Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (July 26 to August 1, 2015)

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Summary: Death is not an infrequent visitor to this list. Deaths in 2014 was the single most viewed topic last year. But this week it cast a particularly gloomy pall, with six slots devoted to it- eight if you count the interest in convicted mass murderer Tiger Memon and Réunion's possible connection to the tragedy of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The dolorous tone may explain why this list had the lowest entry point since before we began counting mobile views last October. Another milestone was, of course, India, which, with seven slots devoted to it, continued its rise to dominion of this list. It will be interesting to see if this is a long term trend or just an Indian summer.

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As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of July 26 to August 1, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:

Rank	Article	Views	Notes
1	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam	3,589,713	The surge of views this former scientist and reluctant politician received upon his death this week at the age of 83 is merely a reflection of the regard in which he was held by his fellow Indians. A Muslim in a predominantly Hindu country, he rose to the very top of the political ladder, first as a developer of India's missile and nuclear programs, and then as President. Despite adhering to Islam, he considered himself an Indian and drew much inspiration from his country's Hindu heritage. As a result, his one term as President was one of the most popular in his country's history. A lifelong advocate of technology, he believed that India could become a developed country through embracing and expanding its knowledge base.
2	Yakub Memon	1,098,805	The Muslim terrorist, believed to have played a role in the 1993 Bombay bombings that killed 257 people, was hanged this week amid speculation that he was paying for the crime of his still-at-large brother Tiger Memon. Many commentators contrasted his death with the outpouring of grief which greeted that of his fellow Muslim and national hero A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, and pondered what it augured for the future of India's society.
3	Roddy Piper	1,086,945	Wikipedia viewers love their wrestlers, and so the death of "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, world-renowned WWF and WCW heel, at the relatively young age of 61, was bound to stir emotions. In the ring, "Hot Rod" played up his Scottish roots, affecting the rage of a Glaswegian football hooligan and entering to the sound of bagpipes, for which he was named (his real last name, incidentally, was Toombs, which you would think would be a perfectly acceptable wrestling name). While never a wrestling fan, I will always remember him as the working class hero of John Carpenter's political alien invasion allegory They Live, in which he originated the now-legendary line, "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass- and I'm all out of bubblegum!" OK, so it makes no sense, but it's still cool.
4	Bajrangi Bhaijaan	948,650	Bollywood's Muslim-targeted counterprogramming to the raging box office tsunami of Baahubali: The Beginning, starring Hindu/Muslim superstar Salman Khan (pictured) and opening on Eid weekend, made Rs 2 billion ($31.2 million) in its first nine days, and earned support from legends like Shekhar Kapur. In its first 15 days, the film has grossed more than Rs 4 billion ($62.5 million) worldwide. But Khan's tweets in apparent support of Yakub Memon have led to posters for the film being defaced in some areas.
5	Bobbi Kristina Brown	930,371	The eerie death of the daughter of the late Whitney Houston (found, like her mother, in a bathtub) has cast a pall of tragedy on a family already no stranger to it. Aged just 22, she had already become a focus of tabloid gossip and speculation.
6	List of highest-grossing Indian films	725,049	With the barnstorming performances of Baahubali: The Beginning and Bajrangi Bhaijaan making national news in India, people are interested to know how they stack up against the recent crop of record breakers. NOTE: includes views for its redirect page List of highest-grossing Bollywood films
7	Baahubali: The Beginning	747,036	At $41 million, this sprawling, two-part historical epic is the most expensive film in Indian history (no, it isn't actually Bollywood, since it was made in South India, much to Bollywood's chagrin). Starring the Telugu actor Prabhas (pictured), the first part, subtitled "The Beginning", broke box office records upon its release on July 10, earning Rs 2.15 billion ($34 million) worldwide in just 5 days and in just three weeks has already crossed the Rs 4.85 billion ($76 million) mark, showing remarkable stamina for an Indian blockbuster, most of which drop off by 80 percent at that point.
