50 Top Conservative Websites

Ranking websites is an inexact science. There are multiple ways to measure success, including pageviews, users, unique site visitors and, perhaps most important, influence. To create this list of the top conservative sites, PJ Media looked at a variety of sources that rank them and determined the average score for each center-right site. Alexa, SimilarWeb, and Quantcast all look at different data sets, so considering all three helps to present a more complete picture.

Alexa’s ranking is based on “a combined measure of Unique Visitors and Pageviews” over a three month period. According to Quantcast, they measure “the number of people in the United States who visit each site within a month.” The Quantcast ratings are based on a combination of verified and estimated data. A handful of sites we looked at prevent Quantcast from seeing their data, so their ranking is based on Alexa and SimilarWeb only (denoted with an asterisk). SimilarWeb is less forthcoming about what they’re measuring, but according to this post at Quora, “rankings are determined by traffic — monthly visits (non-unique).” Based on my personal observations, Quantcast is more heavily weighted toward unique visitors, so the rankings are much more fluid, often fluctuating wildly when there’s been a spike from a major driver of referral traffic (Drudge, Yahoo, etc.) and thus, unique visitors. 

We did not include in this ranking websites associated with TV networks or radio shows (Fox News, Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, etc.) and we also excluded websites related to daily print newspapers (New York Post, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, etc.) because we wanted to focus solely on web-based content.

The big winner this year was, not surprisingly, Drudge Report. According to SimilarWeb, Drudge had 157.06M total visits in November. That dwarfs number two Breitbart, which had 82.75M visits. Beyond raw traffic numbers, Drudge has an outsized influence as a top referral source, with some sites on our list getting 10 to 20 percent of their traffic as a result of Drudge links. In fact, for many of the sites on our list, Drudge drives more traffic than Google and Facebook. In some cases, Drudge traffic is more than Google and Facebook combined.

Rounding out the top five are The Daily Caller, Zero Hedge, and newcomer The Daily Wire, the Ben Shapiro-led venture that launched in 2015. PJ Media came in at #13 this year, with 12.59M total visits.

National Review, which staked out an early position as a site critical of Trump, came in at a robust #12, defying predictions that the site’s “Never Trump” bent would lead to its demise. The site had 9.25M total visits in November.

And now, the 50 top conservative websites in 2017, based on an average of rankings from Alexa, Quantcast, and SimilarWeb:

1. Drudge Report
2. Breitbart*
3. The Daily Caller
4. Zero Hedge
5. The Daily Wire
6. The Blaze
7. The Week
8. Washington Examiner
9. Gateway Pundit
10. WorldNet Daily (WND)
11. Newsmax
12. National Review
13. PJ Media
14. Conservative Tribune*
15. Independent Journal Review (IJR)*
16. HotAir
17. BizPac Review
18. Twitchy
19. Townhall
20. Reason
21. Newsbusters
22. American Thinker
23. The Western Journal
24. The Federalist*
25. The Washington Free Beacon
26. CNS News
27. The Weekly Standard
28. RedState*
29. Powerline Blog*
30. The Daily Signal
31. The Conservative Treehouse
32. The College Fix
33. Weasel Zippers
34. Bearing Arms
35. Lucianne
36. The Right Scoop
37. The Spectator
38. Judicial Watch
39. FrontPage Mag
40. Cato
41. Jihad Watch
42. American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
43. Campus Reform
44. Legal Insurrection
45. Conservative Review*
46. OneNewsNow
47. The Resurgent
48. The Federalist Papers
49. The Heritage Foundation
50. Young Cons/America News*

(*No Quantcast ranking)

Using only SimilarWeb’s total visits metric, the top five sites were Drudge Report (157.06M), Breitbart (82.75M), Zero Hedge (50.56M), The Daily Caller (25.33M), and The Daily Wire (23.23M). The list tracks closely with the overall rankings, though there are a few variations.

Based on total visits in November reported at SimilarWeb:

1. Drudge Report (157.06M)
2. Breitbart (82.75M)*
3. Zero Hedge (50.56M)
4. The Daily Caller (25.33M)
5. The Daily Wire (23.23M)
6. Conservative Tribune (18.74M)*
7. Gateway Pundit (17.04M)
8. The Blaze (16.32M)
9. Newsmax (14.79M)
10. The Week (14.17M)
11. Washington Examiner (14.09M)
12. PJ Media (12.59M)
13. Townhall (10.38M)
14. National Review (9.25M)
15. WorldNet Daily (WND) (9.22M)
16. Independent Journal Review (IJR) (8.17M)*
17. Twitchy (5.85M)
18. Free Republic (5.84M)
19. HotAir (5.69M)
20. The Federalist (5.61M)*
21. American Thinker (5.17M)
22. Reason (4.7M)
23. The Washington Free Beacon (4.47M)
24. Lucianne (4.45M)
25. Newsbusters (4.29M)
26. RedState (3.85M)*
27. The Conservative Treehouse (3.76M)
28. The Federalist Papers (3.64M)
29. The Heritage Foundation (3.30M)
30. The Weekly Standard (3.21M)
31. The Western Journal (3.03M)
32. CNS News (2.86M)
33. Weasel Zippers (2.72M)
34. Powerline Blog (2.57M)*
35. Jihad Watch (2.36)
36. BizPac Review (2.34M)
37. The Daily Signal (2.26M)
38. Bearing Arms (2.07M)
39. The College Fix (1.86M)
40. FrontPage Mag (1.66M)
41. The Right Scoop (1.37M)
42. The Spectator (1.2M)
43. Judicial Watch (1.18M)
44. Conservative Review (1.11M)*
45. Campus Reform (1.05M)
46. Cato (1.04M)
47. American Enterprise Institute (AEI) (930.1K)
48. Legal Insurrection (909.5K)
49. OneNewsNow (594.1K)
50. The Resurgent (371.5K)

As noted above, this is an inexact science and the rankings only capture a moment in time (the last 30 days for Quantcast, the previous three months for Alexa, and the month of November for SimilarWeb). But even though the definitions of success vary and the metrics fluctuate monthly — often daily — these rankings and data sets provide a glimpse of the center-right media landscape as it currently stands.

Follow me on Twitter @pbolyard

UPDATE January 2, 5:51 p.m.: An earlier version of this list inadvertently omitted The Heritage Foundation.