Guardian.co.uk hits 27.3m users to regain top online newspaper spot

The Guardian News & Media site, Guardian.co.uk recorded a 4% lift in unique users to 27.3 million.

Emily Bell, director of digital content at Guardian News & Media, credited the site's coverage of the G20 for the lift, which included user-generated video footage of the London protests.

She added: "We remain the most popular UK newspaper site too with 9.6 million UK uniques."

In contrast, the website for Telegraph Media Group, which was the most popular online newspaper brand in March, dropped 14% to 23.9 million. The site was up 28% year on year and attracted 8.1 million users from the UK.

The Mail Online retained its third spot despite a 2.6% fall on March figures to 23.2 million. Approximately 30%, or seven million of its users are based in the UK.

News International's Timesonline.co.uk also recorded a slight 0.1% drop to 21.6 million, while its tabloid stablemate, thesun.co.uk, dropped 3.2% month on month to 20.6 million.

The biggest increase in April went to Mirror Group's Mirror.co.uk, up 20% to 8.6 million. The site for the red-top newspaper has also achieved the sector's biggest growth year on year up 101% with almost half of its audience, 45%, based in the UK.

The Independent News & Media's website also continued to build its unique users, up 4% to 10.4 million - its best performance to date.