Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/March 31 to April 6, 2019

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Prepared with commentary by igordebraga

Last week's reportNext week's report

The report showing up late is not a gag for April Fool's (#7), just this here writer hoping others would show up before he gives up and just does everything himself. Anyway, this edition is topped by the shocking murder of rapper Nipsey Hussle (#1, #2, #4), and from that we can go on other musical directions - the rock n'rollers of Mötley Crüe (#16, #22, #25) plus Mick Jagger (#18), and also the sophisticated pop of Billie Eilish (#6) - or similar dark and sad paths - true crime stories (#3, #11, #14), superhero (#5, #7) and horror movies (#10, #19), more of the recently deceased (#12), countries getting retrograde (#21) and false alarms regarding missing people cases (#23). And besides superhero movies in theaters (#5, #17, #20) and a Google Doodle (#13), people seem to be looking for whatever they're waiting, whether it's the next movies based on DC Comics (#9) and Marvel (#15), a big wrestling event (#8) and returning to Westeros (#24).

For the week of March 31 to April 6, 2019, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:


Rank Article Class Views Image About
1 Nipsey Hussle   6,013,415   Hip hop downright has a gangsta rap subgenre, so the fact there's enough executed rappers for a whole list is not surprising, even if it's undeniably very sad. And the latest victim in the genre is rapper Ermias Joseph Asghedom, aka Nipsey Hussle, who just one year after releasing an acclaimed debut album, was shot dead outside his Los Angeles store at the age of 33.
2 Lauren London   2,294,935
 
#1's widow (though they weren't married), an actress with whom he had a son, Kross.
3 Bonnie and Clyde   1,890,576
 
Speaking of executions, the famed criminal couple from the Great Depression who wound showered by bullets in a police ambush are the indirect subjects of Netflix's film The Highwaymen, which tells the story of the two Texas Rangers (one of whom is at #14) who tracked them down.
4 Alfredo Bowman   1,383,396
 
Prior to being killed, our #1 was working on a documentary about this herbalist and self-proclaimed healer who died in 2016, and in spite of being known as Dr. Sebi is widely considered a quack by reliable sources.
5 Shazam! (film)   1,050,980   DC Comics meets Big in the superhero comedy where a Philadelphia kid gets the power to become a muscle man who can also fly and shoot lightning - that in the comics was originally known as Captain Marvel, but for obvious reasons (see also #17) it's not used (in fact, in the movie they never get to a consistent moniker...). Hilarious yet heartfelt, Shazam! was well-received by reviewers and audiences, and hopefully can make a lot of money until its biggest competitor (#15) arrives.
6 Billie Eilish   970,686
 
In spite of how dead musicians bring in lots of listens\purchases to their discography, our #1 only got second place in the Billboard 200, with the top spot being When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, the debut album by this 16 year old. Billie doesn't want to be compared to anyone, but hard not to be reminded of Lorde. And her music, of Lana del Rey (though thankfully less soporific and depressing).
7 April Fools' Day   938,641
 
The day where elaborate pranks and practical jokes are pulled. And how I wish "my country's president is pushing for using this day and March 31st to celebrate a coup and all the damage it caused" was one of those.
8 WrestleMania 35   691,439
 
Given the amount of antecipation this wrestling event has gotten before it actually happened on April 7 (down to a Last Week Tonight segment that caused some ruckus), it's the possible #1 for our next report.
9 Joker (2019 film)   684,594
 
Batman's archnemesis is portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix (pictured) in an origin story which just had its first trailer released, and will hit theaters in October. Even if director Todd Phillips has mostly made comedies such as The Hangover and the main character is for all intents and means a clown, it will be another serious DC Comics movie, in contrast to our #5.
10 Us (2019 film)   632,791
 
Plenty of money and acclaim for a movie with the important lesson of avoiding people in red carrying scissors.
11 Murder of Dee Dee Blanchard   629,948
 
Every week Hulu is releasing a new episode of The Act, a true crime story neatly summed up by the news article title "Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick, Gypsy Wanted Her Mom To Be Murdered." In the show, Dee Dee is Patricia Arquette (pictured), Gypsy is Joey King.
12 Deaths in 2019   621,742
 
I don't wanna be buried
In a Pet Sematary (#19)
I don't want to live my life again
13 Hedwig Kohn   601,615
 
Google celebrated the life of this German physicist who eventually settled in the U.S. to escape the Nazis.
14 Frank Hamer   575,995
 
Kevin Costner had already portrayed the guy who arrested Al Capone, and now The Highwaymen adds another famed Great Depression cop to his resume with Frank Hamer, one of the Texas Rangers who tracked down Bonnie and Clyde (#3). For posterity, the other, Maney Gault, doesn't have a Wikipedia article and is played by Woody Harrelson.
15 Avengers: Endgame   566,927   Pre-sales for the next Marvel Studios event movie are enormous to the point of crashing websites.
16 Mötley Crüe   566,203   Netflix revived interest in this hair metal group by depicting their sex, drugs and rock n'roll lifestyle in biopic The Dirt.
17 Captain Marvel (film)   525,501
 
The sustained success of Brie Larson's Carol Danvers in theaters has already led to $1 billion worldwide, so it hardly will be interrupted when she returns to wreck Thanos in our #15.
18 Mick Jagger   501,726
 
Freddie Mercury finally left our list, so instead there's a thankfully still living rock legend, even if there was a scare for fans of The Rolling Stones, as concerts had to be cancelled in order for Sir Mick Jagger to go through heart surgery.
19 Pet Sematary (2019 film)   466,992
 
Stephen King's horror novel about why sometimes dead cats, children or wives shouldn't be revived by exploiting mysterious burial grounds gets its second attempt at a film adaptation, that managed to already recoup its budget in spite of mixed reviews, opening in second place at the box office behind our #5. But the important part is that the Ramones song I quoted at #12 is still present!
20 List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films   452,969
 
Marvel Studios would be the 115th richest country in the world with the $18,5 billion garnered by the 21 movies in this list. And the numbers will only grow with our #15 (plus another Spider-Man movie).
21 Brunei   437,237
 
This small but rich Southeast Asian sultanate imposed the sharia law, which made homosexuality a crime that can earn a death by stoning. Protests have ensued, including requests to boycott the hotels the Sultan owns.
22 Nikki Sixx   428,313
 
Normally the two most famous members of a band are the singer and the guitarist. Mötley Crüe's (#16) only got to #26 and #31 respectively, as most views went for the oft-neglected bassist. Helps Mr. Sixx writes most of the group's lyrics, many about his hedonist life (including a song on how he once overdosed and briefly died before being injected with adrenalin)
23 Disappearance of Timmothy Pitzen   422,660 Back in 2011, this Illinois kid vanished without a clue - his mother apparently left him with people who'd hide him before killing herself. This week, a vagrant in Kentucky claimed to be Timmothy, but the police eventually found out he was just a possibly delusional former convict.
24 Game of Thrones   414,347
 
Winter is Coming again, as fans prepare for the final season of HBO's hit series to hit the airwaves on April 14.
25 Tommy Lee   400,549
 
Mötley Crüe's (#16) drummer, who on the band itself co-wrote most songs with Nikki Sixx (#22), and outside of it formed a rap metal group and married Pamela Anderson, leading to two sons and a sex tape.
 
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (March 31 to April 6, 2019)

Exclusions

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  • 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.