Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (November 5 to 11, 2017) edit
Prepared with commentary by OZOO
← Last week's report – Next week's report →
All Stranger Things, All The Time edit
It's curious how the current trend for "binge watching" works, isn't it? For a conventionally broadcast series, you would expect it to stay at the top of popularity charts as viewers watched it every week, while for a series which all launches at once like how Netflix does it, you'd expect an initial burst as everyone watched at once, before a quick fall away. And yet, Stranger Things returns to number one after missing a week, with four of the show's stars – Brown, Ryder, Matarazzo and Dyer – also making it into the list. (#6, #14, #19, #22)
The only article other than ST to break a million views was baseball player Roy Halladay, who sadly died this week. Thor: Ragnarok is third. Allegations against actors Kevin Spacey and Louis C.K. (#4 and #12) make the list, as do allegations made on behalf of late actor Corey Haim (#10). The resignation of British minister Priti Patel (#13), the Paradise Papers (#9) and the Sutherland Springs church shooting (#16 & #21) are some of the big news stories making the news this week; while there's also the usual entries provided by Reddit, Google Doodle, and UFC.
For the week of November 5 to 11, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Stranger Things 
1,619,424 
A second non-consecutive week at number one for Netflix's sci-fi-horror extravaganza, becoming the second media event to stay on top two weeks after the initial release in 2017. The previous was It, also a horror set in the 1980s. There's your key to success, Hollywood. Anyone wants to buy my script for a horror movie set at the 1985 World Snooker Championship final, my talk page is unprotected. 2 Roy Halladay 
1,359,778 
Roy Halladay, American baseball player from 1998 to 2013 who played for the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies in his career, died on November 7 after his ICON A5 aircraft crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. In his highly-successful career, Halladay was called up for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game eight times and twice won the prestigious Cy Young Award for best pitcher. 3 Thor: Ragnarok
1,350,754 
The seventeenth Marvel Cinematic Universe film is still number one at the US box office. Directed by Taika Waititi, the film brings back many of the much-loved characters from past MCU films, and also Doctor Strange. The film has thus far made $215m in the US, making it the highest grossing Thor film thus far. Does this bode well for our chances of Thor 4? That's difficult to say. 4 Kevin Spacey
882,622 
A series of allegations of sexual impropriety made against the actor Kevin Spacey are continuing to hit the headlines. Big news this week was the announcement that Spacey had been sacked from upcoming movie All the Money in the World, with Christopher Plummer being drafted in to refilm all his scenes. The film is still scheduled for release on December 22. 5 UFC 217 
767,172 
November 4 saw the 217th Ultimate Fighting Championship major event, the second to be held at Madison Square Garden in New York. Three title fights were held as part of the eleven-fight card, with all three champions surrendering their titles, with Rose Namajunas taking the UFC Women's Strawweight Championship and T.J. Dillashaw (pictured) recapturing the UFC Bantamweight Championship, before in the headline fight Georges St. Pierre (#15) defeated Michael Bisping to become the UFC Middleweight Championship holder, incidentally becoming the fourth fighter to win titles in two different UFC weight classes. 6 Millie Bobby Brown 
756,870 
The first of four Stranger Things stars, young English actress Brown stars as psychokinetic young girl Eleven. Brown's performance in the role in last year's season saw her nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. 7 Christopher Paul Neil
745,098 Reddit TIL, discussing the convicted Canadian child molester Neil, who appeared in over 200 photographs depicting child abuse. His face was obscured by a swirl effect, which was reversed by computer experts at the German Federal Criminal Police Office. Neil was arrested in Thailand in 2007. 8 Deaths in 2017 
722,052 
The list of those we have lost continues to be in the top 10. 9 Paradise Papers
638,995 
Anything popular these days gets a sequel, so here is the follow-up to last year's Panama Papers. A number of big names have been implicated to have kept their money offshore to avoid tax, including Queen Elizabeth II (pictured). Although since she is the Queen of the Bahamas, is it really offshore to have money there? Other big names implicated in the leak include Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia; Yukio Hatoyama, former Prime Minister of Japan; and Paul Hewson, current Bono of U2. 10 Corey Haim
623,374 
Deceased actor Corey Haim was allegedly sexually assaulted by co-star Charlie Sheen during the filming of 1986's Lucas. Actor Dominick Brascia made these allegations, which Sheen denies. Haim's mother has claimed that Sheen had not assaulted her son, and rather, Brascia had abused Corey. 11 Ric Flair
618,403 
The professional wrestler, regarded by WWE as the record-breaking history-making sixteen-time champion of the world, was the subject of the latest in ESPN's 30 for 30 series of sports documentaries. "Nature Boy" was broadcast on November 7. 12 Louis C.K.
