Summary: Pop quiz: Name the country with the highest number of English speakers. You said America. And you were right. Now name the country with the second-highest number of English speakers. No, don't look it up. You looked it up. Surprised? Well you shouldn't be. Even given its vast 1.2 billion population, India's status as a former British colony means that English has been slowly transfused into its bloodstream for hundreds of years. And with ever-larger numbers of them going online every day, it's not surprising that many in its 125 million-strong English-speaking population are choosing the English Wikipedia over those in their native languages. This week marked the first time three India-themed (or, more accurately, Bollywood-themed) entries appeared in the top 25 since we started the report; a number that is sure to increase.
For the week of May 26 to June 1, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:
It's been a while since a Google Doodle shot an article to the top; the curiosity of the public is confoundingly fickle. But as everyone's used a petri dish in high school biology, perhaps the public felt they owed him something. Whether a gift or a punch in the mouth, I cannot say.
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.
In the 15 days since its first international release, this movie has grossed just under $400 million worldwide. So, that's a franchise in rude health then. How rude? Part 7 comes out next year.
A tip for any stoners who may be reading this: if you happen to be toking 35 stories up when the cops arrive, don't throw your bong out the window. It is a handy way to add reckless endangerment and tampering with evidence to criminal possession. Of course, you will probably be stoned under such circumstances so to avoid them cropping up in the first place, I would suggest keeping your recreational inhalations at ground level.
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.
Despite appearing on course to box-office bombhood, having opened in third place with lower grosses than the similarly fated John Carter last year, this was still the most-viewed new movie on Wikipedia; Now You See Me, which beat After Earth at the box office, didn't break the top 100.
The first of three Bollywood-related articles in the top 25, this film has grossed over Rs. 1 billion (~US$18 million) at the box office, and become a phenomenon on the sub-continent.
As of Jun 1, this movie has grossed $328 million worldwide. Despite this, its distributors are debating whether to call it a disappointment. Such is the way of Hollywood these days.
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.
Cult: Unknown reasons for periodic spikes in popularity
Melanie Maddison: high counts for a redlink are usually due to spambots 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: 330,123. Last week: 326,556.
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