Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (August 18 to 24, 2013)
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Summary: A very slow week. We haven't quite hit the depths of two weeks ago, but we're grazing it with our toes. With no major pop cultural events to follow (no new big movies, major sports events or TV shows) celebrity culture dominates, as does Reddit, which promoted three topics to the top 25 this week; it's highest confirmed count since the start of the year.
For the week of August 18 - 24, 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 - - Lee Thompson Young 
709,809 The tragic suicide of this young, up-and-coming actor (he was 29) and star of Friday Night Lights and The Famous Jett Jackson unsurprisingly became the prime talking point of the week. 2 5 33 Facebook 
675,478 
A perennially popular article 3 - - Claude Debussy 
619,684 
With the possible exception of suicide, nothing guarantees a high Wikipedia view count like an interactive Google Doodle, and this French composer of "Oh yeah, that!" classical pieces like Clair de Lune got one for his 151st birthday on August 22. 4 4 3 Breaking Bad
547,047 
The final season of this acclaimed chemistry teacher-turned-Scarface TV series began on August 11. 5 4 3 Chennai Express
531,746 This Bollywood action-romance has broken records at the Indian box office, becoming the first film to make 
1 billion ($16.3 million) in four days.
6 - - I Am Rich
447,963 A $1000 iPhone app that did nothing except remind its users that they could afford it stimulated a discussion on Reddit this week. 7 - - Pseudofolliculitis barbae
397,403 
Another Reddit discussion was stimulated by this skin affliction, commonly referred to as "shave bumps", because Domino's Pizza was declared in violation of the 1991 Civil Rights Act when it demanded its male employees be clean-shaven, even though roughly a quarter of African Americans are unable to shave without incurring it. 8 8 43 Deaths in 2013 List 389,605 
The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article. 9 8 14 List of Bollywood films of 2013 List 376,515 
An established staple of the top 25. 10 9 6 The Conjuring (film)
371,391 James Wan's latest ghost story (reportedly based on true events, take that as you will) stormed the US, taking $70 million in its first week, and is now closing in on $200 million worldwide. 11 - - Bradley Manning 
348,420 
Between being sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in the United States diplomatic cables leak and coming out as transgender, it's not really surprising that Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning made an appearance in the top 25 this week; it is surprising that this is his first appearance, particularly given the popularity of Edward Snowden. 12 16 31 Google
330,665 
A perennially popular article. 13 - - Pedro López (serial killer)
330,017 This Colombian serial killer, known as the "Monster of the Andes" got a bump thanks to another Reddit thread. Lopez could very well be the most prolific serial killer of all time, with up to 300 victims to his name, all of them young girls. He's also a free man, thanks to a maximum 20-year prison sentence; though Interpol have been after him regarding another murder in 2002. 14 - - Wentworth Miller
329,638 
The onetime Prison Break star came out as gay on August 22 in opposition to Russia's anti-gay bill. 15 24 40 YouTube
283,548 
Another perennially popular article 16 19 2 Kick Ass 2 (film)
279,349 The ridiculously violent superhero pastiche has yet to make back its $28 million budget worldwide, but remains a topic of discussion among Wikipedians. 17 - - SummerSlam (2013) Unassessed 277,218 
WWE event that took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California On August 18. 18 - 4 IPv6
306,786 
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. 19 - 5 Amazon.com
272,461 
For such a popular website, it makes surprisingly few appearances in the Top 25. 20 - 2 Ben Affleck
271,613 
It's fair to say that, Academy Award-winning writer/director though he may be, Ben Affleck has never quite earned similar respect as an actor; thus it was a bit of a shock to the Nerdisphere when it was revealed that Warner Bros had chosen him to play Batman in their upcoming Batman vs. Superman mashup. 21 - - Patrick Stewart
268,816 
The onetime Captain Jean-Luc Picard has something of a following among the cyber-literate (literally; Twitter counts 573,477). So when his recent appearance at Twitter headquarters led to this viral video, it generated the single biggest nerdgasm of the year so far. 22 12 2 List of Breaking Bad episodes List 266,743 People want to keep up with this show. 23 - - Adrian Lamo
256,596 
The hacker who turned Bradley Manning over the US government (see #11 above). 24 - - The Butler
244,154 The Butler (we don't need no Lee Daniels' here) is an undisputed smash hit, having earned $40 million in 9 days, but lags behind more geek-friendly fare in Wikipedia views. 25 18 6 Orange Is the New Black
230,577 
The women-in-prison TV series premiered in its entirety on Netflix on 11 July.
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- This list is derived from the WP:5000 report. It excludes the Wikipedia main page (and "wiki"), 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.
- Cat anatomy: A spammer with a sense of humor? Lazy med students looking for quick info on cat dissections? Or a REALLY confused adware bot for Friskies? The debate still rages as to why this article continues to rank so highly.
- 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".
- Alive/Alive!: Links to disambigs with no apparent reason for being.
- MONO (Shigeo Tamaru Album) and Chikako Watanabe: Articles related to the Japanese band NaNa have been popping into the Top 25 for weeks with no determined rationale. There may be one. We haven't found it.
- Lycos and Yahoo!: geriatric web portals seem to be back en vogue, for no apparent reason. Yahoo!'s removal may be slightly unfair, but it muscled its way into the top 25 weeks ago through shady means and I don't trust it anymore.
- List of reporting software: articles about obscure technical specifications frequently get massive, inexplicable view-spikes.
- Specific removals this week (those for whom no explanation for their popularity could be found):
- Howards End: If it's a spammer, it's a spammer with taste.
- SOLID (object-oriented design): Another bump for an obscure technical article.
- Number of views needed to reach Top 25 this week: 230,577. Last week: 243,293
- Almosts: Attack on Titan (223,503 views); Sex (223,221 views); Kryptonite (219,645 views)
- The revision of WP:5000 containing the data used to create this list.