diff --git a/ghost/admin/app/components/gh-download-count.js b/ghost/admin/app/components/gh-download-count.js
deleted file mode 100644
index ed04cb29c1..0000000000
--- a/ghost/admin/app/components/gh-download-count.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,39 +0,0 @@
-import Component from '@ember/component';
-import config from 'ghost-admin/config/environment';
-import {inject as service} from '@ember/service';
-import {task, timeout} from 'ember-concurrency';
-
-export default Component.extend({
-    ajax: service(),
-    ghostPaths: service(),
-
-    tagName: '',
-    count: '',
-
-    didInsertElement() {
-        this._poll.perform();
-    },
-
-    _poll: task(function* () {
-        let url = this.get('ghostPaths.count');
-        let pattern = /(-?\d+)(\d{3})/;
-
-        try {
-            let data = yield this.ajax.request(url);
-            let count = data.count.toString();
-
-            while (pattern.test(count)) {
-                count = count.replace(pattern, '$1,$2');
-            }
-
-            this.set('count', count);
-
-            if (config.environment !== 'test') {
-                yield timeout(2000);
-                this._poll.perform();
-            }
-        } catch (e) {
-            // no-op - we don't want to create noise for a failed download count
-        }
-    })
-});
diff --git a/ghost/admin/app/templates/components/gh-download-count.hbs b/ghost/admin/app/templates/components/gh-download-count.hbs
deleted file mode 100644
index 15bb665fc9..0000000000
--- a/ghost/admin/app/templates/components/gh-download-count.hbs
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-{{#if hasBlock}}
-    {{yield this.count}}
-{{else}}
-    {{this.count}}
-{{/if}}
diff --git a/ghost/admin/app/templates/setup/one.hbs b/ghost/admin/app/templates/setup/one.hbs
index 5c2212983c..26475e20a2 100644
--- a/ghost/admin/app/templates/setup/one.hbs
+++ b/ghost/admin/app/templates/setup/one.hbs
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 <header>
     <h1>Welcome to <strong>Ghost</strong>!</h1>
-    <p>All over the world, people have started <em><GhDownloadCount /></em> incredible sites with Ghost. Today, we’re starting yours.</p>
+    <p>All over the world, people have started <em>2,000,000+</em> incredible sites with Ghost. Today, we’re starting yours.</p>
 </header>
 
 <figure class="gh-flow-screenshot">
diff --git a/ghost/admin/app/utils/ghost-paths.js b/ghost/admin/app/utils/ghost-paths.js
index fba2aa6431..944b301524 100644
--- a/ghost/admin/app/utils/ghost-paths.js
+++ b/ghost/admin/app/utils/ghost-paths.js
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ export default function () {
         apiRoot,
         subdir,
         blogRoot: `${subdir}/`,
-        count: 'https://count.ghost.org/',
 
         url: {
             admin() {
diff --git a/ghost/admin/mirage/config.js b/ghost/admin/mirage/config.js
index 241dedbcc4..ef90f61453 100644
--- a/ghost/admin/mirage/config.js
+++ b/ghost/admin/mirage/config.js
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ export default function () {
     this.passthrough();
 
     // add any external domains to make sure those get passed through too
-    this.passthrough('https://count.ghost.org/');
     this.passthrough('http://www.gravatar.com/**');
     this.passthrough('https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/**');
     this.passthrough('https://api.unsplash.com/**');
@@ -84,14 +83,6 @@ export function testConfig() {
 
     /* External sites ------------------------------------------------------- */
 
-    let downloadCount = 0;
-    this.get('https://count.ghost.org/', function () {
-        downloadCount += 1;
-        return {
-            count: downloadCount
-        };
-    });
-
     this.head('http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/:md5', function () {
         return '';
     }, 200);
diff --git a/ghost/admin/tests/acceptance/setup-test.js b/ghost/admin/tests/acceptance/setup-test.js
index df3b4dae45..217bda74a5 100644
--- a/ghost/admin/tests/acceptance/setup-test.js
+++ b/ghost/admin/tests/acceptance/setup-test.js
@@ -73,10 +73,6 @@ describe('Acceptance: Setup', function () {
             expect(stepIcons[1], 'second step').to.not.have.class('active');
             expect(stepIcons[2], 'third step').to.not.have.class('active');
 
-            // it displays download count (count increments for each ajax call
-            // and polling is disabled in testing so our count should be "1"
-            expect(find('.gh-flow-content em').textContent.trim()).to.equal('1');
-
             await click('.gh-btn-green');
 
             // it transitions to step two
diff --git a/ghost/admin/tests/integration/components/gh-download-count-test.js b/ghost/admin/tests/integration/components/gh-download-count-test.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 106d1552f5..0000000000
--- a/ghost/admin/tests/integration/components/gh-download-count-test.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,39 +0,0 @@
-import Pretender from 'pretender';
-import hbs from 'htmlbars-inline-precompile';
-import {describe, it} from 'mocha';
-import {expect} from 'chai';
-import {render} from '@ember/test-helpers';
-import {setupRenderingTest} from 'ember-mocha';
-
-describe('Integration: Component: gh-download-count', function () {
-    setupRenderingTest();
-
-    let server;
-
-    beforeEach(function () {
-        server = new Pretender();
-        server.get('https://count.ghost.org/', function () {
-            return [200, {}, JSON.stringify({count: 42})];
-        });
-    });
-
-    afterEach(function () {
-        server.shutdown();
-    });
-
-    it('hits count endpoint and renders', async function () {
-        await render(hbs`{{gh-download-count}}`);
-
-        expect(this.element).to.have.trimmed.text('42');
-    });
-
-    it('renders with a block', async function () {
-        await render(hbs`
-            {{#gh-download-count as |count|}}
-                {{count}} downloads
-            {{/gh-download-count}}
-        `);
-
-        expect(this.element).to.have.trimmed.text('42 downloads');
-    });
-});