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Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (October 20 to 26, 2013) Information

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Summary: The top 10 encapsulates the history of human aviation; at #1, a Google Doodle celebrating the 216th anniversary of the first parachute jump; at #10, the enduringly popular scifi film Gravity, a paean to human spaceflight. It's odd to think it's taken us 200 years to travel about that many miles up.

For the week of October 20 - 26, 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 - - Parachute C-class 892,746
An interactive Google Doodle on the 216th anniversary of the first parachute jump led to interest both in the item itself and in its first user, André-Jacques Garnerin.
2 15 3 Halloween B-Class 613,331
'Tis the night before Hallows, and all through the house, not a creature is stirring... that you can see.
3 1 42 Facebook B-class 543,309
A perennially popular article
4 14 45 World War II Good Article 391,047
Another perennially popular article. (The 16th most popular article from 2010–12, in fact, see Table 2 here.)
5 13 52 Deaths in 2013 List 359,473
The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article.
6 4 12 Breaking Bad B-class 347,729
Despite ending for good two weeks ago, this 5-year televisual exploration of one man's descent into evil continues to drum up interest.
7 17 5 United States B-Class 346,748
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.
8 9 23 List of Bollywood films of 2013 List 341,165
An established staple of the top 25.
9 - - André-Jacques Garnerin Start-Class 331,768
The man who conducted the first ever parachute jump (in a basket!) in 1797 got some internet attention thanks to a Google Doodle (see #1 above).
10 3 4 Gravity (film) C-class 324,136 Alfonso Cuaron's spacebourne action/art film is now the critical/commercial blockbuster of the year, combining a nearly $370 million, 24-day worldwide box office take with a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
11 2 17 The Walking Dead (TV series) Good Article 321,657
The fourth season of the popular TV series premiered on October 13.
12 11 5 Lorde Good Article 312,281 The not-quite 17-year-old singer-songwriter from New Zealand released her modestly titled debut album, Pure Heroine, on 27 September.
13 23 8 Arrow (TV series) C-class 301,455 The second season of this superhero TV series began on 9 October
14 - - June and Jennifer Gibbons Start-class 295,508 The "silent twins" who retreated so far from reality that they communicated in their own private language, and were eventually committed to Broadmoor Hospital for the criminally insane, became a hot topic on Reddit.
15 - - List of How I Met Your Mother episodes List 294,870
The latest episode of this popular sitcom's final season of aired on 28 October.
16 - - Cheddar cheese C-Class 268,582
The cheese that hails from the caves of Cheddar Gorge, England, is not usually dyed orange in its homeland; however, it is in America, and its natural whiteness proved quite a shock to American Reddit users.
17 - 41 Google Good Article 267,546
A perennially popular article.
18 - - Celia Cruz B-class 263,465
The salsa singer got a Google Doodle for her 88th birthday
19 - - UFC 166 Start-class 259,201 The UFC Heavyweight Championship bout between current champion Cain Velasquez Junior dos Santos took place at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas on 19 October.
20 6 2 Oarfish B-class 252,097
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.
21 - - Jamie Dornan Start-class 245,305
The Irish actor/model became a talking point when he won (?) the male lead in the film of Fifty Shades of Grey
22 - 4 Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. C-class 244,421 Joss Whedon's extension of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into television has been met with mixed reviews slowly decreasing ratings.
23 - 8 IPv6 C-class 239,588
This issue has reappeared in the top 25, after hovering below it for some time. It is something of a crisis, though not one that is necessarily apparent. It may come as a surprise to some, but the Internet is, for lack of a better word, full. Every computer online is assigned a specific address, made up of a sequence of numbers, that allows other computers to contact it over the Internet. The original number sequence, known as IPv4, is currently the norm for ~99% of online computers. It allows for a maximum of about 4.3 billion addresses; a number that maxed out in January 2011. The long-term plan is to migrate over to IPv6, which allows for 3x1038 addresses; however, since this would require a massive software and even hardware upgrade, many companies are reluctant to undertake it. Until now we've been stalling for time by harvesting abandoned addresses and re-allocating them, a decidedly short-term measure.
24 - 2 India Featured article 239,486
The second-largest English-speaking population on Earth also made it into the top 25 this week.
25 24 2 Boss (2013 Hindi film) Start-class 229,521 This Bollywood action film opened on the 16th of October and made Rs 240 million ($3.9 million) in its first three days of release.
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):
  • Lena Horne: I'd like to believe the great voice that gave the world Stormy Weather got 1.15 million views on October 22-23 due to some unheralded celebration of her life, but I cannot find one.
  • XXX (film): This movie has been bubbling under for some time. However, there's no obvious reason why.
Notes:
  • Number of views needed to reach Top 25 this week: 229,521. Last week: 230,488
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