Legit surges to the top of our Facebook publisher rankings in October 2022

We have had a shakeup in our rankings in October as Legit Nigeria leapt up the list to take the top spot for the first time, displacing the Daily Mail in doing so. 

It was generally a month of lower engagement on the platform, with both publisher-level and article-level interactions lower at the high end than they have been during previous months, though obviously this varied from publisher to publisher. 

Here are some of the key takeaways for the month of October.

• Legit took the top spot in the rankings, replacing the Daily Mail in doing so 
• The top story of the month was a blog from Samsung
• Celebrity deaths were also a big feature in the top stories 

Let’s look a little closer at the data. 

The top publishers of October 2022 on Facebook 

Though there was a slight shift in order, the makeup of the top publishers on Facebook was not radically different than it has been before, albeit with slightly different positioning.

Notably and most obviously distinct was Legit’s success — rising to number one in the rankings after spending months in and around the top three. This is the first time in the history of our rankings that an African publisher has found itself at the top of the charts. 

This rise necessitated another publisher going in the other direction, of course, and that’s just what happened with the Daily Mail, who saw a reasonably significant drop in engagement compared to what they have achieved in the last few months. This caused the British publisher to fall to third in the rankings, while the Daily Mirror retained a remarkable level of consistency in engagement to hold onto second spot. 

Beyond that, there were not many surprises, other than that engagement was lower in October for almost every publisher, even at the top end of the rankings. 

In terms of what drove success, Legit replicated their formula from previous months, publishing human interest stories focused on individuals and families. These included a woman cooking (227k), a student delivering five babies (208k), a boy who wanted a sibling to play with (204k), a woman with a ‘shiny face’ (198k), and a mum welcoming twins to the world (166k). 

Soccer remained the success story for the Daily Mirror, with all five of its biggest articles being about the beautiful game. These were about Richarlison’s injury (114k),  Sergio Aguero talking about Gabriel Jesus (91k), Robbie Fowler on Haaland vs. Nuñéz (86k), Liverpool’s victory over Rangers in the Champions League (79k), and Jadon Sancho on Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Manchester United (79k). 

The Daily Mail, despite its drop in engagement, still saw success from a variety of stories, but its top pieces were mostly celebrity-driven. They included stories about Miss England (113k), Erling Haaland’s relentlessness (105k), the death of Robbie Coltrane (104k), Queen Latifah going shopping with her son in LA (100k), and Daniel Craig receiving an honor that James Bond also received (80k). 

But what about the top stories overall? 

The top articles on Facebook in October 2022

It was a low month for engagement to the top articles on Facebook, with no single article breaking more than half a million interactions.

The article with the most engagements was actually from Samsung’s website, and one of four pieces in the top fifteen from the tech giant. The piece was an interview with experts looking at the story behind Tizen’s 10-year development, while other pieces covered WorldSkills, the Odyssey Ark, and the SDC22 keynote. 

Celebrity deaths were, as always, a highly engaging subject, as people shared their sadness and shock alongside treasured memories of celebrities. This month, the passing of Robbie Coltrane, Angela Lansbury, and Leslie Jordan were three of the five most engaged with stories on the platform.

The top 25 publishers of October

The top 25 publishers saw lower engagement than we have seen in previous months, with the 25th-placed site having under 4 million engagements, compared to the comparable publisher having 5.25 million in September 2022.

Beyond the top ten, sports and local publications did well, represented by the likes of Football London, Manchester Evening News, and Sports Brief, but there were also some big news outlets including the New York Times and NPR within that grouping.

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