute. It 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 five-fold to 220 million, while engaged time grew by 3x.

On election night, engagement for both candidates climbed steadily for both candidates from 4:00 p.m. EST until 11:00 p.m. EST. After the race was called early the next morning, engagement soared for the president-elect and outpaced Harris by 1.8x, a sign of where audience attention will go over the next four years.

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About Jack Neary

Jack Neary is content manager at Chartbeat in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Jack can be reached at [email protected].

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