Dear Wikimedians,

The 2014 Picture of the Year competition has ended and we are pleased to announce the results:

We shattered participation records this year — more people voted in Picture of the Year 2014 than ever before. In both rounds, 6698 different people voted for their favorite media files.

• In the first round, 4504 people voted for all 983 candidates.
• In the second round, 3824 people voted for the 54 finalists (the R1 top 30 overall and top 2 in each category).

In the second round – the “three votes” system was enabled for the first time this year – eligible users could vote for up to 3 finalists - each of these 3 votes counted equal.

We congratulate the winners of the contest and thank them for creating these beautiful media files and sharing them as freely licensed content:

1. 547 people voted for the winner, Two Julia Butterflies (Dryas iulia) drinking the tears of turtles in Ecuador.
2. In second place, 416 people voted for An Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) in Antarctica jumping out of the water.
3. In third place, 410 people voted for High above Tocopilla, Chile, one of SQMs Boxcabs coasts downhill to the Reverso switchback.

Click here to view the top images »

We also sincerely thank to all 6,698 voters for participating. We invite you to continue to participate in the Commons community by sharing your work.

Thanks,
the Picture of the Year committee