Admins and users should be made aware that Requests for comment/Removing hit counters from MediaWiki core was implemented in 1.25. Special:PopularPages is removed and the Most Viewed Pages section of Special:Statistics is also gone.
Topic on Talk:MediaWiki 1.25
Good point; I'll add this to the list of changes. Thanks!
Should a link be added to Extension:HitCounters?
Given it doesn't have any code so far, I'd suggest not yet.