Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (December 7 to 13, 2014)
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Summary: A fairly anaemic week saw the least-viewed number 1 since September, which, mind you, is before mobile views were added. 11 of this week's entries were holdovers from previous weeks, and those that weren't were standard Top 25 fare; Reddit threads, Google Doodles, premièring media, and celebrity gossip.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of December 7 to 13, 2014, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Death of Eric Garner 
686,408 
On December 3, a grand jury decided not to indict New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo in connection with the death of Eric Garner, who died in Tompkinsville, Staten Island on July 19 after being put in a chokehold. A video of the event went viral shortly after that event. The grand jury's decision has caused public outcry, and the U.S. Justice Department has announced a separate civil rights investigation into Garner's death. Between this and the shooting of Michael Brown, police procedure in the United States (especially black citizens) has become a subject of widespread discussion. Although numbers are down steeply from last week, the topic remains the highest-rated on Wikipedia. 2 Dan Bilzerian 
596,199 
It is interesting to note that those who most crave fame often inadvertently attain it for the wrong reasons. This hard-living, poker playing trust-fund millionaire and Instagram exhibitionist appeared in the Top 25 earlier this year for throwing a porn star off his roof; this week he's back in the public eye for kicking a model in the face and being arrested on felony bomb-making charges. Sometimes I wonder if part of our obsession with celebrities is that we can view them from a distance. 3 Facebook 
584,568 
The perennially popular article holds the no 3 slot despite a ~150,000 drop in views. 4 Guardians of the Galaxy (film)
555,100 
This critically and popularly adored movie proved its staying power when its arrival on Blu-ray was greeted with a shot to the top of this list. This may be a first; box office debuts frequently enter the list, but video? Never seen that before. 5 Sons of Anarchy
546,887 
The final season of the American television drama about an outlaw motorcycle club starring Katie Sagal (pictured) ended on December 9. 6 Deaths in 2014 
497,199 
The viewing figures for this article have been remarkably constant; fluctuating week to week between 450 and 550,000, apparently heedless of who actually died. 7 Annie Jump Cannon
493,435 
Her name sounds vaguely like the title of a folk song, but Annie Jump Cannon was real, was brilliant, and one of the most influential people in modern astronomy. Together with Edward C. Pickering, she is credited with establishing the still-in-use Harvard Classification Scheme for stars (better known, perhaps, by its mnemonic, "Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me!"). That despite having struggled with lifelong deafness, as many who followed on from a Google Doodle for her 140th birthday found out this week. 8 Stephen Hawking
473,260 
The Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, black hole theorist and latter-day science icon makes his sixth straight appearance in the Top 25 this week, thanks in large part to his biopic, The Theory of Everything, which opened in the United States on November 7. 9 Ariana Grande
447,747 
Wikipedia just can't get enough of this former Nickelodeon star. Views spiked on December 10, after the broadcast of her appearance at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, during which she apparently made an off-colour joke to Ed Sheeran about the big, inflatable black balls that formed part of the production. Ahem. 10 The Flash (2014 TV series)
439,160 
This spinoff from the hit series Arrow marks DC Comics' second attempt to create a TV universe, after the late and much lamented DC Animated Universe. 11 List of Arrow episodes
435,552 
Weekly view spikes in this article track the release of each episode of the current season. 12 Google 
410,459 
Always a fairly popular article. 13 Interstellar (film)
408,606 
As the above interest in Stephen Hawking shows, movies that win at the box office are seldom the ones that get the most Wikipedia views; rather it is the amount of debate and discussion those movies trigger that seems to be the main driver of Wikipedia interest. Case in point: Interstellar's respectable $166 million domestic box office take has paled next to that of Big Hero 6, which opened opposite it, and even The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, which opened two weeks after it. And yet, the debates and questions it has raised, both scientific and over its own quality, have meant that this film's article has remained in or near the top 10 for weeks. 14 UFC 181 
398,269 
This is essentially a double-entry; while previous UFCs have usually made it onto this list (Wikipedia viewers are a pugnacious bunch) this year's was mainly notable for the announcement that next year's roster will be joined by... 15 CM Punk 
378,820 
... AKA Phil Brooks, former WWE Champion, who decided to trade the theatrics of wrestling for the full contact combat of mixed martial arts. 16 American Horror Story: Freak Show
368,509 
The fourth season of the American Horror Story series débuted on October 8. 17 Attack on Pearl Harbor
362,669 
This list hasn't been around long enough to determine whether FDR's "day that will live in infamy" is a common subject of interest on its anniversary, but it is rather curious that it failed to appear this time last year. 18 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
362,476 
The jury's apparently undecided on whether Peter Jackson's decision to expand a ~300-page book into a 471-minute trilogy made creative sense, but it's hard to argue with the numbers: the two previous films grossed a combined $2 billion worldwide, and the third instalment earned $118 million in its first weekend. Do not assume that this portends another cinematic jaunt to Middle-earth; Tolkien's son Christopher holds the rights to all his father's other work, and he does NOT like the movies. 19 Murder of Joanna Yeates
362,130 This 2010 UK murder investigation was notable for the conviction-by-press of Christopher Jefferies, a completely innocent man who, despite only being a suspect for 96 hours, was targeted in the media on the basis of being slightly odd. Another (perfectly ordinary) person was eventually convicted of the crime, and Jefferies went on to receive damages from a number of news sources. It's interesting to note that one of the most egregious offenders in this affair was ITN, which produces news for British network ITV, which in turn produced The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, a dramatization of the scandal that aired this week. It's difficult to know what to make of that. Perhaps this was an act of atonement. 20 John Lennon
360,856 
A Reddit thread commemorated the 34th anniversary of the legendary musician-singer-songwriter's assassination on the 8th of December. 21 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
356,133 
A week after its release on Blu-ray, the popular sequel shot into the Top 25 on the back of a Reddit thread that noted that its track listing was full of lame puns, like "The Lost City of Chimpanzee" and "Gorilla Warfare". 22 Patrick Stewart
354,617 
The great Sir Patrick is a more-than-occasional visitor to this list (Yeah, Wikipedia readers are geeks. Who knew?) but his reappearance this week is likely due to a comment he made in an interview after the Chivas Legends Dinner at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, something along the lines of his maybe, possibly, perchance, conceivably, imaginably, at some point in the future returning to his role as Captain Picard if the producers behind Star Trek's new direction could present him with an interesting enough story concept. Oh, and, being a tireless women's rights campaigner, he insisted that women not be excluded from the event, despite Dubai's strict adherence to Sharia. Told you he was great.
23 Taylor Swift
349,429 
The country/pop singer's birthday was on the 13th, though in truth Wikipedians have never needed much of a reason to get her on this list. 24 Exodus: Gods and Kings
346,386 
It's fair to say that Ridley Scott has an uneven track record with period epics. Yeah, he made Gladiator, but he also made 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Kingdom of Heaven and Robin Hood. From the looks of things, this film is unlikely to right the course, as it has received a critical mauling and opened to a ho-hum $24 million gross. It's arguable it never stood much of a chance, as it was already under fire both for Biblical inaccuracy and for perceived racism, in particular the casting the definitely, decidedly, emphatically not Jewish Christian Bale (pictured) in the role of Moses. 25 United States
339,882 
A perpetual bubble-under-er that, while it seldom makes the Top 25, usually appears in "Top of the Year" lists. Not really surprising that the country with by far the most English speakers would be the most popular on the English Wikipedia.
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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.
- Specific exclusions this week:
- Huntington's disease. Bot-driven spike.
- Hemorrhoid. 6.46% mobile views and an erratic viewing pattern suggest artificial inflation.
- Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.