612,505 
On November 9, a New York Times article reported that five women had accused comedian Louis C.K. of asking them to watch or listen to him masturbate, resulting in the cancellation of the US premiere of C.K.'s upcoming film I Love You, Daddy, about a 17-year-old girl who falls for a 68-year-old filmmaker. C.K. has acknowledged that the allegations are true. 13 Priti Patel
539,754 
Priti Patel MP (Con, Witham) was, until recently, the UK's Secretary of State for International Development. An overwhelming series of stories of her having unauthorised meetings with the Israeli government while on a private holiday (in breach of the ministerial code) saw her called back from an official trip to Kenya to "resign". As news of her flight back leaked, over 22,000 people used Flightradar24 to track her flight from Nairobi to London. I'm partially torn between using this space to wonder what they were expecting to happen, and using it to admit I was one of those 22,000. 14 Winona Ryder 
503,249 
Another actress here in the wake of Stranger Things's success, Ryder – previously best known for such films as Beetlejuice, Mermaids and Little Women (the latter of which she was Oscar nominated for) plays the character of Joyce Byers in the Netflix series. 15 Georges St-Pierre
497,694 
At UFC 217 (#5), St-Pierre defeated Michael Bisping to become the UFC Middleweight Championship holder, the fourth fighter to win titles in two different UFC weight classes. 16 Sutherland Springs, Texas
494,576 
Twenty-six people were killed in a shooting on November 5 at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, the deadliest mass shooting in the history of Texas and fifth deadliest in the United States. 17 Hirotugu Akaike
463,382 
The 90th anniversary of the birth of Japanese statistician – formulator of the widely used Akaike information criterion – Hirotugu Akaike was the subject of a Google Doodle on 5 November in a number of countries, probably most importantly for this page, India. 18 Guy Fawkes 
444,478 
412 years since Guy Fawkes was discovered attempting to assassinate King James I of England and VI of Scotland by blowing up the House of Lords as part of the Gunpowder Plot. The event was commemorated in the UK on November 5 – Guy Fawkes Night – with the traditional bonfires and fireworks. Personally, I hope I never fail so badly people still burn effigies 400 years later to remember it. 19 Gaten Matarazzo
444,149 
Another young star of Stranger Things, Matarazzo plays the character of Dustin Henderson in the show. 20 Jason Momoa
443,117 
Game of Thrones and Stargate: Atlantis star Momoa plays Aquaman in the upcoming film Justice League (#24), and during interviews in relation to that film, he confirmed his October marriage to long time partner, actress Lisa Bonet. 21 Sutherland Springs church shooting
431,268 
A 26-year-old man killed 26 people and injured 20 others at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas on November 5. He was shot by a civilian as he was exiting the church and subsequently crashed his car and was found dead. The perpetrator was prohibited from possessing firearms due to a domestic violence conviction, but the systems that were supposed to prevent him from purchasing a firearm failed. 22 Natalia Dyer
427,078 
Another star of Stranger Things, Dyer, who plays the character of Nancy Wheeler in the series, was also in Hannah Montana: The Movie, although I don't think that particularly influenced her placing this week. 23 Survivor Series (2017) Future 420,011 
Growing excitement for the thirty-first WWE Survivor Series event, to be held on November 19 at Toyota Center (pictured), Houston, Texas. Expect to see this entry again. 24 Justice League (film)
416,905 
The fifth DC Extended Universe film is due out November 17 in the United States. Directed by Zack Snyder (pictured), the film brings back many of the much-loved characters from past DCEU films, and also characters which aren't Wonder Woman. 25 Mohammad bin Salman
416,378 
Mohammad bin Salman, Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, is head of the Saudi Anti-Corruption Committee, and has been heavily involved in the recent arrests of a number of prominent Saudi Arabian princes, government ministers, and business people for alleged corruption and extremism, although some have suggested the purge is actually a way for Salman to enrich himself.
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.
- Per agreed consensus, XXX (franchise) is excluded.
- Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.