Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2019-07-31/Traffic report

Traffic report

World cups, presidential candidates, and stranger things

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By Igordebraga and Stormy clouds

This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Igordebraga and Stormy clouds

Women: footballers, politicians, and movie stars (June 23 to 29, 2019)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (June 23 to 29, 2019)

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It's been a week with many entries driven by women, such as the women's football World Cup (#4, #8) and women politicians running for president of the US (#5, #7, and #18). Otherwise, it's the usual offenders: movies (#1, #2, #6, #10), sports (#9, #13), and TV (#3).

For the week of June 23 to 29, 2019, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Views	Notes
1	Kabir Singh	1,470,837	In another one of those articles that makes our readers seek what does crore mean, Shahid Kapoor is an alcoholic surgeon who goes on a self-destructive path once his girlfriend (played by Kiara Advani, in the picture with Shahid) is forced to marry someone else. Reviews were mixed, with claims that Kabir Singh glamorises misogyny and toxic masculinity, but it is the third highest grossing Bollywood movie so far this year.
2	Toy Story 4	1,123,417	Pixar started the 2010s with Toy Story 3, and is closing the decade (which also featured fo ur other sequels and a prequel) by returning to Sheriff Woody and his pals, thankfully in a movie that provides as much of an emotional and entertaining closure as its predecessor. Unsurprisingly, Toy Story 4 got glowing reviews and already amassed half a billion dollars worldwide.
3	Chernobyl disaster	1,072,936	After quite a long hold atop the list, the 1986 disaster dramatized in an HBO miniseries falls but without leaving the podium.
4	Megan Rapinoe	1,021,012	Colin Kaepernick, move over for political protests within real football. The U.S. team that is the big favorite in the World Cup (#8) is captained by someone who is refusing to sing along with the anthem and said she'll not go to the White House if the team wins (which it seems they will, to the chagrin of this writer and everyone who'd like to see someone else with the title rather than a squad which already won 3 out of 7 tournaments), given her fierce opposition to the man currently living there.
5	Kamala Harris	977,593	Speaking of He Who We Prefer Not To Name, given he ran against Hillary Clinton in the last election, the Democractic Party is all full of women who want to follow her footsteps. One of them is this Californian Senator.
6	Avengers: Endgame	848,358	The final confrontation with Thanos never left the top 10 here, but after dropping out from the box office rankings for a week, returned there as the film was reissued with extra scenes (outgrossing Avatar is just around the corner!). Meanwhile, Marvel fans get ready for the first follow-up (#10), coming out this week.
7	Marianne Williamson	811,846	Another woman pushing to be the Democrat candidate, known for her books, plus involvement with peace and AIDS relief causes.
8	2019 FIFA Women's World Cup	773,035	Everyone who likes this competition having some emotion instead of the certainty that the U.S. team will win certainly mourned that both the host team and the Lionesses (pictured) couldn't make it through. How I wish I could root for the ~~dark~~ orange horse this Sunday without it feeling like a lost cause.
9	2019 Cricket World Cup	771,533	The other tournament currently played on European grass fields.
10	Spider-Man: Far From Home	769,347	"Spider-Man! Where are you coming from, Spider-Man? Nobody knows who you are!" (Bark, bark, bark, bark!)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (June 30 to July 6, 2019)

Crown thy Good with Sisterhood (June 30 to July 6)

O beautiful 'momgst factual sites,
For endless waves of FA's,
For series, movies, tragedies,
A catch-all knowledge place,
Wikipedia, Wikipedia,
How trivial your readers have been,
Why are we here, if these should be,
The most read articles of the past week.

