In the last quarter of 2022, Engaged Time rose in the Middle East, Mobile audiences grew in Southeast Asia, and pageviews from social networks declined across the world.

Read on for more global insights from our fourth quarter research below.

Compare to our previous insights: Q3 2022 | Q2 2022 |  Q1 2022

Engaged Time highest in the Middle East, Africa, and Central / Eastern Europe

Readers in the Middle East were the most engaged audience for the second quarter in a row with 44.6 seconds of Average Engaged Time. Africa and Central / Eastern Europe followed with 34.9 seconds.

The most significant decrease occurred in Southeast Asia, where Average Engaged Time dropped from 31.2 to 26.3 seconds. 

Mobile pageviews remain high to end the year

Mobile audiences in Southeast Asia continue to grow with 86% of all pageviews coming from this device type in the region. Africa followed closely at 84%, an increase from 83% in the second quarter.

While pageviews from mobile devices grew in most regions, Central / Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, and Northern Europe each saw a 1-2% decline in their mobile traffic as compared to the previous quarter.

Search traffic declines further in Central and Southeast Asia

42% of pageviews in Central Asia came from Search in the fourth quarter, down from 47% in the second quarter. Southeast Asia also saw a noticeable drop in Search pageviews, falling from 41% to 33%.

Pageviews from Social decline across the world

Africa continues to see the highest percentage of pageviews from social platforms, but from the third to the fourth quarter, this declined from 25% to 23%. Central / Eastern Europe and North America followed at 17%, both down from 20% in the third quarter.

Southern Europe was the only region that didn’t see a decline, staying flat at 12%.

Loyalty grows in North America and Southeast Asia

For the third quarter in a row, Central / Eastern Europe saw at least half of its pageviews come from loyal readers. Northern Europe was close behind with 46%.

While most regions saw declines or no change, North America grew its percentage of loyal pageviews to 38% and Southeast Asia increased from 27% to 37%.

Takeaways from our 2022 research

1. Overall traffic is down year over year for each month, with notable exceptions for November in North America and October and November for Latin America.
2. The percentage of traffic from loyal readers has remained fairly static throughout the year, with the exception of Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa, where loyal traffic has grown steadily.
3. Traffic from Social is decreasing across the world, with the exception of North America.

See Chartbeat for yourself — request a demo of our analytics and optimization tools today.