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 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2014/R1/Results/Voters people voted for all 983 candidates https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2014/R1/Results/Candidates . - In the second round, 3824 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2014/R2/Results/Voters 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 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_butterfly_feeding_on_the_tears_of_a_turtle_in_Ecuador.jpg . 2. In second place, 416 people voted for An Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) in Antarctica jumping out of the water https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Penguin_in_Antarctica_jumping_out_of_the_water.jpg . 3. In third place, 410 people voted for High above Tocopilla, Chile, one of SQMs Boxcabs coasts downhill to the Reverso switchback https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SQM_GE_289A_Boxcab_Carmelita_-_Reverso.jpg .

*Click here to view the top images >>* https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2014/Results

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 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:UploadWizard.

Thanks, the Picture of the Year committee https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2014/Committee