Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (November 3 to 9, 2013)
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Summary: I don't normally use the first person in this report, but I kinda have to this week, because I'm completely staggered. The numbers this week are beyond anything that has been seen since the start of the year. The top view count was above the average by an order of magnitude. Usually the appearance of numbers this big on the list is due to spamming, but in this case it seems they are due to honest interest; more specifically, Google Doodles, which for the first time claimed all five top slots. This column has raised numerous times the power of a Google Doodle to shine light on Wikipedia, but the wattage has never been as high as this.
For the week of November 3 to 9, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:
Rank Last Wks Article Class Views Image Notes 1 - - Shakuntala Devi 
9,135,919 It is astounding, and yet also strangely fitting, that a woman famed for feats of mental calculation would shatter the numerical limits on this list. Yes, the surge was sparked by a Google Doodle, but Doodle or no, nothing to date has generated views on this scale since this project began. Is it spam? Possibly; however, it's important to remember another phenomenon oft mentioned in this column- the influence of Indian viewers, which has often driven articles to the top in the past. That, combined with the fact that Devi died this year, might be enough to explain the magnitude of this view count. But of course we can never be sure. 2 - - Hermann Rorschach 
4,506,507 
In any other week, the inventor of the projective, amorphous blot that bears his name would have claimed the record for the most views since the start of this project. But this is not any other week. Even if you add the additional views for his eponymous test (see below), the numbers don't come close. 3 - - Raymond Loewy 
2,697,107 
The industrial designer, whose PRR S1 locomotive is essentially the physical embodiment of the word "zoom", contributed to Google Doodles' hegemony over the top of the list this week. 4 - - C. V. Raman
1,207,929 
The Indian physicist, Nobel Prize winner and namesake of the light phenomena of Raman scattering and the Raman effect is another who owes his berth to a Google Doodle, though the same bump from Indian viewers probably contributed as well. 5 - - Rorschach test
828,642 
The winged blot that means all things to all men trails the list of Google Doodle-driven trumps this week, following in the wake of its creator. 6 - - Desmond Tutu
724,701 
Far be it from me to draw suspicion towards anything associated with this Nobel Peace Prize winner and stalwart opponent of apartheid; that said, a one-day spike on 5 November with no discernible trail might suggest a bot; however, since it occurred on the same day as his delivering the inaugural Janagraha L.C. Jain Memorial Lecture at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi, I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. 7 11 54 Deaths in 2013 List 568,154 
The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article. 8 7 2 Krrish 3
561,758 Bollywood's homegrown superhero movie franchise opened its latest instalment on 1 November to take advantage of the Diwali holiday, and earned Rs 728 million (US$11 million) in its first three days. 9 - - Climatic Research Unit email controversy
540,216 It's not really surprising that this "scandal", better known as "Climategate", has crawled back up into the limelight after the initial release of the IPCC's fifth report; what is surprising is that people keep citing it as evidence of fraud, given that eight committees acquitted the scientists in question of any wrongdoing. But then, reality has never sat well on the Internet. 10 - - Richie Incognito
531,404 
In a week in which the great and the good have been duly celebrated, this football player's inclusion is most likely for far less savory reasons; namely his reported racial abuse of his teammate Jonathan Martin. 11 - - Guy Fawkes Night 
506,480 
Britain's determinedly non-PC holiday, in which children celebrate the failure of an attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament 400 years ago by burning a Catholic in effigy while chanting death slogans, fell on 5 November. Thanks to the efforts of nannying killjoys who think that children waving sparklers while standing next to an open bonfire is potentially dangerous, this tradition is slowly losing ground to Halloween, ironically an import from Catholic Ireland, by way of the US. 12 9 2 The Marshall Mathers LP 2
500,860 
The next album by rapper Eminem will be released on November 5. 13 15 6 Eminem 
481,007 see above 14 6 44 Facebook
479,455 
A perennially popular article 15 - - Guy Fawkes
467,100 
In the week of his eponymous night, interest spiked in the man himself, which should hopefully inform people that the only reason he's been vilified as a master criminal for the last 400 years is because he was the only one of his terror cell who was stupid enough to get caught. 16 5 2 Diwali
414,569 
The Hindu festival of light, which draws attention to the inner light beyond the material body, the Atman, fell on 3 November this year. 17 - - Pythagorean cup
409,048 
A cup that forces you to drink in moderation became a talking point on Reddit this week. 18 8 2 Ender's Game
390,542 
Orson Scott Card's military science fiction cult classic was finally released as a film in its home market on 1 November after decades in hibernation due to Card's desire for creative control. That said, given its middling box office so far, interest is arguably just as likely due to Card's inflammatory statements on gay rights as to any interest in the film itself. 19 13 7 Lorde
327,300 
The just-turned 17-year-old singer-songwriter from New Zealand released her modestly titled debut album, Pure Heroine, on 27 September. 20 10 47 World War II
378,144 
Another perennially popular article. (The 16th most popular article from 2010–12, in fact, see Table 2 here.) 21 14 25 List of Bollywood films of 2013 List 324,839 
An established staple of the top 25. 22 12 7 United States
338,533 
The 3rd most popular Wikipedia article between 2010–2012, and a perpetual bubble-under-er. Not really surprising that the country with by far the most English speakers would be the most popular on the English Wikipedia. 23 - - Bill de Blasio
298,593 
The winner of the 2013 New York mayoral election got a lot of attention this week, probably for being the first Democrat to do so in nearly 20 years. 24 20 2 Global warming
279,465 
Man-made climate change, arguably the most controversial topic of our time, is back in the news thanks to the IPCC's fifth report, the first draft of which was submitted to policymakers on 27 September. 25 20 4 India
270,492 
The second-largest English-speaking population on Earth also made it into the top 25 this week.
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- Almosts:
- The Walking Dead (TV series) (270,452 views); Google (262,071 views); Breaking Bad (260,300 views)
- Exclusions:
- This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages, and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Please keep in mind that the explanations given for these articles' popularity are, fundamentally, guesses. Just because a plausible reason is found for a view spike, that doesn't mean it wasn't due to a bot.
- There are a number of articles that reappear frequently in the top 25 for no determined reason, and have been excluded as likely being due to automated views. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish.
- G: This, or alternately G-force, frequently appears in the top 25. It is probably due to people typing "G" for "Google" in Google Chrome's search bar and hastily clicking "enter".
- Lycos: the geriatric web portal seems to be back en vogue, for no apparent reason.
- Go (game): The ancient Chinese strategy game has been getting a lot of views over the last few weeks, though I have yet to determine why (to be honest, it may simply be due to the difficulty of Googling the word "go").
- XXX (film): Why an 11-year-old Vin Diesel movie would consistently surf the edge of the top 25 for weeks on end I have yet to fathom. If it's a bot, it's obviously one with delusions of coolness.
- Specific exclusions this week (if you know a reason for their presence, please post it on the talk page):
- EinStein_würfelt_nicht: One-day spike to a redirect suggests either a Reddit thread or a bot net surge, and I can't find a Reddit thread.
- Notes:
- Number of views needed to reach Top 25 this week: 270,492. Last week: 251,361
- The revision of WP:5000 containing the data used to create this list.