Global Article Engaged Time Dropped In Q3

Something worth keeping an eye on as the year wears on and talk of attention spans waning continues: New Q3 data from Chartbeat reveals that globally, average article engaged time was down – and in some regions, pretty significantly, too. According to Chartbeat's Global Audience Insights:

• Central/Eastern Europe (34.7 seconds) and the Middle East (33.2 seconds) retained the highest average engaged time vs. Q2, but both saw dips; the Middle East, in particular, saw engaged time drop by 13% quarter-over-quarter.
• In North America, averaged engaged time was down about a second, to 26.6 seconds on average – third overall among all regions.
• In Africa, averaged seconds of engaged time declined by a steep 30%, to just 22.4 overall. In Latin America, the next-lowest region, it was a drop of over 26% quarter-over-quarter.

Notably, Central Asia was the only region to avoid declines vs. Q2, with average engaged time going from 24.2 seconds to 24.7 seconds. You can check out Chartbeat's full findings here.