The Top 25 Report
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (April 17 to 23, 2016)
edit← Last week's report – Next week's report →
Purple: The unexpected death of Prince on April 21 leads the chart with the highest view count in this chart's history, breaking the record only in set in January by the passing of David Bowie. Outside the Top 10, six additional slots are taken up by Prince-related topics, but death dominated the Top 10 generally, with wrestler Chyna at #2, British comedian Victoria Wood at #7, American actress Doris Roberts at #8, and the ever-popular Deaths in 2016 rising to #5 this week.
As prepared by Milowent, for the week of April 17 to 23, 2016, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages (WP:5000), were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Prince (musician) 
13,064,933 
Well, although the rational side of our human brains know that the recent spate of deaths of musical icons in 2016 must be coincidental, it sure doesn't feel that way to the emotional side of our brain looking to make sense of things. The news of the completely unexpected death of Prince at age 57, a highly successful artist primarily in the 1980s, but whose talent was quite widely acknowledged, spread throughout the internet like wildfire. It was only in January of this year that the death of David Bowie yielded the first entry in this chart's history to hit eight figures -- with 11.7 million views. Prince's death has now exceeded that record, racking up over 13 million views -- and in only three days, as he died on Thursday. Bowie died on a Sunday, so his 11.7 million views were obtained over a full seven days. Does this mean that Prince was more beloved than Bowie? How does one judge? 2 Chyna 
2,121,679 
The lead sentence of our article on Chyna says she "was an American professional wrestler, actress, glamour model, bodybuilder, English teacher and pornographic film actress." She rose to fame on the wrestling part, though. She was found dead in her California home on April 20, at the age of 46. 3 Harriet Tubman 
1,358,526 
Last week it was announced that one of the most famous females in American history would be replacing President Andrew Jackson on the United States twenty-dollar bill. The new bill is expected to be unveiled in 2020. When the idea of putting a woman on a U.S. bill first arose last year, it was floated that the target was the ten-dollar bill, which features Alexander Hamilton. However, in one of those odd turns of history that will certainly generate many Reddit "Today I Learned" threads in the future, the success of the musical Hamilton was credited for the change in plans. 4 420 (cannabis culture) 
1,021,596 
This curious "holiday", which falls on April 20 (for obvious reasons) refers to the mysterious number 420 and its long link to marijuana usage. While it may not quite be to cannabis what Oktoberfest is to beer, it no doubt aspires to be. And it returns to the top 5 as it has in previous years. We also note the article remains, every year, far too laid back to seek to improve any further from Start Class. 5 Deaths in 2016 
953,110 
A big jump this week due to #1. And with Prince's death only the latest in a streak of high-profile celebrity deaths, we are now seeing many articles asking "why" there have been so many celebrity deaths in 2016. Setting aside the coincidental spikes that can always occur, the most likely answer comes from BBC obituary editor Nick Serpell. He argues that there are more famous people now, starting from the 1960s, and these people are now in the 60s and 70s and naturally starting to die. If we extrapolate from that, you could argue that social media has boosted the number of famous people once again in the past ten years. Does that mean that in 50 years this chart will be inundated with the deaths of people like the Numa Numa guy, David After Dentist and Damn Daniel? Stay tuned to find out. 6 The Jungle Book (2016 film)
939,876 
Down from #2, but only 100,000 views down from last week. This American film based on Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, previously adapted to screen in a 1967 animated film, had its world premiere on April 4. It was released in 15 countries on April 8, and debuted in the US on April 15 to a stellar $103 million weekend and rapturous reviews (the film currently has a 94% RT rating). Despite being described as a "live-action reboot", the film is really more of a CGI cartoon, with nearly everything onscreen except the lead child actor Neel Sethi composed of computer graphics. 7 Victoria Wood 
927,781 
This English commedienne and five-time BAFTA-winning actress died of cancer on April 20, 2016. Much of her humour was grounded in everyday life, and included references to popular British media and brand names of quintessentially British products. Which made her fame relatively exclusive to Britain. And while I am embarrassed to admit it, this made me google whether Morrissey liked her. And indeed he did, along with many many others. 8 Doris Roberts
