The Sun’s story of Alfie Patten, the 13-year-old who fathered a child, has become the most popular story in its website’s history, the paper said today.
It comes just weeks after The Sun’s sister paper, the News of the World, broke its web record with its Michael Phelps bong exclusive.
Patten’s story – which is being investigated by the Press Complaints Commission – prompted 8.8 million unique users to visit thesun.co.uk last week, beating the previous record by 2.8 million, according to the paper.
Friday, the day the story broke, was the website’s busiest ever day, with 3.9 million unique users – 2.3 million more than the previous record.
Of those 3.9 million, 884,000 were from the UK, which The Sun said was a domestic record.
The video clip of Patten, his partner Chantelle Steadman and their baby was also a record breaker, claiming 1.2 million unique viewers.
And My Sun, the interactive message board, drew a record audience of 180,000, the paper said.
Sun online editor Pete Picton said: “Last week was phenomenal for thesun.co.uk both in the UK and globally, smashing all previous records.
“Worldwide TV stations clambered for the video footage, while rival media followed the story using our front page.
“Video is integral to our news operation, with journalists equipped to capture stories as they unfold.”
Earlier this month, the News of the World’s site claimed more than 1.5 million unique users in the 24 hours after breaking its story about Michael Phelps – over a million of whom were looking at the Phelps story.
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