People forget sometimes, because ESPN is the Center Of All That Matters In The Planet Of Sports, "Life is an open road to me ..." all that, but its Web site's actual hold on the title of "top sports site" is more tenuous than you think. According to the most recent numbers from the Center For Media Research, ESPN.com is in first place among sports media Web sites, but it's very close. Yahoo, Fox Sports and even the NFL is right behind it.

The top sites by unique audience, week ending August 21, 2005:
• ESPN.com, 6.2 million
• Yahoo Sports, 5.37 million
• Fox Sports on MSN, 5.26 million
• NFL Internet Network, 4.47 million
• AOL Sports, 4.08 million
• MLB.com, 3.84 million
• Sportsline.com, 3.01 million
• SI.com, 2.62 million
• eBay Sports, 2.39 million
• Nascar.com, 2.16 million

We hadn't been launched that week, so, uh, that's why we're not there.

Center For Media Research [MediaPost]
ESPN.com [Official Site]

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