The death of Queen Elizabeth II was unsurprisingly a dominant topic, as the world reacted to the passing of one of the world’s longest reigning monarchs, but there were some other stories that captured people’s attention in September as well.
Here are the key takeaways for the month:
- The Daily Mail continues to dominate Facebook, with millions more engagements than any of its nearest rivals
- African publishers are becoming a permanent fixture among the top publications, with three making the top ten in September
- Queen Elizabeth’s death was the most engaged event of the quarter, with one article from the BBC being engaged with almost a million times
Let’s dig into the data.
The top publishers on Facebook in September 2022
The Daily Mail had slightly fewer engagements in September than it did in August, but it was still well ahead of the competition thanks to its almost 33 million engagements.
Its closest rival was once again Nigerian publisher Legit, followed by British publication The Daily Mirror. Once again there were no American publishers within the top five, with CNN and Fox News the top two US-based publications coming in at sixth and seventh respectively. The top ten was made up of four British publications, three American ones, two Nigerian outlets, and one Kenyan publisher.
In terms of the content that was most successful for the top publishers, the British outlets consistently saw the top stories being about the Queen or the royal family after her death.
For the Daily Mail, four of the top five stories focused on the Queen or her family, with the top story being about Princess Kate helping a girl lay a corgi tribute (355k engagements). Other articles surrounding the topic included Cristiano Ronaldo paying tribute to Queen Elizabeth (274k), Paddington Bear bidding the queen farewell (148k), and Prince Harry mourning her death in Balmoral alongside his brother William (147k). The only article in the top five for the Mail that was not about the royal family was about Brendan Fraser getting a standing ovation for his performance in his new movie The Whale (158k).
Legit’s top articles were as always focused around human interest stories, with children a particular feature in the month of September. Top stories included a disabled woman using her mouth to feed her baby (256k), an orphan thanking helpers for giving him food (234k), a girl rejected over albinism sharing ‘transformation photos’ (228k), a girl with a unique birthmark (193k), and a woman welcoming twins (181k).
The Daily Mirror’s articles were different from what they normally are, as its success was normally dominated by sports articles, with soccer in particular an area of success. In September, however, it was its coverage of the Queen’s death that saw the most engagement for the publisher. Its top article was about a man sharing an anecdote about the Queen helping him move a stuck car (187k). There were also stories about the Queen changing succession rules for Princess Charlotte (171k), King Charles never eating lunch (131k), and Kate Middleton picking her children up from school (111k). There was still one sports article that made the top five, after Sadio Mane was benched for Bayern Munich (113k).
But what about the top articles overall?
The top articles on Facebook in September 2022
The top article by a considerable distance came from the BBC, and was about the death of British Queen Elizabeth II. This article is one of the only ones to get close to a million engagements in months, but stopped just shy at 991k.
The rest of the articles were somewhat of a mixed bag, with sports and human interest pieces featuring fairly heavily, and a corresponding lack of news stories beyond the Queen’s death.
The top 25 publishers in September 2022
The table below shows the top 25 publishers in September by engagement, as well as the number of articles each published.
We’re officially approaching the holiday season! Check out the content that is getting the most engagement around Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas in our latest report.
