Newspaper ABCs: Sunday People circulation drops by over a quarter for first time in 2025

Press Gazette's monthly analysis of ABC national newspaper circulation figures.

The Sunday People saw its average weekly print circulation decline by 26.4% year on year to 36,594 in November.

The paper has seen the biggest year-on-year drop among the UK’s publicly-audited national newspapers for many months this year, but this is the first time in 2025 the paper has decreased by more than a quarter.

The next biggest year-on-year drops were all at Sunday titles: Sunday Express (down 22.6% to 90,534), Sunday Mirror (down 22% to 120,702), Sunday Mail (down 21.9% to 34,573).

The Daily Express saw the biggest drop in circulation year on year among daily nationals, falling 19.6% to 104,737 average issues.

The paper also fared the worst in its year-on-year weekday and Saturday circulation figures in November, decreasing by 20% for its weekday edition (to 96,394) and 19% for its Saturday edition (to 146,294).

The Daily Express also recorded the biggest weekday circulation drop year on year in October (down 20% to 97,319 average issues) and in September (down 19% to 99,861).

The Daily Star also saw its weekday paper decline by 20% year on year to 93,252 average issues.

Free titles City AM and Metro were the only papers to record an increase in circulation: City AM saw a 1% boost in year on year circulation, recording an average of 68,587 issues. Its circulation remained stable at 0% month on month.

Metro saw an increase of 0.9% month on month in November, to 950,798 average issues.

National newspaper circulations in November 2025 (ABC) with monthly and yearly changes – this page will be updated monthly:

It is that time of year again, when we take a cursory look at print circulation figures for the ‘western’ media print circulation, the figures are helpful in understanding what the current state of the media is, within the UK and beyond. This year has seen continued and accelerating decline in circulation by the established media publishing houses, with all media publishing houses now opting for online versions of their print doctrine. Generally speaking the trend is toward diminishing influence over the wider public, the majority of whom now interact with news events through online government sources, closed source private sector corporations, other specialist broadcasters and, of course, international sources.

We are predicting an end to traditional print media likely within a relatively short period of time as all media in printed form is clearly no longer viable.

Online sources for what is usually known as ‘mainstream media’ do exist but figures there also show diminishing audiences and lack of convincing public engagement strategies. There is, at present, no evidence of reliable audience engagement data in factual form in any traditional media online source, likely due to the failure by social media corporations to provide accurate audience engagement data. In both the United Kingdom and United States there is no known media source that exists in traditional form that can show audience engagement or more than 0.1% of overall population size.