Facebook was the only platform to see an increase in news engagement in Q3, rising 17% while all others declined. This rise builds on its growth in Q2, and highlights Facebook’s strengthening position as a key driver of news engagement in 2025.
Here are some of the key takeaways:
- Fox News dominated on Facebook again in Q3 with 277 million engagements
- The Guardian surged, with engagement rising more than four times higher than last quarter
- Standout viral moments proved that lighter content can still make the top posts
Fox doesn’t just stay on top, it surges
Fox News almost perfectly mirrored its Q2 increase, earning 277 million engagements—53% up from Q2, which itself marked a 54% jump from Q1. This solidifies Fox’s position as the most consistent top performer on Facebook, continuing to climb while many other publishers fall or stagnate.
Several publishers in the top 10 saw decreases this quarter. While the overall lineup remained largely unchanged, ABC, LADbible, Newsmax, and CBS all recorded drops in engagement, and others only slightly grew. The only publisher that was new to the top 10 this quarter was The New York Post, which generated 29k engagements—a 150% increase since Q2.
CBS and ABC stand out in top posts
While Fox may have led the charge in overall engagement, it had some competition within the top individual posts. Fox still accounted for eight of the top 10 posts, and CBS and ABC made up the remainder, and with much lighter content.
CBS had the top post overall, earning over 1.2 million engagements with its video of a bear and its cubs stealing food off a man’s truck in Tennessee. ABC also earned a respectable 884k engagements with footage of two men saving a stranded monkey on a river.
In contrast, the rest of the top 10 included Fox’s coverage of politics and major events — such as Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt’s daughter, Gracie Hunt, mourning a relative who died in the Camp Mystic Texas flood, and Trump receiving a standing ovation after pledging that his administration would protect prayer in public schools.
The Guardian spotlight, big increase
The Guardian experienced an impressive rise in Facebook engagement this quarter, jumping from 1.85 million in Q2 to more than 8 million in Q3. After seeing growth towards the end of last quarter, engagement truly took off in July, with several major spikes.
The biggest of these came from coverage of John Lennon’s killer being denied parole for the 14th time, which clearly resonated on the platform and generated over 214k engagements.
One thing to note about The Guardian’s strategy is its distinctive posting style. The publisher leans into image posts, often pairing a powerful visual with the headline of a story. This approach is clearly resonating, especially compared to its video content, which struggled to generate comparable levels of engagement.
Fox remains the outlier
Fox News achieves the highest engagement levels while posting far less frequently than other publishers, a pattern we’ve seen with the publisher throughout all of 2025.
Most publishers cluster around lower engagement and higher posting frequency, with outlets like Reuters, the Daily Mail, and the Daily Mirror falling into that category. Overall, the chart shows that there’s little to no correlation between the numbers of posts and engagement levels, suggesting that consistency and content quality plays a stronger role.
For more insights from our Social Publishing Index, read our toplines blog.
