The biggest sites on Facebook in Germany, Spain and Italy

Facebook has become one of the world’s biggest news sources. Though the social media giant is a regular victim of scrutiny, around 36% of U.S. adults get their daily news from Facebook. From website pages to influencers, news from the site has become a phenomenon in the state. But what about across the pond in Europe? 

Reuter’s 2021 Digital Report showed that 18% of Germans, 39% of Spaniards, and 50% of Italians use Facebook as a news source. We conducted an analysis of the biggest sites in these countries back in 2017, but media trust and usage has greatly shifted in five years. We decided to delve back into our data and see how the popularity of these exact sites has changed, and if Facebook can continue its success as a global news source. 

Germany

We last looked at the biggest German sites on Facebook in August 2017, with Bild, Welt, and Focus coming in at the top three spots. All three are general news sources that cover topics from politics to sports. Since then, all three have dropped in rankings. Bild is now second with 1.9M interactions in January 2022, with Focus one ahead of fifth place Welt. 

Promiflash and N-TV were seen as newcomers on the scene when we first did this analysis, and N-TV has successfully moved up the rankings to become an established veteran. The prominent news and business channel has ousted its elders and become the leading German news source on Facebook. In the last month, N-TV has had 10.7M total interactions on their website page. 

Spain

With 39% of the Spanish population using Facebook as a news source, you’d expect a bigger number in comparison to Germany and to our 2017 findings. El País, which just missed out on the top site in 2017, rightfully reclaimed their throne five years later. With 2.9M interactions in January of 2022, the site came in first place among the comparable pages. Similar to 2017, their usage of an ‘Ultima hora’ tag, signifying breaking news, helped attract readers to their posts.

Marca and Defensa Central were the next two pages with over 2M total interactions, with Marca edging the latter by 631k. Soccer is a pillar of Spanish culture, so it’s unsurprising that these sites, with their game analysis and humorous memes, are heavily visited on Facebook. 

RT and Play Ground Mag have kept up with the other sites, although not breaking 2M interactions, they’ve earned 1.5M each respectfully.

Italy

Of the three countries surveyed for this report, Italy has the highest rate of people using Facebook for news in 2022, at 50%. Surprisingly, this is down 1% from 2017. 

In January, La Repubblica dominated the comparable websites with 2.9M interactions. This site has stayed consistent for five years, as it is a major news source for all of Italy. Il Fatto Quotidiano came in second, with 1.9M total interactions. These two sites achieved the same placements as they did in 2017. 

La Stampa, Il Giornale, and Mediaset all had lower interaction numbers, but still managed to stay over 100k for the month. 

As we can tell, Facebook has continued to be a major source of news around the globe. Numbers have lowered, but as trust in media outlets ebbs and flows, Facebook is sure to stick around in both the U.S. and Europe.