Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/November 4 to 10, 2018

The Top 25 Report

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Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (November 4 to 10, 2018) edit

Prepared with commentary by JFG

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When rising stars bring down the house edit

This week on Wikipedia, the King of Queen (#1) meets the King of Scots (#11), opera rock (#7) meets political theater (#5), and Google heroes (#12, #15) meet Indian greatness (#23), while rising stars (#2, #9, #10, #17) keep on fighting till the end. In a nod to the simulation hypothesis winking at us, a movie focusing on election fraud in India (#21) was released in the midst of U.S. elections (#24, #25), where accusations of fraud have become routine.

For the week of November 4 to 10, 2018, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Views	About
1	Freddie Mercury	3,495,059	Thanks to the epic biopic released last week (#7), a younger generation discovers the flamboyant mores and music of Farrokh Bulsara, a native of colonial Zanzibar who so loved England that he decided that Mercury would not only be a stage name but his legal one. According to a quote attributed to him in the movie, there was only space for one drama queen in the band. And drama he loved, he stirred, he moved us all to tears. The show must go on!
2	Beto O'Rourke	1,282,137	In a week when American media were, for once, justified in being dominated by politics, Saint Beto was seen by one side as the redeeming knight in white armor who alone could defeat the Texas Rat today, and of course the Orange Monkey two years down the road. But inertia was stronger, and the former debate fiends endured the re-election challenge thanks to newfound love.
3	Diwali	1,158,916	Annual splendors returned with the Hindu festival of lights, spreading blessings and good will over humanity. When Lakshmi calls, you need to answer.
4	Queen (band)	1,129,559	Welcome back to the 70s, when rock-and-roll blends with opera to make your head spin. Galileo would be proud.
5	United States elections, 2018	1,070,138	The usually apathetic American voters turned up en masse to support their preferred candidates across the country. Turnout was yuge, but results were surprisingly predictable: a swing of the House and stability in the Senate. All eyes are already on the 2020 presidential campaign, with literally dozens of potential candidates ready to fight for the right to challenge the incumbent (#14).
6	Thugs of Hindostan	920,854	This epic adventure drama film, set in the late 18th century, sports the highest budget for an Indian film ever, about ₹300 crore (US$38 million), including hefty premiums for superstar Amitabh Bachchan (up one spot on Twitter). Critical reception was tame, but crowds still rushed to be entertained and made the movie a box office success. Such is the magic of cinema…
7	Bohemian Rhapsody (film)	899,168	The young audience was mystified by the crazy analog tape recording equipment. Older fans marveled at the exact scenography of the Live Aid 1985 concert, down to the placement of a green sticker on Freddie's microphone. All in all, a chart topper.
8	United States House of Representatives	786,249	The House flipped. It does that sometimes. For more information, see #2, #5, #10, #14, #16, #18, #24 and #25.
9	Rami Malek	753,131	Rami's stupendous portrayal of Freddie Mercury (#1) earns him worldwide fame, and certainly a spot on the short list for the next Oscars. A reminder to watch or re-watch the Mr. Robot series, for which Malek won a Critics' Choice Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
10	Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez	738,237	The rising star of the Democratic party was comfortably elected in New York's 14th congressional district. In a strategy reminiscent of Trump's unbelievable campaign messages, she advocates free healthcare and free education for all, noting that many countries seem to manage this feat. Perhaps hospitals and universities are less greedy there?
11	Robert the Bruce	721,534	History fascinates crowds, as the man who became King of Scots in 1306 is portrayed by Chris Pine in Outlaw King, released via Netflix on November 9. Robert famously defeated England in the First War of Scottish Independence, and earned his spot in the pantheon of revered warriors and noblemen.
12	Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu	694,723	Google honored this Romanian engineer on her 131th birthday. She graduated in Berlin, worked in geology, managed an hospital, and advocated for disarmament.
