Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (May 13 to 19, 2018)
editPrepared with commentary by OZOO
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- WARNING - Spoilers for Season 7 of The Crown below
The big news is the wedding of Meghan Markle to Prince Harry, with a total of ten of the twenty-five articles on the list being relating to the wedding. As well as the couple, there's placing on the list for Meghan's mother, and Harry's grandparents, parents, brother and sister-in-law. The power of the royal family, when it comes to attracting readers to Wikipedia, is clear. Elsewhere on the list, we've still got Avengers: Infinity War narrowly edging out Deadpool 2 to be the top superhero movie; the return of 13 Reasons Why, which I expect to be here for a few more weeks judging by last year's rankings; and the unexpected return of that dress.
For the week of May 13 to 19, 2018, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Meghan Markle / Meghan, Duchess of Sussex 9,262,265
(combined)Star of US drama series Suits, Meghan Markle married Prince Harry (#2), on Saturday May 19. As with anything involving the House of Windsor, this attracted great interest from people across the world. Following her marriage to the sixth in line to the British throne, Meghan has retired from acting. Which I'm sure deeply upsets film directors dreaming of having an end credit sequence including MEGHAN, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX 2 Prince Harry / Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex 3,681,477
(combined)Here is the other half of that famous wedding. Harry was given the title of Duke of Sussex by his grandmother on the morning of the wedding, which slightly overshadowed the fridge-freezer one of the other guests had bought him. 3 Avengers: Infinity War 1,978,013 Still big interest in Avengers: Infinity War, the nineteenth (nineteenth) Marvel Cinematic Universe film. Currently the fourth highest-grossing film of all time in the world, for the few people yet to see it I will try and give a brief summary: Everyone from all the previous films teams up to try and defeat a villain portrayed by Josh Brolin (pictured). Do they succeed? If you don't know, I recommend not checking the article, as they do say it pretty clearly. 4 Deadpool 2 1,833,981 At least, a follow-up to one of the most enjoyable movies of the last few years, Hunt for the Wilderpeople! Hoping to knock Avengers: Infinity War off the top spot, this sees Deadpool (played by Ryan Reynolds) try to protect Firefist (played by Wilderpeople's Julian Dennison) from a villain portrayed by Josh Brolin (pictured). Does he succeed? If you don't know, I recommend not checking the article, as they do say it pretty clearly. 5 Elizabeth II 1,663,497 HM The Queen is the grandmother of Prince Harry (#2). You probably knew that already. 6 Diana, Princess of Wales 1,443,049 Memories of the late Diana, Princess of Wales with the marriage of her son Prince Harry (#2). Diana was killed in a car accident in 1997 when the prince was 12 years old. 7 Charles, Prince of Wales 1,346,048 The father of Prince Harry (#2), HRH The Prince of Wales walked Meghan Markle (#1) up the aisle in the absence of her father. 8 Prince William, Duke of Cambridge 1,204,512 Older brother of Prince Harry (#2), HRH The Duke of Cambridge was best man at the wedding. 9 Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge 1,110,704 The sister-in-law of Prince Harry (#2). The royal wedding probably reminded a few Wikipedia readers of the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. 10 Doria Ragland 1,002,206 Doria Ragland, the mother of Meghan Markle (#1), was the only member of the new Duchess of Sussex's family to attend the royal wedding. 11 Donald Glover 996,818 "This Is America", the latest song from Glover's rapper alter ego Childish Gambino, has debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and become a cultural phenomenon for its extremely well-received, gun violence themed video. Expect Glover to remain in this list going forward, with his major role in Solo: A Star Wars Story coming out in upcoming weeks. 12 Margot Kidder 896,633 Margot Kidder, the actress who was best known for appearing as Lois Lane in the Christopher Reeve-starring Superman film series, passed away on May 13 at the age of 69. In her long career, Kidder won a Saturn Award for Best Actress, for the first Superman, and a Canadian Screen Award for Best Actress, for A Quiet Day in Belfast. 13 List of highest-grossing films 879,779 Avengers: Infinity War (#3) is up to fourth in the all-time rankings, but is still almost a billion dollars behind the number 1, James Cameron's (pictured) 2009 CGI-a-thon Avatar. Not that anyone actually remembers Avatar these days. 14 The dress 765,974 The dress was a short lived "thing" from early 2015, back in the days when you could go on Twitter without screaming. As you may recall, the dispute was whether the dress was black and blue or white and gold, and has been studied for insights into human colour vision. The dress resurfaced after an audio clip emerged of a voice either saying Yanny or Laurel, prompting a similar dispute. 15 Eurovision Song Contest 2018 754,587 The 63rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was held at the Altice Arena, Lisbon, on 12 May. The competition was won by Netta with her song "Toy", the fourth time Israel has won the competition. Other incidents included Moldova offering a typically high-energy and colourful performance; censorship of a homosexual relationship in the performance of the Irish song resulting in the Chinese broadcaster Mango TV losing the privilege of broadcasting the final; and the United Kingdom's performance being interrupted by a stage performance, the first time the UK's entry has been sabotaged by someone other than the performers. My thoughts: Finland underrated. 16 Deaths in 2018 753,776 Lower than usual, thanks to wedding-a-geddon. 17 List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films 733,257 Nineteen down, countless others to go. The next one, Ant-Man and the Wasp will be directed by Peyton Reed (pictured), and is out July 6. Although I imagine most people will be looking out for the May 3 2019 release of the next, untitled, Avengers film. 18 Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh 702,324 The grandfather of Prince Harry (#2), the 96-year-old Duke of Edinburgh, made his first public appearance since a hip replacement surgery last month at the wedding. 19 13 Reasons Why 674,951 The second season of Netflix's mystery teen drama series 13 Reasons Why launched on May 18. Originally based on the book by Jay Asher, the series stars Dylan Minnette (pictured). The second season has received mixed reviews, with critics questioning the decision to deviate from the source material, and Rotten Tomatoes giving a rating of 37%. 20 Murder of Brian Wells 670,701 The 2003 death of Brian Wells, when an explosive device locked on his neck detonated while he was in police custody following a botched bank robbery, is the subject of newly launched Netflix series Evil Genius: The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist. 21 Tamara de Lempicka 627,180 Tamara de Lempicka, the Polish painter, was the subject of a Google Doodle on 16 May, the 120th anniversary of her birth. She is best known for her Art Deco portraits of aristocrats and the wealth, rather appropriate for this week. 22 Savitri (actress) 622,252 The late Indian actress Savitri is the subject of the newly released biopic Mahanati, starring Keerthy Suresh (pictured). The biopic has received positive reviews. 23 Ramadan 608,970 The Muslim month of fasting runs this year from 17 May to 15 June. Observation of the fast is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. 24 Freddie Mercury 583,250 A continuation of the royal theme, the lead singer of rock band Queen is the subject of forthcoming film Bohemian Rhapsody, where he is played by Rami Malek. A trailer for the film was released on May 15. 25 Succession to the British throne 575,558 We close, unsurprisingly, with more royalty. Our article on the queue to take over as head of state of the United Kingdom lists 57 on the line of succession; with an extended list linked in the article going down to over 5000. I'll save you the effort of checking: you're not on it.
Exclusions
edit- 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 exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% 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.