A new study reveals which websites are the most frustrating in terms of performance on mobile devices and desktops.
Web development agency Azuro Digital used Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI) to rank websites by their performance scores, which range from 0–100. Scores of 90–100 are considered good, 50–89 need improvement, and anything below 50 is poor. The Performance score is composed of five metrics: Total Blocking Time, Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift, First Contentful Paint, and Speed Index.
Fox News ranks as the worst performing website on mobile with a score of 13 out of 100. It took 55 seconds for the largest content to render and 8.6 seconds for any content to appear on screen. The mobile page size for Fox News is 8.11MB.
American Airlines ranks second worst on mobile with a score of 18 out of 100. On a mobile device it took 27.4 seconds for the largest content to render, compared to 4.6 seconds on a desktop.
The Wall Street Journal ranks third worst on mobile with a score of 19 out of 100. It took 14.6 seconds for the largest content to render on mobile and 15.4 seconds on desktop.
United ranks fourth on mobile with a score of 21 out of 100, while HBO and NPR share fifth place with a score of 23 out of 100. HBO’s largest content took 29.2 seconds to render and NPR’s 20.3 seconds. ABC News and NBC News follow with scores of 25 and 26 out of 100 respectively, with largest content loading in 24.3 and 15.9 seconds.
Macy’s, Disney+, and Capital One share eighth place with a score of 27 out of 100. Users waited 5.1 seconds to see anything on Macy’s, 6.8 seconds on Disney+, and 4.5 seconds on Capital One. Macy’s had one of the largest page sizes on mobile at 28.95MB.
Washington Post, Bloomberg, Merriam-Webster, and BBC all scored 28 out of 100. Bloomberg’s largest content took 129.3 seconds to load on mobile, with a total page size of 38.2MB. Merriam-Webster took 23.7 seconds, Washington Post 17.3 seconds, and BBC 14.5 seconds. Salesforce rounds out the top ten with a score of 29 out of 100, with its largest content taking 14 seconds to load.
Full mobile rankings
- Fox News: 13
- American Airlines: 18
- WSJ: 19
- United: 21
- HBO (tied): 23
- NPR (tied): 23
- ABC News: 25
- NBC News: 26
- Macy’s, Disney+, Capital One (tied): 27
- Washington Post, Bloomberg, Merriam-Webster, BBC (tied): 28
- Salesforce: 29
United is the worst performer on desktop with a score of just 8 out of 100, taking 13.2 seconds for anything to render. Delta ranks second at 11, followed jointly by NPR and Booking.com at 12. Dictionary.com follows at 18, and Salesforce at 21.
Peacock and Costco earned scores of 24 and 25 respectively. ABC News, Bloomberg, WSJ, Capital One, and Expedia all scored 27, while CNN, American Airlines, and Zillow scored 28. Washington Post and Bank of America scored 29.
Full desktop rankings
- United: 8
- Delta: 11
- NPR, Booking.com (tied): 12
- Dictionary.com: 18
- Salesforce: 21
- Peacock: 24
- Costco: 25
- ABC News, Bloomberg, WSJ, Capital One, Expedia (tied): 27
- CNN, American Airlines, Zillow (tied): 28
- Washington Post, Bank of America (tied): 29
An industry-wide problem
Of the 97 websites analysed, 50 scored 50 or below on mobile and 52 scored 50 or below on desktop. News and media and travel were the worst performing categories on both platforms. Streaming and entertainment and finance also ranked among the poorest performers.
Daniel Houle, Founder of Azuro Digital, commented: “According to Google data, when websites take longer than three seconds to load, 53% of people will leave. This means that many of these websites, which are some of the biggest brands in the world, are losing visitors before they have even seen the content. What stood out was Fox News scoring 13 on mobile but 66 on desktop, which suggests a clear gap in how some brands prioritise their mobile experience.”
“On both the mobile and desktop rankings, news and media websites are consistently performing the worst. These websites depend on advertising revenue, which is only earned if users view the site and spend time on the page. Longer load times could mean that a user is going to choose a competitor’s website if it can provide them with quicker content. If a travel website is performing poorly, a user’s frustration may be exacerbated by what is already a stressful experience, leading them to abandon the website altogether.”
“Cookie consent banners, third party trackers, and advertising scripts can contribute to poor performance scores, particularly on news and media sites. Each page load often triggers numerous third party requests, which can significantly increase load times. These scores can be improved through image optimisation, reducing third party scripts, and implementing proper caching.”