13	Deaths in 2018	681,740	Our perennial memorial to the recently departed saw a bit of a lackluster performance this week, dipping under the usual 700,000 views. Maybe no big name died?
14	Donald Trump	634,120	Gone are the days when the most controversial U.S. President of our lifetimes^{[citation needed]} regularly graced the top ranks of this weekly report. Nevertheless, major political events such as the midterm elections (#5, #24–25) have put him back in the spotlight. Trump campaigned so much that a foreign observer may mistakenly assume that U.S. presidential terms were reduced to two years and that he had to pass a new job interview with We the People. Rest assured, his job is safe, unless… Mueller time!!!
15	Michael Dertouzos	625,578	Relatively unknown to the general public, Mr. Dertouzos was a technology visionary and author of prophetic books such as What Will Be^{[article needed]} and The Unfinished Revolution. In the 1990s he invited Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee to set up the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT, thus ensuring a solid foundation for the technology we all depend on today. He came to attention this week thanks to a Google Doodle celebrating what would have been his 82nd birthday.
16	Nancy Pelosi	622,181	Nancy was all smiles after her party flipped the U.S. House of Representatives (#8) in the midterm elections (#5+#25). This veteran lawmaker is poised to take leadership of half the legislative branch, unless internal divisions in the party push a new candidate into the limelight. But fear not, Lady Pelosi, your beloved President (#14) congratulated you and said he would make sure you get the votes. Can you hear bipartisanship yet?
17	Ariana Grande	563,315	A rising star that keeps rising, Ariana graced the world with her new opus, "Thank U, Next", a daring mashup of synth-pop and R&B, celebrating how to get over your ex, and becoming an instant meme. The song was so popular that it shot straight to #1 on the the Billboard charts. Last time this happened for a female singer was when Adele released "Hello" in 2015, another song reflecting on how to handle dead relationships. My favourite factoid: on Twitter, Ariana has more followers than The Donald!
18	United States Congress	546,590	The Founding Fathers of the United States devised a balanced system of government. If only elected politicians worked as diligently on improving the state of the country as on fighting each other into gridlock… Interestingly, rumor has it that with a split Congress, more progress may actually happen on actual legislation. That worked rather well under Presidents Reagan and Clinton, so here's hoping the Trump presidency becomes a little more "normal" after this round of electoral rebalancing. (#24–25)
19	The Haunting of Hill House (TV series)	535,616	When an old novel meets Netflix, the fun of horror converges with the horror of fun.
20	Red Dead Redemption 2	520,444	This sequel was so eagerly expected by fans of the original game that it sold 17 million copies in the first two weeks since its release on October 26, making it the second highest-grossing launch after Grand Theft Auto V, and proving once again that gaming can beat cinema. The hero is Arthur Morgan, member of a gang, going about his life in an open world environment. While hunting and fishing for food, his equipment needs maintenance, and he can visit a barber when his hair has grown too long. Sounds like fun.
21	Sarkar (2018 film)	519,306	Superstar Vijay gets top billing on this Tamil action drama film focusing on election fraud. His co-star Keerthy Suresh is the daughter of a film producer and another actress, Menaka. After a slow start, the movie proved quite popular.
22	Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV series)	515,348	When old comics meet Netflix, the fun of horror converges with the horror of fun.
23	Statue of Unity	510,281	India is a proud nation. Whether it's religious tradition (#3), popular entertainment (#6, #21), or Wikipedia editing (WikiProject India has identified more than 200,000 relevant articles), we can count on Indians to do things big. Located in the Northwestern Gujarat province, this statue, celebrating the nation's unity and independence under Sardar Patel, is a testament to the relentless fighting spirit of the Indian peoples. Always with a smile, I might add.
24	United States Senate elections, 2018	492,590	The "greatest nation on Earth"[1] can't even count votes in time (especially in Florida's Broward County). And in Texas, one Representative was elected while sitting in jail. But please keep on giving lessons in democracy to the rest of the world!
25	United States midterm election	489,538

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.