Patrick Comerford
This blog has reached a new record, with a total of 64 million readers or hits by this evening (27 October 2026).
This is the fifth time this month that this blog has passed the million-reader mark, having reached 63 million four days ago (23 October 2026), 62 million readers six days earlier (17 October 2026), 61 million readers six days before that again (11 October 2026) and 60 million readers or hits a week earlier at the beginning of the month (4 October 2026).
Last month (September 2026) was exceptionally busy on this blog, with a steady, overwhelming rise in viewing and reading figures, passing the million mark on 10 occasions last month alone, and more than 10.4 million hits in September. September was the highest total in any single month since I began blogging, and so far this month is the third highest.
These viewing and readership figures continue to be overpowering and this blog continues to reach volumes of readers I never expected when I first started blogging 16 years ago.
At the end of last year, this blog had 21 million hits (31 December 2025). So far this year, there have been more than 43 million hits or visitors in 2026 alone. Half of all hits or reader figures have been within little more than six months or so, with 32 million hits since 19 April 2026.
I first began blogging in 2010, and it took almost two years until July 2012 to reach half a million readers. Throughout this year, the daily figures have often been overwhelming, with an average of 140,000 to 150,000 so far this month.
Some curious though random statistics may help to put this new figure of 64 million into perspective:
64 Million Artists is a social enterprise inviting everyone in the UK to explore their creative potential and use it to challenge the status quo.
About 64 million people worldwide live with heart failure, a chronic condition and a leading cause of global disability and death where the heart cannot pump enough blood.
Due to a fracturing global aid system, 64 million fewer people received critical humanitarian assistance last year (2025) compared to previous years.
The total foreign-born population residing across the European Union is estimated at 64 million people.
Turkey welcomed almost 64 million visitors (63.9 million total arrivals, including 11.2 million citizens residing abroad) last year (2025).
French anti-fraud authorities uncovered a major wine scam involving 48 million litres of table wine – equivalent to 64 million bottles of wine – falsely labelled under prestigious regional names like Côtes du Rhône between 2013 and 2016.
The Bordelais in the Bordeaux region produces 64 million bottles of dry white wine every year.
In recent retail data, ordinary table wine sales in Italy dropped by the equivalent of 64 million fewer bottles.
I hear many people now use the phrase the $64 million question. But the original phrase was ‘the $64,000 question’ and it from a 1950s US TV game show called ‘The $64,000 Question’, where contestants could win $64,000 for answering the toughest question.
64 million metres equals 64,000 km and 64 million square metres equals 64,000 sq km. The radius of earth is about 64,000 km, while Latvia has a land area of over 64 million square metres (64,559 sq km).
Portugal’s land area is 92,225 sq km, although Portuguese law defines the country’s size as 156,597 sq km which includes about 64,000 sq km of ocean waters. Portugal’s exclusive economic zone extends to 1,727,408 sq km, making it one of the largest in the European Union.
64 million minutes is equal to 121 years, 8 months and 7 days (plus 10 hours and 40 minutes), which means that if this blog was receiving just one hit a minute, I would need to have started blogging back in February 1905.
I retired from active parish ministry on 31 March 2022. These days, though, on average more than 200 people are reading my daily prayer diary posted on this blog each morning, or a ‘virtual congregation’ up to 1, 400 people each week. As this blog moves beyond 64 million hits, I am truly grateful today to the real readers among those 64 million. In particular, I am thankful for the faithful core group of people who join me in prayer, scripture reading and reflections each day.
