Summary: The month of May is upon us, and with it, apparently, are a plethora of spring festivals, from International Workers' Day to Cinco de Mayo and plain old May Day. Opposing this spirit of vernal rebirth was a surprisingly large number of violent and tragic deaths, including Jeff Hanneman's encounter with flesh-eating bacteria, Chris Kelly's encounter with a speedball, and a fairly despicable murder of a likely innocent man in a Pakistani prison.
For the week of April 29 to May 5, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:
The unexpected, tragic, and somewhat disturbing illness prior to the death from another cause of the lead guitarist for the band Slayer got under people's skin this week.
Most likely the result of users searching for International Workers' Day, which falls on May 1 and got a lot of attention, particularly in the left-wing press.
As expected, this mega-blockbuster, expected to join its predecessor in the $1 billion-earners club, had a 33% jump in views after its US debut on May 3
In a self-penned cover story in the May 6 issue of Sports Illustrated, Collins became the first member of a major American men's sports team to come out as gay, with the predictable reaction from the Christian right.
This perennial contender for the Great American Novel and eternal junior high school homework assignment got a 33% increase in views this week, most likely from users looking for the upcoming Baz Luhrmann film.
This 1990s hip-hop duo, famous for, oddly, wearing their clothes backwards, sparked interest after the death of one of them, Chris "Mac Daddy" Kelly, from a drug overdose.
One of the most self-explanatory article spikes on Wikipedia ever, this celebration of Mexican-American culture (originally meant to commemorate a Mexican victory over the French) occurred, conveniently, on May 5.
The sad story of this Indian national, believed by many to have been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death by a Pakistani court for a fatal series of bombings in Lahore and Faisalabad in 1990, came to an end on May 2, when he was pronounced dead after having been beaten by a brick and blade-wielding mob.
A newcomer to the top 25, but 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.
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 feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish. Standard removals this week include:
Cat anatomy; explanation still unknown for its continuing high view counts
Specific removals this week (those articles for which no reason for any sudden popularity could be located):
Patti Reagan: The fact that this is a redirect (her official name is Patti Davis) suggests that this was a spam.
G: A venerable and useful letter. No reason why it should be so popular.