897,883 
This American actress died on April 17, best known for her role playing Marie Barone in the American sitcom Everyone Loves Raymond. (Morrissey had nothing to say about her death, though she received many fine tributes from others.) 9 Fan (film)
892,651 
On for another week, with a jump of over 150,000 views over last week. This Bollywood hybrid of The Fan and Single White Female, in which a Bollywood star and an obsessed lookalike (both played by Shah Rukh Khan (pictured)) gradually become entangled in a game of revenge, was made on a relatively hefty budget of ₹850 million ($13 million). It has now earned more than ₹1.72 billion ($26 million). 10 William Shakespeare
881,813 
Yes, it is yet ANOTHER celebrity death. Zounds! However, this one occurred four hundred years ago this week, and was celebrated by a Google Doodle, among many other mentions in the press. 11 Pfeiffer syndrome
871,063 Prince's article links to this article, as he had a son with Mayte Garcia (#13) who died a week after birth from this very rare genetic disorder which causes premature fusion of the bones of the skull. 12 Elizabeth II
815,481 
Well, I already know Morrissey doesn't like this famous person, but many do, and the Queen of the United Kingdom celebrated her 90th birthday on April 21. 13 Mayte Garcia
742,917 Garcia was married to Prince (#1) from 1996 to 2000. 14 Donald Trump
720,442 
It took an Act of God to move Trump out of the Top 10, though his views are only down 40,000 from last week. 15 Captain America: Civil War
577,357 
With the relative disappointment of Dawn of Justice, all eyes are turning to the next big comic blockbuster released this year which, despite the Captain America headline, is being marketed as another Avengers movie (with Spider-Man!). Whether this will see it over the $1 billion hurdle remains to be seen, but omens are good. It is scheduled to begin its international release on April 27, and a release in North America on May 6. 16 Andrew Jackson
567,159 
See #3. Yes, the former slave owner and slave trader will be replaced by a former slave on the U.S. twenty dollar bill. 17 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
560,686 
By any measure, except perhaps, its own, Warner Bros's attempt to counter the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a success. It has crossed the $800 million mark worldwide, which means that, even given its gargantuan production and marketing budget, it is now in profit, and is likely to generate a tidy sum once the ancillaries are counted. And yet, the mood over at DC/Warner is tense; with its rapidly declining earnings, it is unlikely to enter the "$1 billion club" currently occupied by Marvel's two Avengers films, and has already been outgrossed by Zootopia, released just three weeks earlier. How this will portend for the planned DC Cinematic Universe is uncertain. All eyes are now on Suicide Squad. 18 Game of Thrones (season 6)
523,988 
Up 120,000 views over last week. The next season of this eternally popular TV series premiered on HBO on 24 April. 19 Purple Rain (film)
513,709 
A musical rock drama film from 1984 that starred Prince. 20 Earth Day
492,093 
This annual event supporting environmental protection efforts just missed the Top 25 last year (it was #27). 21 Purple Rain (album)
473,803 The soundtrack album to #19. You know, before Prince was associated with the color purple, the name of the Phoenicians came from the ancient Greek word for purple, as their trade in purple dye was also their claim to fame. 22 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
442,955 
The annual California musical and arts festival was held on April 15–17 and 22–24, featuring the reuniting of original Guns N' Roses members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan, along with LCD Soundsystem's reunion and Calvin Harris as headliners. 23 Amber Heard
424,568 
Heard and her spouse Johnny Depp apologized by video for not declaring dogs they brought to Australia, an incident the Australian press had dubbed Terriergate. 24 Michael Jackson
407,432 
Prince's death also led to interest to his onetime rival Michael Jackson's article. 25 Game of Thrones
405,789 See #18.
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Just missing the Top 25: Apollonia Kotero (#26, Prince-related); Prince albums discography (#27); Vanity (singer) (#28, Prince-related); List of The Flash (2014 TV series) episodes (#29); List of Bollywood films of 2016 (#30)
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 also exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (~2% or less) or almost all mobile views (~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.