Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 1 to 7, 2015) Information

← Last week's report – Next week's report→

Summary: Wikipedia presents itself as a repository for the world, and while that is a noble sentiment, it is still true that, Conservapedian complaints notwithstanding, the English language Wikipedia is very often the American Wikipedia, and never has that been more apparent than this week. The Super Bowl, a sporting event of negligible importance to most of the world, so uplifted the people of America that they flooded the Top 25 list with articles on the subject. Not only did the Super Bowl break records in its own right (it was the highest-rated TV program in American history) but it also broke several records for this project: an almighty 15 slots were taken up by Super Bowl-related topics, the most recorded for a single topic. And while the #1 article this week was nothing spectacular, Super Bowl euphoria so uplifted this list that it gained the highest entry point we've ever seen: 510,027 views- enough to push the old stalwart Deaths in [insert year here] off the list for the first time.

As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of February 1 to 7, 2015, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	Notes
1	Tom Brady		2,144,681		Prior to this week, the New England Patriots quarterback with the all-American name had led his team to the Super Bowl six times in the last thirteen years, and won thrice. This week adds a seventh Super Bowl and fourth win to his credit, after being named MVP for Super Bowl XLIX, for scoring four passing touchdowns.
2	Chris Kyle		1,585,185		If there's one thing America loves, it's a good, old fashioned culture war. Clint Eastwood's latest directorial effort American Sniper may not be wowing the critics ( Rotten Tomatoes places it 13th among the films he has directed), nor drawing the crowds overseas (its international box office take is currently less than a third its domestic take) but it has played spectacularly well in America's conservative heartland, leading politicians on the left and right to, well, snipe at each other about what the film and its popularity say about America, its people, and in particular its subject, the now deceased sniper Chris Kyle. While interest seems to be winding down (viewing figures for this article peaked at 5.3 million two weeks ago) the topic still has enough oxygen to keep it near the top of this list.
3	List of Super Bowl champions		1,480,853		This list invariably pops up once a year, as Americans first scramble for facts to determine which team will win, then rush back to see if their dream/nightmare came true.
4	Super Bowl XLIX		1,396,896		I loathe American football, but even I would have been captivated by this game; with the teams tied at half time, the Seahawks built up a ten-point lead in the 3rd quarter, but the Patriots pulled into the lead in the final two minutes. Almost inevitably, this was the highest rated Super Bowl in history, with viewership peaking at 120 million, nearly two fifths of the entire US population.
5	Juan Cuadrado		974,691		The Colombian winger was signed to Chelsea on February 2 for £26.8 million ($40.8 million), but the negotiations went down to the wire, leading to a spike of interest the day before.
6	Katy Perry		935,844		Super Bowl viewership rose substantially during the singer's performance at the halftime show.
7	New England Patriots		930,455		The winners of this year's Super Bowl are happily ensconced in the top 25. The losers aren't, which is sad. They're the Seattle Seahawks. Very nice team apparently. Popular in Canada. Its fans set the Guinness World Record for loudest crowd noise. Twice. They've won nine division titles and three conference championships. They won last year's Super Bowl. The Patriots didn't. Seriously, they're a great team.
8	Fifty Shades of Grey		713,992		The onetime Twilight fanfic that introduced 100 million bored housewives to the questionable joys of BDSM shot back into the list thanks to the imminent release of the film adaptation.
9	Bruce Jenner		897,891		The former track and field Olympian and current honorary Kardashian got into the news this week.
10	Super Bowl		842,313		This is clearly becoming a trend.
11	Rob Gronkowski		835,674		Yep. Super Bowl again. The tight end for the New England Patriots scored a touchdown late in the second quarter.
12	Groundhog Day		833,178		This idiosyncratic American not-really-holiday (I once tried to explain it to a Chinese exchange student in college and failed) fell, as it always does, on February 2. Thanks to the movie, most people in the world probably think it involves doing the same thing over and over again, but they're wrong; that's an average workday. For the still-perplexed, let me explain: every year, on the second day of February, people watch a groundhog, which is a large, potbellied marmot, emerge from his burrow. If he sees his shadow, he goes back in; if he doesn't, he comes out. Coming out heralds an early spring; staying in means six more weeks of winter. The custom is strongest in Pennsylvania, where it originated, and particularly Punxsutawney, home of the world's most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, who speaks his forecast in Groundhogese into the ear of the chairman of the Groundhog Club Inner Circle, who then translates for the audience. No I did not make that up.
13	Russell Wilson		816,375		Quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks. His team might not have been deemed worthy of mention, but at least he, who, despite only signing on in 2012, led them to their first ever Super Bowl victory last year, got a decent send-off.
14	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant		810,509		The battle-ravaged non-country called the "Islamic State" has proved remarkably persistent, even after the brutal Siege of Kobanî, which purged ISIS from the town at the cost of utterly destroying it. That said, their reappearance this week is doubtless due to their execution of Muath al-Kasasbeh, a Jordanian air force pilot, by burning him in a cage.
15	Marshawn Lynch		732,253		The notoriously odd Seattle Seahawks running back may have scored a 1-yard touchdown at the Super Bowl, but he's more likely on this list for his alleged self-grab after having done so.
16	Stephen Hawking		692,218		The former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, black hole theorist and latter-day science icon makes his 14th straight appearance in the Top 25 this week. Interest is only likely to increase in the run-up to the Oscars, thanks to Eddie Redmayne's likely Best Actor win for portraying him.
17	Julian Edelman		638,766		The wide receiver for the New England Patriots scored a 3-yard touchdown at the Super Bowl this week.
18	Facebook		627,349		A perennially popular article.
19	Missy Elliott		604,430		The hip-hop artist sang with Katy Perry at the Super Bowl halftime show this week. It seems to have helped her career; sales of her work jumped by 25 times following the event.
20	List of Super Bowl halftime shows		591,890		This Super Bowl halftime show actually increased on the average rating of what was already the highest-rated Super Bowl in history.
21	Monty Oum		574,515		The web animator died this week from an allergic reaction during a routine procedure at the age of just 33.
22	American Sniper (film)		518,656		See #2.
23	Jordan		517,316		Jordan is arguably one of the calmer countries in the Middle East, and as a result doesn't tend to get a lot of attention. But this week, thanks to the horrific murder-by-burning of Muath al-Kasasbeh, a Jordanian air force pilot, has drawn many unwanted eyes to the country.
24	Chris Matthews (American football)		511,611		Prior to the Super Bowl, the wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks had been virtually unknown. Now that he's had four catches and a touchdown, people are paying attention.
25	Gisele Bündchen		510,027		The world's highest paid model happens also to be the wife of Tom Brady, who, according to many, won the Super Bowl for the New England Patriots. (see #1)

• This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we also exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (2% or less) or almost all mobile views (95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish.

Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.

Specific exclusions this week:

• Six Sigma: random bits of computer jargon often appear on this list for no real reason, but (and I may be stereotyping here) I assume hackers are responsible.
• Romani people: a 2.64% mobile count and odd viewing pattern suggest this is artificial.