Summary: The traditional start of summer vacation in the United States appeared to be a signal for the English-speaking world to bid a fond farewell to the real one, as summer blockbuster movies, cheesy music, 1960s post-modern porn, cable television and guys with neon helmets arrived to shuffle all the cares and casualties of the news cycle away- save a small cameo for the gawking media circus's objet du jour, Jodi Arias.
For the week of May 19 to May 25, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:
A perennially popular article, though a newcomer to the top spot. Since it is always in the news for some reason or other, it's difficult to say why it reached the top this week.
This perennial contender for the Great American Novel and eternal junior high school homework assignment is still going strong this week, most likely due to users looking for the Baz Luhrmann film.
As of May 25, this movie has grossed a hair under $200 million worldwide. Despite this, its distributors are debating whether to call it a disappointment. Such is the way of Hollywood these days.
This indestructible franchise roared into its sixth installment with nearly $100 million grossed in 48 hours. If Riddick does similar business, it would appear that Vin Diesel's comeback is assured.
The last Sunday in May (that's May 27 this year), the day that the United States chose to honour its war dead, is perhaps better known as the traditional beginning of US summer vacation, and is thus eagerly anticipated by millions of people too young to serve but old enough to stand in line for action movies.
A popular TIL on Reddit let to a spike in interest in this literary hoax, in which a team of genuinely skilled writers attempted to compose the most terrible work possible, with the aim of showing that the hoi polloi will consume any drivel. It ultimately sold 100,000 copies, to the writers' smug satisfaction. Actually, all they really proved was that porn sells, so no big sociological truth there.
The final for the kitschiest exercise in human unity ever devised, that 800 million people across a continent love to hate to love, was televised on May 18 from its spiritual homeland, Sweden.
This popular microblogging website made its debut in the top 25, thanks to being purchased by Yahoo!
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
G-force: this has been in the Top 25 since the list was started at the beginning of the year. The continuing popularity of this article, which jumped in June 2012, has been without explanation. Articles on popular scientific concepts get nowhere this level of viewing based on our analysis to date, e.g., Gravitation (49,516 views from March 3–9), and therefore we have decided to remove it from the list as most likely caused by non-human views.
Haggis: Somehow, this fabled, lung-y Scottish comestible managed to accrue 7 million views between May 17 and May 20. Reason is unknown, though spam is a possibility. Mmmm. Haggis spam.
Specific removals this week (those articles for which no reason for any sudden popularity could be located):
Cult: Due to a sudden 3-day spike in popularity on May 21-23
Melanie Maddison: high counts for a redlink are usually due to sambots or pranksters.
Acoustic Electric Guitar: This redirect (capitals included) has occasionally appeared in the top 25, probably due to a sadly confused adware bot.
Number of views needed to reach Top 25 this week: 326,556. Last week: 349,207.
