Ice Bucket Challenge helps ALS Wikipedia Page Views Grow 18-fold

We’ve been covering quite a lot of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge recently – from Destiny’s Ghost taking up the call, to some very heart wrenching and moving videos.

However, the question is quite often asked on social media by many – what is this actually doing for ALS awareness? Well, thanks to the Wikimedia Foundation, we’ve learned that the ALS Wikipedia page (English) has been viewed 2.89 million times in August alone, compared to a relatively small 163,000 per month on average in the first half of 2014. This means the page views have gone up 18 times their previous numbers.

Thus far, over $100 million has been raised for the ALS Association since the viral challenge hit our news feeds and with this latest Wikipedia news, it’s showing that not only is the challenge a way for some people to show off their best wet t-shirt bods and gain some internet ‘likes’ – there is actually a purpose behind this and it’s quite possibly working.

Have you completed the ice bucket challenge? Did you donate? Have you learned anything? We’re keen to hear from you – so let us know.

Image courtesy of NBC news