Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (April 20 to 26, 2014)

← Last week's report – Next week's Report →

Summary: Not much to report this week. The same post-Easter celebrations (4/20, Earth Day) were popular again this year, except last year we were still reeling from the Boston Marathon bombing. Now Americans have the triumph of their countryman Meb Keflezighi to reflect on instead.

For the week of April 20 to 26, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages, were:

Rank	Last	Wks	Article	Views	Notes
1	-	-	Snoop Dogg	752,512	This year Easter Sunday coincided with 4/20, the potheads' celebration, and ubertoker Snoop Dogg marked the date both with a sell-out concert at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre and a video of a "real Easter bunny" posted on Instagram. Those two together, may be enough to explain his massive one-day surge a day later, or may not, but I'm not about to dis Snoop Dogg.
2	1	26	Game of Thrones	586,972	New seasons of this immensely popular show always draw people to Wikipedia.
3	5	3	Easter	501,976	It's hard to remember these days, under the onslaught of bunnies, chocolate eggs and marshmallow peeps, that Easter, not Christmas, is the most sacred date of the Christian calendar. Doubtless a lot of people learned that this week, along with some fairly eye-raising information about the events it actually celebrates.
4	11	12	Amazon.com	419,848	This article has been veering wildly (and suspiciously) around the view graph for several weeks, but at least now its presence on the list has a reason: Amazon Fire TV is a digital streaming device to watch online content on a HDTV. How it distinguishes itself from the three or four other such devices currently on the market is a matter of some dispute.
5	-	2	420 (cannabis culture)	647,578	This curious "holiday", which falls on April 20 (for obvious reasons) refers to the mysterious number 420 and its long link to marijuana usage. While it may not quite be to cannabis what Oktoberfest is to beer, it no doubt aspires to be.
6	12	57	Deaths in 2014	402,005	The list of deaths in the current year is always a popular article.
7	7	4	Game of Thrones (season 4)	384,436	As usual, people will be using this page to look up air dates.
8	16	2	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	379,966	It's not surprising that this was released in foreign markets before its home territory; the original Spider-Man made $822 million worldwide, with the domestic and international grosses split roughly 50/50. The rebooted Amazing Spider-Man (this film's predecessor) made $752 million worldwide, but with international grosses now comprising 2/3 the total. This radical shift in Hollywood's biosphere has taken place in just a decade, and it is already altering hunting strategies, for good or ill; even after just two weeks overseas, this movie has already made $132 million.
9	9	3	List of Game of Thrones episodes	364,019	Most likely air dates again.
10	-	2	Earth Day	347,924	The annual eco-celebration got roughly the same views as last year.
11	17	67	Facebook	323,370	A perennially popular article.
12	18	8	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	320,587	Joss Whedon's extension of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into television returned on 1 April after a three-week hiatus.
13	-	-	Fargo (TV series)	306,463	The TV series based on the Coen brothers' film-blanc Minnesota-homage and starring Billy Bob Thornton, Colin Hanks and, of all people, Martin Freeman, premiered on the cable channel FX to modest acclaim and (so far) consistent ratings on April 15.
14	-	-	Seth Rogen	304,532	The Judd Apatow protege and star of the upcoming Neighbors got a Reddit thread on April 22, outlining how he became his family's sole breadwinner by age 16.
15	-	38	List of Bollywood films of 2014	271,403	An established staple of the top 25 returns.
16	-	-	Tito Vilanova	270,419	The former manager of FC Barcelona died this week of throat cancer.
17	19	19	Frozen (2013 film)	269,190	Disney's Oscar-winning juggernaut got a shot in the arm thanks to its release on DVD on March 18. Despite this, it has already overtaken Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest as Disney's highest-grossing film in theatres.
18	-	-	Rubin Carter	260,510	The onetime middleweight boxer who spent 20 years in prison after a false conviction for murder, whose life was the inspiration for the film The Hurricane, died this week at the age of 76.
19	-	-	Louis van Gaal	255,988	The current manager of the Dutch national football team got into the news this week over speculation he was being offered to run the most popular club in the world, Manchester United (Yeah, I know they're not doing very well this year, but considering that the world is currently home to more Man U fans than Americans, that's gonna take a while to change).
20	-	-	Dan Bilzerian	251,375	The hard-living, poker playing millionaire and Instagram exhibitionist got into trouble this week for apparently throwing a porn star off his roof, which, I'll concede, is not the kind of trouble just anyone can get into.
21	–	-	Meb Keflezighi	249,990	He may have immigrated from Eritrea at age 12, but after becoming the first American man to win the Boston Marathon in 31 years, the US media has been playing him up as an all-American success story.
22	-	45	YouTube	246,215	A perennially popular article.
23	-	13	Wikipedia	245,596	Wikipedia returns to its own Top 25.
24	-	-	Saint George's Day	245,570	Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland because he converted the Irish to Christianity. Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland because his relics were supposedly transported there 1000 years ago. Saint David is the patron saint of Wales because he was a local boy made good. Saint George is the patron saint of England because... reasons. It says something about the English attitude towards religion that their chosen patron saint was a Palestinian who died centuries before their country even existed and is mostly famous for doing something fictional. Still, with the rise of Celtic regional nationalism, his flag has become ever more popular in England, as is his saint's day, which falls this week and got a Google Doodle.
25	-	-	Imgur	225,448	Massive one-day spike on April 22 for the popular image-sharing site. Doesn't look artificial but with no immediately obvious rationale it's essentially impossible for me to determine why it happened.

Number of views needed to reach Top 25 this week: 225,448. Last week: 277,266.

The revision of WP:5000 containing the data used to create this list.

Almosts: List of Arrow episodes (224,622 views); Indian general election, 2014 (222,626 views); 2 States (217,613 views)

Exclusions

This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), 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 I can't find a reason for an article to be included doesn't mean there isn't one; conversely, 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.

- Java/JOP: Since both of these articles are tied (verbally at least) to the programming language, it seems likely that this is a bot searching for that.
- IPv6: I have to face facts; I allowed this into the top 25 for months as it is the kind of issue that would appeal to web denizens (ala Bitcoin) but its insane popularity is just too high explain by human interest alone. It's getting help.
- Ddd: Hello? Spambot here. Just checking in.
- History of Bălţi: There is simply no logical way to explain the sudden rise of this hyper-obscure article except as the result of a traffic-checking botnet, ala cat anatomy
- Alive/Alive!: Links to disambigs with no apparent reason for being.
- Lycos: The geriatric web portal is back. Just when I was saying goodbye to Climategate.
- Automobile: This has been splurging itself all over the view chart for weeks at random. Human beings don't behave this way.

Specific exclusions this week:

- Cotinine: suspiciously even two-day spike for this nicotine metabolite.
- Hi-hat Rock music instruments have a habit of being pushed by bots on this list (see Acoustic Electric Guitar- yes the capitals are included).
- GARCH: One day spike; link to a redirect; no corresponding bump for the main article. Yep. This is fake alright.
- List of Bollywood films of 2013: This one caught me off guard; a massive, one day spike for last year's movie list. There could be any number of reasons for it, but the fact that it was one day only suggests it was inflated.
- Canal+: Well, they show Game of Thrones in Spain. Other than that, Eh?.