JetPack Popular Posts class.

class.WDS_JetPack_Popular_Posts.php

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: WDS JetPack Popular Posts
Plugin URI: http://www.webdevstudios.com
Description: Query for popular posts by views using JetPack by Automattic.
Version: 1.0
Author: WebDevStudios
Author URI: http://www.webdevstudios.com
License: GPLv2
Text Domain: wds-popular-posts
*/

class WDS_JetPack_Popular_Posts {

	public $post_count = 5;
	public $days = 2;
	public $transient = '';

	public function __construct( $args ) {
		if ( isset( $args['count'] ) ) {
			$this->post_count = $args['count'];
		}
		if ( isset( $args['days'] ) ) {
			$this->days = $args['days'];
		}

		if ( empty( $args['transient_affix'] ) ) {
			$this->transient = '_popular';

			$queried = get_queried_object_id();
			if ( !empty( $queried ) ) {
				$this->transient .= '_' . $queried;
			}
		} else {
			$this->transient = $args['transient_affix'];
		}
	}

	/**
	 * Kick everything off. This should be the only method needing called.
	 *
	 * @since  1.0.0
	 *
	 * @return array  Array of popular posts based on specified parameters.
	 */
	public function get_posts() {
		if ( !function_exists( 'stats_get_csv' ) ) {
			return '<p>' . __( 'Please install and activate Jetpack by Automattic.', 'wds-popular-posts' ) . '</p>';
		}

		$rawposts = $this->maybe_query_jetpack_api();

		$filtered = $this->filter_posts( $rawposts );

		return $filtered;
	}

	/**
	 * Get all of the posts we will deal with and filter down to the top X amount.
	 *
	 * @since  1.0.0
	 *
	 * @param  array  $posts Array of post data from JetPack
	 *
	 * @return array         Array of our popular posts.
	 */
	private function filter_posts( $posts ) {
		$count = $this->post_count;
		$popular = array();

		if ( !is_array( $posts ) ) {
			return $popular;
		}

		$post_ids = array_filter( wp_list_pluck( $posts, 'post_id' ) );

		if ( !$post_ids || empty( $post_ids ) ) {
			return $popular;
		}

		//If we have posts of any terms, whether page or specific genre
		$popular = $this->get_popular_posts( $post_ids, $count );

		return $popular;
	}

	/**
	 * Check if we have an existing transient value to use and query JetPack if we do not.
	 *
	 * @since  1.0.0
	 *
	 * @return array|string  array if we have data, error message if querying failed.
	 */
	private function maybe_query_jetpack_api() {
		if ( false === ( $popular_posts = get_transient( 'wds_jppp_' . $this->transient ) ) ) {
			$popular_posts = $this->query_jetpack_api();

			//conditionally set
			if ( !empty( $popular_posts ) ) {
				set_transient( 'wds_jppp_' . $this->transient, $popular_posts, 60 * 30 );
			} else {
				return __( 'There was an error retrieving popular posts. Please try again.', 'wds-popular-posts' );
			}
		}
		return $popular_posts;
	}

	/**
	 * Query JetPack API using stats_get_csv
	 *
	 * @since  1.0.0
	 *
	 * @return array|bool  array if we have posts to work with, false if no results.
	 */
	private function query_jetpack_api() {
		$days = $this->days;

		$post_view_posts = stats_get_csv( 'postviews', array( 'days' => $days, 'limit' => 300 ) );

		return $post_view_posts;

	}

	/**
	 * Construct an array of posts limited to the specified count total.
	 *
	 * @since  1.0.0
	 *
	 * @param  array   $post_ids All of the returned IDs
	 * @param  integer $count    How many posts we want to return
	 *
	 * @return array            Array of top posts.
	 */
	private function get_popular_posts( $post_ids = array(), $count = 5 ) {
		$counter = 0; $posts = array();

		foreach ( (array) $post_ids as $post_id ) {

			$post = get_post( $post_id );

			if ( !$post || 'post' != $post->post_type ) {
				continue;
			}

			// hide private and password protected posts
			if ( 'publish' != $post->post_status || !empty( $post->post_password ) || empty( $post->ID ) ) {
				continue;
			}

			$title = $this->set_title( $post );

			$permalink = get_permalink( $post->ID );

			$posts[] = compact( 'title', 'permalink', 'post_id' );

			if ( $counter == $count )
				break; // only need to load and show x number of likes

			$counter++;
		}

		return $posts;
	}

	/**
	 * Set the title to use with end result. Grabs first part of post content if no title set.
	 *
	 * @since 1.0.0
	 *
	 * @param object  $post Post object.
	 *
	 * @return string       Title text to use
	 */
	private function set_title( $post ) {
		// Both get HTML stripped etc on display
		if ( empty( $post->post_title ) ) {
			$title_source = $post->post_content;
			$title = wp_html_excerpt( $title_source, 50 );
			$title .= '&hellip;';
		} else {
			$title = $post->post_title;
		}
		return $title;
	}

}

I don't understand how this isn't more popular, I was planning to do exactly this today.

Pure Genius!

A little code we added to line 151 in order to skip certain categories.

$terms = wp_list_pluck(wp_get_object_terms($post->ID,  'category'), 'slug');
if (array_intersect(['obituaries', 'lifestyle', 'police-reports'], $terms)) continue;

Hope this can help someone else.