Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (April 9 to 15, 2017)
editPrepared with commentary by OZOO
← Last week's report – Next week's report →
It's the Grandparents of All Bombs I Blame
editBoth the Mother (#2) and Father of All Bombs (#16) show up in our list, both sounding like good names for rock bands but bad things to find in your wardrobe. With North Korea (#11) also attracting a level of interest, it's clear this is a time of some concern. Small wonder that readers are choosing to immerse themselves in entertainment, with Netflix series 13 Reasons Why providing four entries, including the top spot, and franchise behemoths The Fate of the Furious (#4) and Thor: Ragnarok (#12) contributing two each.
Easter (#13) and related festivities provided a few entries into the list, some up on last year, some down. The week also a new album from Kendrick Lamar (#20), interest in the finalists of golf's 2017 Masters Tournament, and the 210th UFC main event. All that, plus a Pastafarian pornographic actress, sees President Trump miss out on the Top 25 for the first time in 2017.
For the week of April 9 to 15, 2017, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 13 Reasons Why 2,695,853 A rise of one place and about a million pageviews for the Netflix series. Based on the novel, and starring the pictured Dylan Minnette and Katherine Langford, the well-received series revolves around a series of audio messages left following a teen girl's suicide. 2 GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast 2,332,911 The MOAB, which has also been backronymed to "Mother of all Bombs", was designed as the biggest non-nuclear weapon in the US arsenal. It was used for the first time this week, in an airstrike against the Afghanistan branch of the so-called Islamic State. 3 Charlie Murphy 1,691,146 Murphy, best known as a writer and cast member on sketch series Chapelle's Show, died of leukemia this week at the age of just 57. 4 The Fate of the Furious 1,498,440 The 8th movie in the The Fast & the Furious franchise came out this week. The Vin Diesel (pictured) and Dwayne The Rock Johnson starring film has proven somewhat popular, taking the record for highest-grossing opening from Star Wars: The Force Awakens 5 Sergio García 1,214,343 Spaniard García won his first major golf championship (at the 74th attempt) this week, triumphing in a sudden-death playoff in the 2017 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club against Justin Rose. Well done him. 6 Thirteen Reasons Why 1,077,172 Jay Asher's novel was the subject of the Netflix series topping this list. Given that both book cover and title screen display the title as Th1rteen R3asons Why, I am not entirely clear why we have elected to use different titles to disambiguate. Would this article be as high up if it was called Thirteen Reasons Why (novel)? Probably, yes. 7 Justin Rose 937,162 The South Africa-born Englishman - who last year became golf's first Olympic gold medallist for 112 years - was runner up to Sergio García (#5) - the second time he has been runner up in the Masters 8 Asia Carrera 700,530 Reddit here, learning that the former pornographic actress is not only a member of Mensa, with an IQ of 156; but someone whose driver's licence photo has her wearing a colander for religious reasons. I, incidentally, today learned that both Mensa and Pastafarianism are apparently still things. 9 Katherine Langford 689,668 Plays the (spoiler alert) posthumous role of Hannah Baker in 13 Reasons Why (#1), this is the Australian's first major acting role. 10 Deaths in 2017 674,328 Down one on last week despite a small gain in page views for the near ever-present deathlist. 11 North Korea 654,475 There are some discouraging signs coming from the heavily-armed East Asian state. North Korea paraded their forces through Pyongyang and sent a message to the United States that was the diplomatic equivalent of standing up in a pub and shouting "WHO WANTS SOME, EH?". With both countries' words backed by nuclear weapons, the rest of humanity must hope that President Trump does not, in fact, want some. 12 Thor: Ragnarok 648,623 The 17th (SEVENTEENTH) movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, due in November and directed by Taika Waititi (maker of the fantastic Hunt for the Wilderpeople) had its first trailer release this week. The trailer features Cate Blanchett with a sword and Jeff Goldblum in a gold waistcoat, and I'm not entirely sure if there's anything else you could ask for in a film? 13 Good Friday 614,471 The commemoration of the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ was this year on April 14 in both the Western and Eastern calendars. Down ten places and ~180k on last year, where it was marked on different dates by the two Churches. 14 Easter 559,570 Only 60k (and one place) between the Friday and Sunday events, compared to 225k and seven places last year. Of course, as this is a Sunday to Saturday list; Easter Sunday hasn't actually happened yet. 15 Eddie Murphy 542,655 Younger brother of the deceased Charlie (#3). 16 Father of All Bombs 514,524 Or, to give it its proper name, Авиационная вакуумная бомба повышенной мощности. The Russian bomb is four times as powerful as the Mother of All Bombs up at #2. Which is not fantastic news, especially for anyone currently underneath one. 17 Dylan Minnette 504,024 The other star of 13 Reasons Why, Minnette is more established than his co-star Langford (#9), which perhaps explains why he is lower in the view list. 18 UFC 210 469,048 April 8 saw the 210th flagship mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which was held at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York. In the headline event, Daniel Cormier defended the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship from Anthony Johnson, getting him to submit in the second round with a rear-naked choke. That sort of thing doesn't happen in the darts. 19 Passover 467,584 The important Jewish festival started on Monday and runs til next Monday. Last year it started on Friday, and failed to make our list possibly as a result. 20 Kendrick Lamar 456,060 The American hip hop star released his fourth studio album, Damn this week. The album currently stands at 99/100 on MetaCritic, which is a very good sign for all concerned. 21 Hela (comics) 456,060 Those of us who exclusively consume comic books through the medium of cinema will get our first encounter with Hela later this year, as Cate Blanchett portrays the apparent antagonist of Thor: Ragnarok (#12). Judging by the trailer, she possesses both a cool sword and an absolutely tremendous hat. 22 Death of Caylee Anthony 423,306 The unsolved 2008 murder of two year old Caylee Anthony was the subject of a new documentary, Casey Anthony: An American Murder Mystery, broadcast in Canada over the week and drawing Investigation Discovery its biggest audience ever. Her mother's 2011 not guilty verdict still inspires high passion amongst commentators. 23 Damn (album) 418,868 DAMN. 24 Palm Sunday 417,403 Scrapes into the list this year, having missed out last year. 181k more views this year. Isn't that curious? 25 The Fast and the Furious 398,450 The eighth entry in the eighth highest-grossing film franchise has, as previously mentioned, done alright in its first week.
In other news:
- 26) Beauty and the Beast (2017 film) (397,305); 27) Bashar al-Assad (394,915); 28) Paulo Dybala (footballer, 378,016); 29) Sarah Rector (Reddit TIL, 373,134); 30) List of Bollywood films of 2017 (366,168); 31) Donald Trump (362,456). The novelty appears to be wearing off somewhat.
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 consensus, XXX (film series) and XXX are excluded.
- Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.