The latest Ipsos iris data reveals that the Paris Olympics and other major global events dominated Australian news and sports coverage in July 2024, leading to a peak in online usage time.

Australians spent more time online in July 2024 than any other month that year, with record audience numbers noted across multiple categories including sports, games, events and attractions, business and finance sectors, energy suppliers, and social networking.

Major global stories such as the July 13 shooting at a Trump rally, Joe Biden dropping out of the US presidential race, the worldwide CrowdStrike tech outage, and the French and UK election results also captured Australians’ attention on news websites and apps. More than 20.8 million people used a news website or app in July, reaching 97% of online Australians aged 14+.

Overall, 21.4 million Australians aged 14+ used the internet in July, spending an average of 4.6 hours online per day, or almost 142 hours for the month. The sports category saw a 7% increase in July, up by 962,000 audience on June figures. The business and finance sectors reached 20.4 million and 20.7 million respectively for the month, driven by end-of-financial-year activities.

Changes to electricity prices, introduced nationwide on July 1, contributed to the largest audience this year for the energy suppliers category, with a record 9.7 million audience in July. The technology category saw a 16% increase in average time spent per person in July, coinciding with the CrowdStrike outage.

News Corp Australia claimed the top spot in the Sports news category, with the media company's 2024 Paris Olympics coverage driving a 19 per cent lift in digital audience on the previous month.

"We also continue to see significant growth in news video audience, up 24.38 per cent compared to the previous month across the organisation," said Free News and Lifestyle Editor-in-Chief Mick Carroll.

Meanwhile, in the property sector, REA Group's Paris Olympics launch of its new brand campaign helped realestate.com.au to an all-time-high unique audience of 11.58 million people, leading it's nearest competitor by 5.08 million people.

REA Group Chief Product and Audience Officer, Melina Cruickshank, said: “These record-breaking results prove that big, cultural moments are an excellent environment to strengthen brand and grow audiences. Launching our campaign to coincide with Olympics coverage has been such a positive way to drive momentum in the lead up to the spring selling season."

Ipsos iris, launched in March 2023, provides accurate data about the 21.4 million Australians aged 14+ who access a wide variety of digital content and services across smartphone, PC/laptop, and tablet devices. Ipsos iris is an independent source of truth for the media industry, supporting the $14.7 billion Australian online advertising market. The digital audience measurement currency has also included CTV since February, with YouTube CTV data now available alongside OzTam's BVOD audiences.