Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/September 29 to October 5, 2019

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (September 29 to October 5, 2019) edit

Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga

Last week's report - Next Week's Report

What a Joker, I play my jokes upon you edit

Comic book movies, they happen so much every year and still bring in views and related entries to our Top 25 Report. The latest one is Joker, which not only topped the list but makes sure that the character (#25), his portrayer (#3), and even the actor's late brother (#20) are equally present. There's even an upcoming movie starring the Joker's girlfriend (#23). Still in movies, there's American (#10, #15, #17) and Indian productions (#2, #11, #22), while the rest of our entries are scattershot: famous people dying (#4, #8) or getting married (#19), sports (#13, #14, #21), holidays (#5), politics (#24), activism (#8), music (#6), streaming shows (#16), Google (#7) and Reddit (#11).

Take a look at my Report, it's the only one I've got. For the week of September 29 to October 5, 2019, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank Article Class Views Image About
1 Joker (2019 film)   3,078,817
 
DC Comics combined the Marvel adaptations Logan (unorthodox approach adapting superhero comics) and Venom (centering around the villain - although in this one the hero still has a brief appearance) and thankfully hit closer to the former, as Joker is a very well made drama reminiscent of Taxi Driver where a troubled guy loses his mind in what is basically 1970s New York - though still with some laughs, given the protagonist is a clown and director Todd Phillips made a name for himself with works such as The Hangover. Joker had good reviews and opened to a whopping $93 million in the box office.
2 War (2019 film)   1,091,540
 
What is it good for? Well, at least ₹172.02 crore, as this Bollywood action hit starring Hrithik Roshan (pictured) and Tiger Shroff already made this much in the box office.
3 Joaquin Phoenix   1,048,608
 
Already nominated for Academy Awards in Gladiator, Walk the Line and The Master, Joaquin Phoenix is currently pegged as an Oscar favorite for our #1, where he's unhealthily thin and amusingly weird and deranged as a clown who descends into a life of crime.
4 Deaths in 2019   742,990
 
Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath
Nothing more to do
Living just for dying
Dying just for you, yeah!
5 Mahatma Gandhi   742,664
 
Either he or some monk named Siddarta is the most famous Indian ever, and the holiday celebrated on Gandhi's birthday always brings views for his article.
6 Billie Eilish   690,661
 
The season opener of Saturday Night Live's 45th season had as the musical guest this singer-songwriter who will only come of age in December, and yet is already guaranteed to be one of the most viewed Wikipedia articles of the year - maybe in the top 10! Along with national exposure, the high views for the performance are probably also fueled by Eilish deciding to go Dancing on the Ceiling.
7 Herbert Kleber   673,197
 
Google celebrating the 23rd anniversary of this psychiatrist's election to the National Academy of Medicine - coincidentally, four days before his death completed one year - in recognition to his work regarding drug addiction.
8 Greta Thunberg   663,816
 
Another teenage girl, though energy-wise a polar opposite to our #6 - while Ms. Eilish sings slow songs calmly, Ms. Thunberg is always shouting to make sure her environmental messages cause the emotional impact they deserve.
9 Diahann Carroll   614,719
 
The first Black woman to win a Tony Award, Diahann Carroll died at 84, ending a career that also had nominations for the Oscar and the Emmy.
10 Judy Garland   569,100
 
Judy depicts the last days of the eternal Dorothy Gale, played there by Renée Zellweger.
11 Israel Keyes   554,523
 
This Report has had many entries for serial killers this year, hasn't it? And we can blame this one on Reddit.
12 Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy   546,826
 
Another Indian movie, a Tollywood epic about Telugu freedom fighter Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy, played by Chiranjeevi (known internationally for that time he tried to be Michael Jackson).
13 Serge Gnabry   449,048
 
Bayern München trampling the competition and Tottenham Hotspur underperforming are two things to be expected in football. And so when both teams played in the Champions League the Germans won by 7–2, with four goals being by this young striker.
14 2019 World Athletics Championships   408,341 The track and field world seemingly still attracts views even after Usain Bolt retired, namely for the world championship held in Qatar (with the expected boiling heat, and a sad low attendance). A curious fact is that Russians compete as neutrals following some doping scandals.
15 Richard Jewell   398,023
 
A trailer was released for the movie about the security guard who found the bomb eventually detonated in the Centennial Olympic Park bombing and suffered for it (not the first time director Clint Eastwood - pictured - told a true story of someone wrongly affected for an heroic act).
16 The Politician (TV series)   391,545
 
Of course we had to have some Netflix entries. One is a comedy-drama series by Ryan Murphy of Glee and American Horror Story fame, just released on the service, and the other a Martin Scorsese crime film, which debuted in the New York Film Festival and will hit some theaters and then the streaming service in November.
17 The Irishman (2019 film)   373,162
18 Rosh Hashanah   370,485
 
The Jewish New Year, which in 2019 fell between September 29 and October 1.
19 Hailey Baldwin   368,994
 
This model renewed her vows with Justin Bieber (a troublemaker who might have joined the right family, given Hailey's uncle did enough be roasted even by his own daughter) with another wedding, after just one year.
20 River Phoenix   356,215
 
Before making a name for himself, Joaquin Phoenix (#3) was only the younger brother of another actor, River (and the other siblings are Rain, Liberty and Summer - River even said their parents were hippie-ish!), who broke out as teenager in films such as Stand by Me and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and certainly would've gotten more Oscar noms along with his for Running on Empty had he not died at just 23 of an overdose, back in 1993.
21 2019 Rugby World Cup   346,714
 
Japan is hosting the latest edition of this quadrennial world championship, which already already inspired a great movie in Invictus.
22 List of Bollywood films of 2019   344,459
 
Given basically all new Indian releases appear in our Report, the yearly list showing up (with 7 of the top ten highest grossing films having showed up at some point!) eventually is no surprise. This week, the biggest release is the first post-marriage film for Priyanka Chopra.
23 Birds of Prey (2020 film)   340,711
 
Our #1 is not part of the DC Extended Universe. On the other hand, this other adaptation which had a trailer released is, and stars the on-again-off-again girlfriend of the Joker (#25), as made clear by the subtitle "(and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)" - after all, Margot Robbie's loveable psycho nutcase deserves to be showcased in something better than Suicide Squad.
24 Hunter Biden   337,258
 
The son of former vice president Joe Biden was targeted by Donald Trump, and the result was an inquiry for impeachment.
25 Joker (comics)   336,962
 
We finish in the same note we started, namely Batman's archenemy who got his own solo movie (#1), where he's played by Joaquin Phoenix (#3).
 
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (September 29 to October 5, 2019)

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.