The Top 25 Report
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (January 12 to 18, 2014)
← Last week's report – Next week's report →
Summary: Despite their prominent role in the Oscars race, the Golden Globes don't seem to attract as much attention from Wikipedia users. Even though they broadcast at the very start of the week, their 11 slots and ~3.6 million views pale in comparison to the 13 slots and ~12 million views garnered by the Oscars last year, and were even behind the ~6 million views generated by the last year's Globes, though they were mainly focused on Jodie Foster's coming out. It will be interesting to see if interest in next month's Oscars is similarly subdued. What is most surprising about this week's list is who isn't on it; despite both winning Best Actress (for Comedy and Drama, respectively), both Amy Adams and Cate Blanchett failed to chart, with Adams just below the threshold, and Blanchett only in the top 360. Similarly, acting winners Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto also missed the mark, while Best Director winner Alfonso Cuaron failed to crack the top 1500. Conversely, Woody Allen appeared in the Top 25, despite only receiving a lifetime achievement award, mainly because his win brought up some old controversies about his conduct with his children, while Margot Robbie gained attention largely by talking about her nude scenes.
For the week of January 12-18, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages* were:
Rank Last Wks Article Class Views Image Notes 1 - - Dian Fossey 
2,807,879 The controversial gorilla conservationist whose life was dramatised in Gorillas in the Mist got a Google Doodle on what would have been her 83rd birthday if she hadn't been murdered in mysterious circumstances in 1986. 2 1 3 Jordan Belfort 
799,325 Onetime stockbroker who spent 22 months in prison for running a penny stock boiler room, he went on to write the books that the film The Wolf of Wall Street is based on. Yes, he did actually call himself "The Wolf of Wall Street". 3 4 3 Sherlock (TV series) 
741,350 
The contemporary-set revamp of the Sherlock Holmes mythos has become a surprise global hit (and turned its star, Benedict Cumberbatch into an international sex symbol) and is now watched in 200 countries and territories (out of 254), so it's not surprising that its much ballyhooed return from a two-year hiatus was met with feverish anticipation. 4 7 54 Facebook
735,322 
A perennially popular article 5 8 4 The Wolf of Wall Street (2013 film)
669,530 Despite not winning a Golden Globe, Martin Scorsese's acclaimed account of one person's contribution to our general economic misery remains popular with the public; it opened to a respectable $34 million on Christmas Day, and has now made almost $125 million worldwide. 6 - 3 American Hustle (2013 film)
495,752 David O. Russell's Golden Globe-winning, star-studded caper is getting strong reviews and decent box office, having grossed $108 million domestic in its first 38 days. 7 - - Leonardo DiCaprio
465,193 
The superstar got a Golden Globe for his performance as Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street (see above). 8 13 63 Deaths in 2014 List 442,753 
The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article. 9 - - Sunanda Pushkar 
414,873 The curious case of this minister's wife, who was found dead by her husband after having received texts suggesting he had been having an affair with a journalist, has excited the Indian press after the coroner ruled her death unnatural. 10 15 17 United States
410,618 
The 8th most popular article of 2013 and the 3rd most popular Wikipedia article between 2010 and 2012. Even when not on the list, this article is 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. 11 16 6 Frozen (2013 film)
399,926 Disney's de facto sequel to Tangled has become something of a sensation. It reclaimed the top spot in the US charts on its sixth weekend (a feat only matched by Avatar and Titanic) and has already outgrossed its predecessor both domestically and worldwide, with a total of nearly $720 million. It has won a Golden Globe for Animated Feature and seems a shoo-in for the Oscar. 12 - - Cristiano Ronaldo
374,479 
The Real Madrid forward earned his second World Footballer of the Year award this week, and then capped it by scoring in a 5-0 win against Real Betis. 13 18 2 List of Sherlock episodes List 368,697 Fans of Sherlock are eager to keep up with the show. 14 - 8 Jennifer Lawrence
361,843 
Wikipedia's favourite actress needs little excuse to reenter the top 25, though a second consecutive Golden Globe win, this time for American Hustle, is a pretty good one. 15 - - Woody Allen
