Thanks to golden boy Michael Phelps and the rest of the Beijing Olympics, MSNBC.com overtook Yahoo News as the most visited current events news destination on the Web.

Over 52 million unique visitors came to one of the home of the Olympic games, an increase of more then 77 percent from the 29.5 million who visiting in August, 2007. The site drew 37.5 million unique visitors in July, 2008. Yahoo News and CNN Digital Network had 40.8 million and 38.8 million uniques in August '08, respectively.

Other big winners year-over-year include NYTimes.com (up to 19.9 million uniques from 13.1), Fox Digital Network (from 8.5 to 13.9) and The Huffington Post (1.3 to 5.1).

The top 30 most visited current news Web sites are after the jump.

Brand -- Aug. '08 Unique Audience (000) -- Aug. '07 Unique Audience (000)

MSNBC Digital Network -- 52,212 -- 29,564
Yahoo! News -- 40,787 -- 34,277
CNN Digital Network -- 38,821 -- 31,733
AOL News -- 23,114 -- 21,209
NYTimes.com -- 19,862 -- 13,078

Tribune Newspapers -- 17,652 -- 12,550
Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division -- 14,454 -- 13,720
Fox News Digital Network -- 13,902 -- 8,465
ABCNEWS Digital Network -- 13,377 -- 10,706
Google News -- 12,137 -- 10,235

washingtonpost.com -- 11,249 -- 8,995
McClatchy Newspaper Network -- 10,603 -- 9,071
USATODAY.com -- 10,403 -- 9,582
CBS News Digital Network -- 9,461 -- 9,783
Hearst Newspapers Digital -- 8,428 -- 7,195

WorldNow -- 8,030 -- 7,094
Advance Internet -- 7,929 -- 6,081
MediaNews Group Newspapers -- 7,485 -- 7,556
Topix -- 7,142 -- 6,153
IB Websites -- 5,753 -- 6,926

BBC News -- 5,278 -- 5,343
Gannett Broadcasting -- 5,172 -- 4,540
TheHuffingtonPost.com -- 5,126 -- 1,312
Slate -- 4,976 -- 5,803
Fox Television Stations -- 4,941 -- 4,490

Cox Newspapers -- 4,935 -- 5,020
MailOnline -- 4,832 -- 3,434
Associated Press -- 4,769 -- 5,201
Telegraph -- 4,587 -- 2,338
Daily News Online Edition -- 4,507 -- 2,216