Australia's performance at the Paris Olympics has contributed to record-breaking online sports viewing numbers, according to data from Ipsos iris. The online sports category audience grew by 5% month on month, representing an additional 735,000 Australians, for a total sports audience of more than 15.6 million.

This new record follows a 7% (962,000) increase in audience numbers for July, marking two consecutive months of record Australian sports audience numbers online.

More than 20.7 million people used a news website or app in August, reaching 96.5% of online Australians aged 14+. Overall, 21.4 million Australians aged 14+ used the internet in August and spent an average of 4.6 hours per day, or almost 143 hours for the month, online. The most consumed website and app categories in August were social networking (21.4 million), search engines (21.3 million), technology (21.3 million), retail and commerce (21.1 million), and entertainment (21 million).

The social media category beat search engines for the top consumed category for the first time in recent months, notching up the largest audience number since the launch of Ipsos iris in January 2023.

The games category experienced a month on month increase of 8% in time spent, sitting at more than 638 minutes spent on games websites and apps per person.

Across other categories, retail and commerce also peaked in August, recording its highest-ever engagement numbers, increasing by 8% to 456 minutes per person. The homes and property category recorded another all-time audience high in August, peaking at just over 14 million Australians. Major property brands realestate.com.au and Domain recorded month on month audience increases of 4% and 5% respectively. New PropTrack data showed capital city new listing volumes were 1.6% higher year on year in August – the highest they have been since 2012.

News Corp Australia was talking up its results, noting it's holding the number one news and information publisher with an audience of 14.663 million and 549 million page views – an engaged reach of 37.5 page views per person. In video, the company has the largest audience for news consumption at 2.352 million, with 54 million video views for the month.

In finance, News Corp has an audience of 4.752 million and 25 million page views; in lifestyle it's 8.671 million with 141 million page views; in sports, 8.487 million and 102 million page views were chalked up; while in travel, there's an audience of 3.779 million and 16 million page views.

“Our network of trusted news and lifestyle sites saw four in five Australians visit and engage with our content in August. Engagement at scale, through both our wide exposure and deep audience interaction, is so important for delivering client outcomes," Managing Director and Publisher of the company’s Free News and Lifestyle Mastheads division, Pippa Leary said.

“We also recorded the biggest audience in the Sports news category under Ipsos iris, up 9.2 per cent compared to the previous month, with a gap of more than 2.5 million on our closest competitor with the company’s network approach to coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics.”