An early look at our most-read stories of the year so far

Most of the time we save our most-read stories of the year countdown to the end of the year.

But it’s the summer news doldrums, we’re short-staffed, a planned story fell through, and, well, just like that week between Christmas and New Year’s we need to fill some space. Hey, it happens.

It’s not that we don’t have anything to report, it’s just that the things on our coverage calendar will take more time and since our founding in 2010 we’ve stuck to a cadence where we publish throughout the day on weekdays, not leaving large gaps between stories.

So, that’s a very meta way to set up an early look at our most-read stories for the year. For whatever reason, despite robust readership in 2022, the total view numbers for the top stories are noticeably lower than previous years. Whether that’s a product of Facebook algorithms or otherwise, it’s hard to say at this point.

We’ll give you the view numbers at the end of the year (stay tuned), but as it stands today here are the five most-read stories of 2022 so far:

1. Bear spotted casually walking around Arlington today (June 6)
2. Anonymous threat prompts lockdown, evacuations at Yorktown High School (Feb. 10)
3. Two arrested after incorrect order leads to violence at local McDonald’s (Jan. 25)
4. U.S. Marshal Service, ACPD on scene of fatal leap from building (March 25)
5. A bunny has apparently infiltrated the Pentagon (Feb. 14)