These were the top publishers on Facebook in August 2022

August saw a slight uptick in engagement for the top publishers on Facebook, with the Daily Mail continuing to hold its place at the top of the charts.

As usual, these rankings come from a mix of the NewsWhip API and NewsWhip Spike, and encompass the aggregated likes, shares, and comments on the content produced by the publishers in the rankings.

Here are some of the key takeaways for August 2022: 

• The Daily Mail maintained a level of consistency at the top 
• The engagement levels across the top 25 rose slightly compared to July
• None of the top five publishers were US-based publications, with just three appearing in the top ten

Let’s take a look at the data. 

The top publishers on Facebook in August 2022 

The consistently successful trio of The Daily Mail, Legit, and The Daily Mirror found themselves on top of the pile once again, considerably ahead of the secondary grouping of publishers in the top ten, which apart from Kenya’s Tuko were all very close together.

The Daily Mail’s strength at the top of the rankings continued this month, as the British publisher maintained its level of engagement month over month at around 38 million. Its nearest rival Legit dropped slightly in engagement from 29 million to 27 million, while the Mirror went in the opposite direction, rising from 18 million to 22 million. 

Interestingly, none of the top five publishers were US-based publications, with the UK, Nigeria, and Kenya making up the countries of origin of the top five. Only CNN, Fox News, and NBC News make it into the top ten from the US. 

For The Daily Mail, the top articles were a bit different to usual, somewhat mirroring the Daily Mirror’s recent success with soccer-adjacent content. Three of the top five articles for the publisher were about soccer stars, featuring Paul Pogba being called a coward by his brother (239k), Casemiro begging Ronaldo to stay at Manchester United (193k), and Sadio Mane sending parting gifts to Liverpool staff (176k). Its top article was about the death of Olivia Newton-John (247k), while a mother with twins with different skin tones also featured (178k).

Legit focused as always on African human interest pieces. There were stories about a woman who installs ceilings for a living (228k), a man who took in an abandoned baby (203k), a mum sharing a pregnancy photo (197k), the birth of quadruplets (187k), and a 15-year-old’s exam results (182k).

Despite the Mail’s encroachment onto their patch, The Mirror’s success with soccer content continued, with all five of the paper’s top stories being about the beautiful game. Storylines included Ronaldinho talking about Gabriel Jesus at Arsenal (226k), Casemiro moving to Manchester United (163k), rumors about a Frenkie de Jong transfer (132k), Sergio Ramos being asked to stop a feud in Paris (131k), and Cristiano Ronaldo being offered a move away from Manchester United (129k).

But what about the top content overall? 

The top articles on Facebook in August 2022

Olivia Newton John’s death was the dominant narrative in August, with five of the top fifteen articles being about the passing of the actress. The top story came from TMZ and had 451k engagements.

Samsung saw some success in the top fifteen articles, with two pieces on its website doing particularly well and garnering hundreds of thousands of engagements. 

There were also some of the usual internet virality suspects, with a piece about whether it’s fine to leash your child and one about how to befriend crows and turn them against your enemies both making the top ten.

The top publishers of August 2022

The below table shows the top 25 publishers of August 2022 on Facebook, as well as the number of articles written.

Most notable for regular readers of this blog is the relative collapse of The Daily Wire, which now finds itself comfortably outside the top ten having dominated the rankings for eighteen months starting in late 2020.  

American outlets did find more success in the top 25 than they did in the top ten, with around half the list ultimately US-based. 

If you’d like to see what’s having success on other platforms, check out our Reddit rankings for the month of July.