FHM, which in its pomp as the UK's most popular men's magazine sold more than 600,000 copies a month, has now slipped below a monthly circulation of 100,000.

In the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures published on Thursday, FHM had an average monthly sale of 96,452 in the second half of 2013, down 15.9% year on year and 9.3% on the previous six months. The Bauer Media title's sales have been in long-term decline, overtaken as the sector's market leader by Men's Health in 2009.

Nuts and Zoo turned 10 in January, but there was nothing to celebrate for the men's weeklies as they spiralled further down the sector, shedding a third of their sales, overtaken by Esquire and T3 respectively.

A decade after they launched in a blaze of publicity and briefly breathed new life into the sector (albeit with controversial content), IPC Media's Nuts sold an average of 53,342 print editions each week in the second half of last year.

It was down 33.5% year on year and was eclipsed in print by Hearst's rather more upmarket monthly offering, Esquire, with sales of 55,011, down 10.7% year on year, but up 4.2% on the previous six months.

Nuts' figures are improved by the inclusion of 8,776 digital edition sales each month on average, pushing the combined total up to 62,118 and ahead of Esquire's combined figure (4,968 digital editions, 59,979 total).

The ABC has published combined print and digital magazine circulation figures for the first time for the second half of 2013. No ABC digital circulation figures were published for FHM and Zoo.

Digital editions, which must be an almost exact replica of the magazine, can be included as long as they are sold for at least 20% of the cover price of the print edition.

Zoo lost a similar amount to Nuts (33%) year on year, to 29,521, overtaken by T3 in print for the first time. The Future Publishing gadget mag sold 30,656, down 15% year on year.

However, T3 is the biggest selling UK digital title, with an average monthly circulation of 22,319 digital editions in the second half of 2013, pushing its combined total up to 52,975.

Hearst-Rodale's Men's Health remains the number one paid-for title in the men's market in print. With sales of 203,053, it was up 0.2% year on year but down 0.3% on the previous six months.

It stretched its already large lead over Condé Nast's GQ in second place among the paid-for men's magazines, Dylan Jones' title down 4.4% year on year to 114,867.

However, GQ has the edge when it comes to digital editions, with 12,173 against 10,340 for Men's Health.

Former FHM editor Mike Soutar's first free magazine Shortlist remained by far and away the biggest in the men's market with a distribution of 534,692, up 0.6% on the second half of 2012.

Spin-off fashion magazine Shortlist Mode was third, on 260,615, down 3.1% year on year, behind UTV Media's Sport, another free title, which distributed 304,184, up 0.6%.

Among the other free titles, youth magazine RWD, published by RWD Creative Media, saw its distribution rise marginally (up 0.5%) year on year to 98,806, while London's free magazine aimed at the financial industry, Square Mile, was up 21.4% to 50,860.

Elsewhere, sales of Dennis Publishing's Bizarre sank a further 32.1% year on year, to 11,603.

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