Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (October 27 to November 2, 2013)
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Summary: For the first time in a while, the article on Deaths in 2013 failed to breach the top 10; however, it's fair to say that commemorating death was a strong theme in the top 25, with the deaths of both Lou Reed and Marcia Wallace earning views for their respective articles, with the same for a Google Doodle celebrating the costume designer Edith Head. And of course, the world's greatest celebrations of the dead, Halloween and the Day of the Dead, were also popular this week.
For the week of October 27 to November 2, 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 - - Edith Head 
2,837,065 A Google Doodle on the 106th birthday of Hollywood's Queen of Costumes (who to this day holds the record for the most Oscars won by a woman and who, together with Hubert de Givenchy, created the image of Audrey Hepburn) led to a fairly staggering amount of interest from the public. 2 2 4 Halloween 
2,298,933 
'Tis the night after Hallows, and all through the house, every tummy is stirring, and the children do grouse. 3 - - Lou Reed
1,350,798 
One of Rock & roll's great storytellers and an inveterate New Yorker, Lou Reed may never have attained the status of his contemporaries and friends, Andy Warhol and David Bowie among them, but his all-pervading influence, and continuously played hits like Perfect Day and Walk on the Wild Side, ensured his high regard when he passed away on 27 October. 4 - - Day of the Dead
610,516 
The Hispanic world's slightly more laid-back take on Halloween, with its sugar skulls and marigolds, is becoming ever more popular each year, particularly in places, like the United States, with an expanding Hispanic influence. 5 - - Diwali
539,433 
The Hindu festival of light, which draws attention to the inner light beyond the material body, the Atman, fell on 3 November this year. 6 3 43 Facebook
477,920 
A perennially popular article 7 - - Krrish 3 
400,260 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. 8 - - Ender's Game 
370,617 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. 9 - - The Marshall Mathers LP 2 Future 365,868 
The next album by rapper Eminem will be released on November 5. 10 4 46 World War II
364,003 
Another perennially popular article. (The 16th most popular article from 2010–12, in fact, see Table 2 here.) 11 5 53 Deaths in 2013 List 362,990 
The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article. 12 7 6 United States
343,514 
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. 13 12 6 Lorde
327,300 The not-quite 17-year-old singer-songwriter from New Zealand released her modestly titled debut album, Pure Heroine, on 27 September. 14 8 24 List of Bollywood films of 2013 List 324,839 
An established staple of the top 25. 15 - 5 Eminem
322,424 see #9 above 16 - - Bitcoin
322,282 
The oddball digital currency that is mostly beloved of child porn addicts, illegal drug consumers and radical libertarians got back in the news this week when a guy found that the bitcoins he'd purchased and forgotten about now worth almost $1 million. This obviously made people more interested in bitcoins, though it should be noted that they are a currency, not a stock. When this sort of thing happens to a currency, it's called hyperdeflation, and it's not necessarily a good thing. 17 11 18 The Walking Dead (TV series)
295,809 
The fourth season of the popular TV series premiered on October 13. 18 6 13 Breaking Bad
293,140 
Despite ending for good three weeks ago, this 5-year televisual exploration of one man's descent into evil continues to drum up interest. 19 13 9 Arrow (TV series)
284,015 The second season of this superhero TV series began on 9 October 20 - - Global warming 
284,000 
Arguably the most controversial topic of our time, the topic is back in the news thanks to the IPCC's fifth report, the first draft of which was submitted to policymakers on 27 September. 21 - - All Saints' Day
283,620 
The day after Halloween doesn't get the press of its more brash (and far more fun) predecessor. Interestingly, it celebrates all saints, both known and unknown. So you could be a saint. 22 - - Marcia Wallace
274,004 
The voice of Edna Krabappel on The Simpsons died on 25 October at the age of 70. The show's producers plan to retire her long-suffering character rather than replace her, which could have interesting repercussions for the other characters on the show. 23 23 9 IPv6
266,263 
This issue has reappeared in the top 25, after hovering below it for some time. It is something of a crisis, though not one that is necessarily apparent. It may come as a surprise to some, but the Internet is, for lack of a better word, full. Every computer online is assigned a specific address, made up of a sequence of numbers, that allows other computers to contact it over the Internet. The original number sequence, known as IPv4, is currently the norm for ~99% of online computers. It allows for a maximum of about 4.3 billion addresses; a number that maxed out in January 2011. The long-term plan is to migrate over to IPv6, which allows for 3x1038 addresses; however, since this would require a massive software and even hardware upgrade, many companies are reluctant to undertake it. Until now we've been stalling for time by harvesting abandoned addresses and re-allocating them, a decidedly short-term measure. 24 24 3 India
261,411 
The second-largest English-speaking population on Earth also made it into the top 25 this week. 25 17 42 Google
251,361 
A perennially popular article.
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- Almosts:
- Fire hydrant (248,752 views); Greenhouse gas (244,155 views); Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (241,868 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").
- Specific exclusions this week (if you know a reason for their presence, please post it on the talk page):
- Orthopedic surgery: two-day spike for this rather humdrum article, for no apparent reason.
- Notes:
- Number of views needed to reach Top 25 this week: 251,361. Last week: 229,521
- The revision of WP:5000 containing the data used to create this list.