For the week of June 30 to July 6, 2019, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Views	Notes
1	Spider-Man: Far From Home	1,908,257	The man who can do whatever a spider can came swinging back onto cinema screens for the first time in four days, as the web-slinging teenager takes a trip to my side of the pond. The film is highly enjoyable, especially after they drop the villainous illusion, and acts as a worthy bookend, at least in my opinion, to the bombast and spectacle of #8. If you think that this is the last entry on the report from the Spider-Verse, your tingle may be broken.
2	Stranger Things (season 3)	1,348,233	Competing for the attention of our eyeballs with #1 is the return of Netflix's (arguably biggest) original series, which sees the return of nosebleed Jean Grey, Toothless the (Dungeon and) Dragon, and beep beep Richie, as they battle both monstrous entities from the Upside Down and their hormones. If you were concerned that the new season would abandon the near-intoxicating nostalgia of its predecessors, the fact that much of the season involves the characters going to the mall should alleviate your fears.
3	Cori Gauff	1,200,886	Over on the grass courts of the All England Club, Wimbledon is underway, meaning that the world gets to pretend it cares about tennis for a fortnight. A story of actual intrigue, alongside the Williams-Murray partnership and the continued resurgence of Rafa and Roger, was that of Cori Gauff, the youngest player in the history of the tournament at only 15 years of age, who drew attention for her nonchalance as she felled Venus Williams in the first round, going on to reach the final 16.
4	Stranger Things	1,066,290	As an author of the Top 25 Report, I am often very bored at having to come up with novel commentary for the ceaseless plethora of Netflix Originals, many of which (I'm (not) looking at you, Sandy) are not very good, to be diplomatic about affairs. However, I am a big fan of most of Stranger Things, with its superb theme, likable cast, and a highly bingeable story evocative of the work of two Stephens. Gauging from what I have seen of the new season (#2), released on America's birthday, the Duffer brothers have kept up the good work.
5	2019 Cricket World Cup	1,038,856	It's coming home, it's coming home, it's coming... ~~Football~~ Cricket's coming home. Yes, it would appear that neither Finch nor Kohli (to the doubtless despair of much of our readership) will be able to prevent Ireland's greatest cricketer from lifting the World Cup on home(?) soil, with only New Zealand left standing in his way.
6	Midsommar (film)	1,019,055	The newest horror film from Ari Aster, director of the critically acclaimed and audience maligned Hereditary was released during the week, courting the lucrative audience segment of arachnophobes who are OK with brutalistic pagan rituals. It is an admittedly niche market. As someone who vehemently dislikes the jump-scare riddled tedium of contemporary horror, I appreciate Aster's efforts, but as someone who found much of Hereditary to be more hilariously absurdist than abjectly horrifying, I think I will give this one a miss.
7	Tyler Skaggs	975,817	A sadder entry now, as an Angel ascended at the age of 29. Skaggs, a pitcher for the non-dodging LA outfit, was preparing to face some wal kers when he was found unresponsive in his hotel, leading to an outpouring of grief and morbid interest in the player from fans of the national pastime.
8	Avengers: Endgame	875,684	You knew this would be here, with the re-release hyping up and subsequently underwhelming MCU fans worldwide, and with the gap between the top two entries on the list of highest-grossing films drawing tantalisingly closer - this film, this box office juggernaut so large that the industry is still reeling, just has to be on the report. It is inevitable.
9	Kabir Singh	795,093	With their enjoyment and anticipation for #5 tarnished by kiwis, our Indian contingent went back to frantically researching the newest Bollywood hit. This time, it is Sandeep Vanga's remake of his own Telugu film that has caught their attention. The massive hit is produced by T-Series, and has been critically maligned despite its status as number one. Sound familiar?
10	Alex Morgan	762,853	Many historians cite the spilling of tea as a moment where Anglo-American relations seriously deteriorated. In Parc Olympique Lyonnais last week, star-spangled soccer starlet, having slotted the ball beyond the English keeper, popped out her pinky and triggered another breakdown between the two allies, leading to some stunningly bad takes (including from another Morgan). I'll go to the hilt for the World Cup winner, because our freedom to mock Britain must be preserved, now more than ever.

