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Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (October 13 to 19, 2013) Information

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Summary: Celebration was the theme this week, as the lead up to Halloween, the most profitable holiday in the USA after Christmas, coincided with Columbus Day across the Americas, and the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Adha. Celebrations also broke out across Europe, as various European countries qualified for the 2014 Football World Cup.

For the week of October 13 - 19, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:

Rank Last Wks Article Class Views Image Notes
1 2 41 Facebook B-class 500,402
A perennially popular article
2 15 16 The Walking Dead (TV series) Good Article 476,950
The fourth season of the popular TV series premiered on October 13.
3 1 3 Gravity (film) C-class 461,752 Alfonso Cuaron's spacebourne action/art film is now the critical/commercial blockbuster of the year, combining a nearly $300 million, 17-day worldwide box office take with a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
4 3 11 Breaking Bad B-class 422,688
Despite ending for good two weeks ago, this 5-year televisual exploration of one man's descent into evil continues to drum up interest.
5 - - Friedrich Nietzsche B-class 399,786
The guy who coined the phrase "That which does not kill us makes us stronger" and then died of multiple strokes after being hospitalised for a nervous breakdown got a Google Doodle to celebrate his 169th birthday on October 15.
6 - - Oarfish B-class 373,815
The rarely seen giant deepwater fish, inspiration for many tales of the sea serpent, hit the news when two dead specimens were found in a week off the coast of California.
7 - - Atlas Shrugged C-class 372,680
Ayn Rand's... polarising novel has been in the news during the week of its 56th anniversary, and the announcement that the third part of the film adaptation has begun shooting. Many sites have noted the irony that the film of a book that makes a virtue of selfishness required a Kickstarter campaign to get funded.
8 - 2 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification Start-class 367,329
The global race to the finals of the world's most popular sporting event has actually been running since 2011, but kicked into high gear this month as the various world soccer federations reached the end of their qualifying runs, including Europe this week. 207 national teams entered the race; to put that in perspective, there are only 254 recognised countries and territories on Earth. The total number of people on the planet who have not cheered their home side in this tournament could probably fill a moderately-sized town.
9 5 22 List of Bollywood films of 2013 List 365,792
An established staple of the top 25.
10 - - Dead Rising 3 Start-class 364,911 These days video games and zombies go together like, well, everything else and zombies. The latest in this franchise is slated to be released on 22 November as a launch title for the XBox One.
11 4 4 Lorde Good Article 358,248 The not-quite 17-year-old singer-songwriter from New Zealand released her modestly titled debut album, Pure Heroine, on 27 September.
12 - - Eid al-Adha B-class 351,318
The arrival of the other major Muslim holiday, after Eid al-Fitr, on October 14-15 this year was marked by a sharp rise in interest. The "Feast of the Sacrifice" honours Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Muslims read that story a bit differently) by sacrificing animals and dividing the portions among family, friends and the poor. If that seems a bit old-fashioned to you, ask yourself how much sympathy you've ever felt for your Christmas turkey.
13 9 51 Deaths in 2013 List 345,947
The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article.
14 6 44 World War II Good Article 342,765
Another perennially popular article. (The 16th most popular article from 2010–12, in fact, see Table 2 here.)
15 22 2 Halloween B-Class 337,694
October is the month for the celebration of the scary.
16 - 2 Patrick Stewart B-Class 314,111
The onetime Captain Jean-Luc Picard has something of a following among the cyber-literate (literally; Twitter counts 669,190), so when he makes a splash, it tends to attract online views. This time, it was probably due to his posting adorable images of him having fun with his buddy Ian McKellen.
17 17 4 United States B-Class 304,601
A rarity in the top 25, but the 3rd most popular Wikipedia article between 2010–2012, and a perpetual bubble-under-er. Not really surprising that the country with by far the most English speakers would be the most popular on the English Wikipedia.
18 - - The Walking Dead (season 4) Start-class 298,040
See #2 above
19 24 4 Eminem Good Article 296,574
The rapper's latest single, Survival, was released on the 8th of October.
20 - - Columbus Day C-class 295,103
October 12, the day that Christopher Columbus "discovered" the Americas, is celebrated each year not only in the United States but across Latin America.
21 - - 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) Start-class 294,245
The victorious European nations celebrated their qualification for the World Cup finals next year.
22 - 8 Christopher Columbus B-class 290,508
The day of his celebration also led to interest in the man himself, and his controversial legacy.
23 - 7 Arrow (TV series) C-class 278,235 The second season of this superhero TV series began on 9 October
24 - - Boss (2013 Hindi film) Start-class 276,713 This Bollywood action film opened on the 16th of October and made Es 240 million ($3.9 million) in its first three days of release.
25 - - Banksy C-Class 274,156
The guerrilla graffiti artist got a commission to prowl around New York City, adding his unique brand of surreality to its streets, and sparking inevitable controversy.
Almosts:
Exclusions:
  • This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages, and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Please keep in mind that the explanations given for these articles' popularity are, fundamentally, guesses. Just because a plausible reason is found for a view spike, that doesn't mean it wasn't due to a bot.
  • There are a number of articles that reappear frequently in the top 25 for no determined reason, and have been excluded as likely being due to automated views. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish.
    • G: This, or alternately G-force, frequently appears in the top 25. It is probably due to people typing "G" for "Google" in Google Chrome's search bar and hastily clicking "enter".
    • Alive/ Alive!: Links to disambigs with no apparent reason for being.
    • Lycos: the geriatric web portal seems to be back en vogue, for no apparent reason.
    • Go (game): The ancient Chinese strategy game has been getting a lot of views over the last few weeks, though I have yet to determine why (to be honest, it may simply be due to the difficulty of Googling the word "go").
Specific exclusions this week (if you know a reason for their presence, please post it on the talk page):
  • Conan the Barbarian (1982 film): Somehow, this page managed to accrue over 1.1 million views between October 12 and 13, with no obvious rationale.
  • Solway Firth Spaceman: This odd photograph that either shows an astronaut peeping around a Scottish kid or the photographer's wife is an ideal candidate for a Reddit thread, but I couldn't find one related to it this week.
Notes:
  • Number of views needed to reach Top 25 this week: 248,428. Last week: 230,488
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