(ATR) ATR web traffic during the 2016 Olympics exceeded projections and smashed records set just last year.
For the month of August, Around the Rings recorded 416,719 unique visitors and a staggering 10,607,245 hits.
Traffic remained strong for the 11 days of the Paralympics. From Sept. 7 to 18, unique visitors totaled 120,250, with 2,815,037 hits.
"In the months leading up to Rio, our numbers took us into uncharted territory," said ATR Publisher Sheila S. Hula.
"We knew our web traffic would be strong for the month of August. Based on month by month growth from the first of the year, we predicted something over seven million hits and about 300,000 visits. But even we were surprised by the strength of our traffic."
Before May of this year, the previous peak for web traffic came in October 2014 (315,974 visits; 6,556,519 hits) when Oslo made headlines by pulling out of the bidding for the 2022 Winter Games.
ATR’s team in Rio was drawn from six countries. It was the biggest team ATR has ever fielded for a Summer Games.
The editorial team included:
Editor in Chief Ed Hula, US
Rio Bureau Chief Aaron Bauer, US
European Editor Mark Bisson, Great Britain
Europe correspondent Brian Pinelli, Czech Republic
Content editor Gerard Farek, US
Hironori Hashimoto, Japan
Alice Wheeler, Australia
Bob Mackin, Canada
The single biggest day was Aug. 17, when Brazilian police arrested IOC member Pat Hickey on charges of ticket scalping. Other stories grabbing readers' attention included the saga surrounding Ryan Lochte and the American swimmers as well as ATR's features on the hospitality houses in Rio.
As the official media partner of the World Olympians Association, ATR provided exclusive content from the Olympians Reunion Centre by EY.
"Our focus over the coming year will be the race for 2024 and the preparations for PyeongChang 2018," Hula continued. "We look forward to producing even more of the premium content our readers expect."
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