Sorted Stranger Sports Subjects (July 7 to 14)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (July 6 to 13, 2019)

More than a year and a half later, again it's time for a Report heavy on Stranger Things, comprising seven entries. The only other subject just as present are sports, all of them on grass in Western Europe: football in France (#3, #8) and tennis (#7) in England. And yet the list is topped by one shocking death, of an actor who couldn't even make it to his 21st birthday and a perverted criminal. Thankfully, Spider-Man is here (#6) to help this intro end on a positive note.

For the week of July 7 to 14, 2019, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Views	About
1	Cameron Boyce	6,641,458	Few things bring in impressive view counts like a death. And even if actor Cameron Boyce was hardly known for those unfamiliar with Disney Channel productions, the sheer fact that he left us at just 20 due to an epileptic seizure certainly intrigued\shocked enough people to bring in millions of visits to his page.
2	Jeffrey Epstein	2,793,733	A convicted sex offender. We're starting off in some dark notes! Convicted for procuring an underaged girl for prostitution back in 2006, this financier is back in the clutches of the law, accused of sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York.
3	Megan Rapinoe	1,960,356	She's a lesbian, she's outspoken against Trump, and she steamrolled in the World Cup as captain of the U.S. team who won it all, winning the Golden Boot (top scorer) and Ball (best player) along the way.
4	Stranger Things (season 3)	1,615,595	After taking last year off, the "1980s Steven Spielberg adventure meets 1980s Stephen King horror" returned to Netflix, now with Soviet Russia making a small Indiana town become an interdimensional hell again.
5	Stranger Things	1,412,749
6	Spider-Man: Far From Home	1,381,177	The most popular and suffering Marvel Comics superhero is back on the big screen, and his bad luck ensures his European road trip is crashed by monsters who are seemingly connected to some Mysterio. Entertaining and with some cool surprises (even if like its predecessor, it has way too much comic relief), Far From Home is certainly giving what audiences wanted after Avengers: Endgame, and is nearing $900 million after just two weeks in theaters.
7	Roger Federer	1,213,282	At the age of 37, the biggest winner of tennis Grand Slams still has it even in defeat, only losing the Wimbledon final to Novak Djokovic after more than four hours of play.
8	Alex Morgan	1,114,345	Megan Rapinoe's (#3) teammate with the most luck in striking some goals, having scored the same 6 bouts of the captain on the way to winning her second World Cup title.
9	Freddie Mercury	1,075,248	Well, look who is back here. Along with the HBO premiere of Bohemian Rhapsody, the other reason for the iconic Queen frontman to get a spike in views is actor John Glover claiming he had sex with Mercury back in the 1980s.
10	Millie Bobby Brown	1,063,970	She entered the top ten, but the most adequate rank for this British actress (the breakout star of #5's child\teen cast, who earlier this year lent a hand to Godzilla) would be Eleven.

In space, no one can hear you report (July 14 to 20)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (July 14 to 20, 2019)

What lies beneath Earth always intrigued man, even if actual people who walked outside this planet were only those involved with exorbitant expenditures to put a man on the Moon (#5, #7). The prospect of life in other worlds moves our top entry, regarding plans to walk into an air base that supposedly housed alien corpses, and is present with the extraterrestrials in Marvel movies (#8, #10) and the beasts from the Upside Down in Stranger Things (#6). But Earth and humans is all we have so far, with all the sports (#2, #3) and movies (#4) possible available to make us forget of bad things such as people dying due to an arson attack (#9).