360,993 
The pioneer of narciscinema received a Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes this week, which reignited smouldering debates about his behaviour toward his adopted children, particularly after his now-adult former adopted daughter Dylan reaffirmed claims she had made at age 7 that he had sexually abused her. 16 22 2 Lone Survivor (film)
352,676 Peter Berg's account of a botched military operation in Afghanistan has grossed nearly $60 million in its first 24 days. 17 - - 71st Golden Globe Awards List 337,571 
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association's annual gala is widely seen as an Oscars warm-up, where actors and directors gain the momentum and exposure they need in the final furlong. 18 19 2 Her (film) 
337,215 Spike Jonze's latest curio, in which a man falls in love with his computer operating system (it has the voice of Scarlet Johansson, if that explains things) is not connecting with audiences; its Cinemascore is a B-, ridiculously low for the usually generous poll, and it is doing badly at the box office. Regardless, it won Jonze a screenplay award at the Golden Globes. 19 - - Gilligan's Island
336,314 
The cheesy-but-lovable early 60s fantasy sitcom got some fond remembrance when one of its few remaining cast members, Russell Johnson, a.k.a "The Professor", died this week. 20 - - 12 Years a Slave (film)
335,267 Steve McQueen's (no, the other one) dramatisation of Solomon Northup's firsthand account of his 12-year experience of the centuries-long nightmare that was slavery won the Best Drama award at the Golden Globes this week. 21 25 11 India 
224,894 
The second-largest English-speaking population on Earth is a regular visitor to the top 25. 22 20 23 IPv6
320,267 
This was one of the most-viewed articles of 2013, and there remains a certain suspicion that, like many articles on technical subjects, it may be over-inflated. However, it is important enough to be given the benefit of the doubt. 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. 23 23 17 Breaking Bad
317,040 
People just can't let this show go. The most Wikipedia'd show of the year ended for good three months ago; even so, with its appearance on countless "best of the year" lists, and an unexpected endorsement from US President Barack Obama, it's still drumming interest from the public. 24 - - Margot Robbie
308,364 
The Australian actress got into the news this week for a backless pantsuit she wore to the Golden Globes, as well as chatting to the press about her nude scenes in The Wolf of Wall Street. 25 - - Ariel Sharon
307,998 
Whether you consider him a national saviour or a mass-murderer (and even some Israelis are divided on the subject) there's no doubt that this former Israeli Prime Minister's life had impact. His death after eight years in a coma brought his controversial career to the fore across the globe.
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- Number of views needed to reach Top 25 this week: 307,998. Last week: 224,894.
- The revision of WP:5000 containing the data used to create this list.
- Almosts: Martin Luther King, Jr. (300,488 views); True Detective (TV series) (298,396 views) Amy Adams (297,974 views)
Exclusions edit
- 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 I can't find a reason for an article to be included doesn't mean there isn't one; conversely, 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.
- Lycos: the geriatric web portal seems to be back en vogue, for no apparent reason.
- Java: My only guess is a bot searching for the programming language.
- Several articles related to global warming (including global warming) have been removed from this list; their continued high view counts are raising suspicions of artificial inflation. I'll believe that Climategate was #1 during a typhoon, but that it got more hits than Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving? No.
- Meat/Vegetarian cuisine: another mysterious reappearance, most likely due to bots.
- Pornography: It could be Wikipedia users returning to their old ways, but I'd rather nip this in the bud before it becomes the next Climatic Research Unit email controversy.
- Specific exclusions this week:
- Space Ghost Coast to Coast: The surreal talk-show based on an obscure 60s TV cartoon became a big topic on Reddit this week, though its massive surge in views appears to have occurred the day after the thread finished. Given the tendency of Reddit threads to lead to Internet pranking, it's highly likely that, natural or not, this article's appearance in the Top 25 was due to that thread.