From Diwali to Christmas, India’s digital engagement stays high through Q4 2025

New Delhi: India’s digital activity closed 2025 on a sustained high, marking a notable behavioural shift in how audiences moved across the open web during the final quarter. Insights from Taboola Newsroom indicate that Q4 no longer resembled the earlier pattern of a sharp Diwali spike followed by an immediate decline. 

Instead, audiences remained consistently active through multiple seasonal moments, signalling that the quarter is transitioning into a continuous cultural period rather than a festival-centric window.

Diwali generated the strongest lift of the quarter, drawing more than 28 million pageviews and rising 573% compared with the previous 45 days. Engagement spanned décor, rituals, gifting, shopping, food planning and regional celebrations, with related areas such as travel and cuisine also climbing. 

What distinguished this year’s pattern was the pace at which audiences carried forward once the festival peaked. Instead of falling sharply, attention remained elevated, positioning Diwali as the opening point of Q4 rather than the event that defined its end.

Christmas picked up earlier than in previous years, rising 298% as holiday interest began even before December. Food-related reading, entertainment lists, planning content and family-focused pieces contributed to this rise, creating a seamless transition from Diwali into the broader holiday stretch. The earlier upswing indicates that audiences now treat Q4 as an integrated period with multiple points of engagement rather than a single-festival season.

Technology also remained active through the quarter, generating 10 million pageviews. AI-driven developments and workplace-linked topics led the category’s movement, with Anthropic recording a 654% surge after global updates and policy discussions. Interest in H-1B visa developments, employment shifts and mobility-focused reading added further depth, aligning with the extended rhythm of the quarter.

Entertainment held its daily presence throughout, drawing 21 million pageviews across film releases, celebrity updates, nostalgia-led content and lifestyle stories. Its consistency helped maintain engagement between larger cultural peaks, reinforcing the sense of a continuous timeline rather than a short burst around Diwali.

Food and travel remained two of the most stable anchors. Travel rose 14% through itinerary planning, transit updates and holiday-linked searches, while food generated 3.3 million pageviews across festive dishes, global cuisines and everyday cooking. Both categories supported engagement during the weeks between Diwali, Christmas and the World Cup.

Sports added a sharp rise, with the World Cup generating 5.8 million pageviews and climbing 260 per cent. Early November delivered some of the quarter’s highest peaks, with match stories, performance analysis and venue content shaping the surge. The reading pattern blended into the larger quarter rather than functioning as a standalone spike.

Taken together, these movements indicate that Q4 2025 was defined by continuity rather than isolated moments. Diwali triggered the initial rise, Christmas extended it, food and entertainment sustained daily activity, travel held its position through planning requirements, technology moved on AI and workplace themes, and sports added event-driven intensity. In contrast to earlier years, when engagement largely centred on Diwali before tapering off, this quarter reflected uninterrupted activity across multiple connected moments.

For advertisers and planners, the shift reflects a longer and more integrated season in which Diwali no longer marks the end of opportunity but serves as its beginning. With audiences continuing to engage well beyond the festival, maintaining presence across adjoining moments now reflects the broader rhythm of the quarter. 

Taboola Newsroom’s signals map these behavioural changes, while platforms such as Realize translate the patterns into execution through AI-led delivery systems that follow attention across the open web.