For the week of July 14 to 20, 2019, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Views	About
1	Area 51	2,826,689	On June 27, a funny fellow named Matty Roberts posted a gag post on Facebook: "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us." He proposed that a flashmob of thousands of alien-hunters simultanously storm the walls of Area 51, the infamous Air Force base in Nevada that supposedly housed extraterrestrials, on 20 September. He meant it as a joke, but three million people have signaled their intent to take him up on it. The government already warned that whoever trespasses into armed forces territory is subject to arrest and prosecution.
2	Novak Djokovic	1,832,087	Wimbledon's final was between two tennis legends, whose confrontations warrant their own article. After nearly five hours of play, with Federer nearly winning twice, his Serbian adversary won, marking his fifth title in the British grass.
3	Roger Federer	1,707,049
4	The Lion King (2019 film)	1,301,407	Out of Disney's tendency to remake its animated classics, The Lion King made the least sense: with no human characters, it effectively would just trade the 2D animation for the latest computer graphics. And with barely any changes to the plot, only adding short amounts of new content for the sake of padding the runtime to two hours, it is certainly the same movie again, only less inspired (the musical numbers suffered the most - what the hell did this movie do to "Be Prepared"?!), unlike what director Jon Favreau had previously done in The Jungle Book. Not that audiences cared, given this new Lion King made half a billion dollars in just a weekend.
5	Apollo 11	1,075,876	"If you believed they put a man on the Moon, man on the Moon..." Well, some stupid people claim otherwise, but on July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 managed to land on Earth's satellite and fly back. 50 years later, this milestone of spaceflight is celebrated as returns to the Moon are planned, along with going to Mars.
6	Stranger Things	881,105	In-between two entries about humans leaving Earth in the 1960s, interdimensional monsters entering Earth in the 1980s.
7	Neil Armstrong	857,633	"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind", said Armstrong as he left the Apollo 11's (#5) Lunar Module - "The Eagle has landed"- and became the first man on the Moon. Armstrong, who died in 2012, was described as a "reluctant American hero", given he was a fairly reserved person, and continued to keep a low profile after his return to Earth.
8	Spider-Man: Far From Home	788,599	Peter Parker's ruined European vacation has gotten the approval of both reviewers and audiences, and managed to beat Spider-Man 3 as the highest-grossing solo movie of the Webhead.
9	Kyoto Animation	756,402	An arsonist set ablaze the studio responsible for animes such as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, killing at least 34 people, injuring about the same amount of people, and destroying computers and materials.
10	Avengers: Endgame	753,872	In February, the Academy somehow passed over the Visual Effects of Avengers: Infinity War to award the story of our #7. Follow-up Endgame has since become the highest-grossing movie ever, so the Oscar voters certainly have a chance at fixing this snub next year.

Exclusions

These lists exclude 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 Top 25 Report talk page if you wish.

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31 July 2019 (all comments)

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Long ago, WikiProject Spaceflight decided that times on the Moon would be in UTC, since terrestrial time zones have no meaning ion the Moon. Many Americans took umbrage at the date of the Moon landing changing to 21 July when it was 20 July in the United States. I see the Signpost editors are nailing their colours to the mast. (Best argument so far: to conform to Matthew 7:20. To which I could only reply "well if Eastern Daylight Time was good enough for Jesus...) Hawkeye7 (discuss) 02:28, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

In space no one can hear you scream, or tell what time it is. Since the Moon was facing Asia and Australia at the time of the Apollo 11 moonwalk it can be argued it was "High Noon on the Moon" (at least from the Aussies point of view). Randy Kryn (talk) 04:05, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

On the middle of the side of the moon that faces the sun, it's always High Noon. Guess the "time" changes depending how far from that point you are... Chiswick Chap (talk) 18:54, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

What was seen overhead near the equator (where all the Apollo missions landed) was the Earth, not the Sun. A day on the Moon is 29½ Earth days long. The Apollo missions all landed in the lunar early morning, and Apollo 17, which stayed for over three Earth days, stayed for less than three lunar hours, so it was always morning. They wanted to avoid the harsh lunar midday Sun. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:07, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Author of the quoted report here, as someone from outside those projects or the United States to begin with (I'm South American), never would've expected such a reaction. igordebraga ≠ 00:06, 3 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

One small correction, Cori Gauff was not "the youngest player in the history of the tournament", that honour goes to Jennifer Capriati, who was 14 when she made her Wimbledon debut. Iffy★Chat -- 12:33, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

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