8	Ant-Man (film)	515,092	Other than Guardians of the Galaxy, this was always going to be Marvel Studios's biggest gamble, and signs did not augur well after writer-director Edgar Wright abandoned the project when denied total creative control. And yet, while it is hardly the box-office miracle that Guardians was, it has proved a moderate domestic hit, at $132 million to date, though it is on course to become the lowest-grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
9	Deaths in 2015	482,484	The viewing figures for this article have been remarkably constant; fluctuating week to week between 450 and 550 thousand, apparently heedless of who actually died.
10	Ronda Rousey	482,298	The undefeated UFC women's bantamweight champion beat Bethe Correia in 34 seconds during UFC 190 on August 1 in Correia's home town of Rio de Janeiro. Apparently Correia had been trash talking Rousey prior to the fight, which strikes me as a rather odd thing to do to someone who a) has never lost a fight and b) won her last fight in 14 seconds.
11	Death of Sandra Bland	459,953	The death in police custody of this 28-year-old African American woman has been ruled a suicide, though the protests that greeted the ruling have highlighted its significance against a mounting backdrop of police violence against African Americans in recent months.
12	Blue moon	456,383	A blue moon used to mean the third of four full moons in a single season; these days it means the second of two full moons in a month. Either way, they're less rare than you might suppose, occurring about once every three years or so. By the newer definition, we had one on July 31. By the way, the term "blue" has nothing to do with colour. If Wikipedia is to be believed (and why not?) it is a corruption of the Old English belewe, to betray, since if it fell in Spring, it meant an extra month of fasting for Lent. Supposedly.
13	Tiger Memon	406,614	The prime suspect of the 1993 Bombay bombings is still at large, and his whereabouts became the subject of rumour after a former Kashmiri militant claimed to have met him shortly after the blasts.
14	Whitney Houston	390,727	The tragically short life of the power-voiced balladeer was thrown into sharp relief when her own daughter died in shockingly similar circumstances at just 22.
15	Meek Mill	377,300	This Philadelphia rapper got into the news this week thanks to a beef with Drake, whom he accused of using a ghostwriter. The resulting kerfuffle apparently led to a breakup with his girlfriend Niki Minaj.
16	Réunion	360,758	This tiny tropical paradise off the coast of Madagascar became the subject of intense interest after wreckage found on its shores was tentatively confirmed as belonging to the downed Malaysia Airlines flight 370.
17	Donald Trump	357,639	The bombastic American real estate developer and media personality continues his improbable rise to the top of Republican politics, much to the horror of the Republican establishment, who have been cheering for his sudden, swift downfall for weeks. But despite a seemingly unending series of gaffes, Trump's poll ratings among primary voters continue to climb. This week it was calling a female lawyer "disgusting" for breastfeeding in public, while his lawyer and campaign strategist claimed, whilst threatening to sue a journalist, that spousal rape is not a crime (just to be clear, it is; very much so).
18	Pixels (2015 film)	342,621	Some movies are critic-proof; no matter how reviled they may be in the press, audiences will flock to them in the same way they rush to the junk food aisle at the supermarket. The films of Adam Sandler were once among the most critic-proof on the market, but this wannabe blockbuster (about an invasion of Earth by 1980s video games) may be bucking that trend. Sony Pictures' only major release this year has barely outperformed Sandler's previous bomb Jack and Jill.
19	Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation	340,226	The box office draw of Tom Cruise (pictured) may have flagged of late, but he can always return to his signature franchise, which has yet to let him down. The fifth installment in the Mission: Impossible series opened to a hefty $56 million this weekend, all but ensuring a part 6.
20	Tom Cruise	335,487	See above.
21	Hotmail	333,678	Microsoft's email site got into the news this week when it was revealed that the upcoming Windows 10 has a feature called Wi-Fi Sense that will share your wifi passwords with any of your contacts within range, be they Hotmail, Outlook, Skype or even Facebook. Intended as a means to reduce hassle, it's been described by cybersecurity experts as "a disaster waiting to happen".
22	Cara Delevingne	310,486	The British model-turned-actress is getting press both for her role as Enchantress in the upcoming Suicide Squad, and also for her role in the film adaptation of Paper Towns, released last week.
23	List of Bollywood films of 2015	355,215	With the Bollywood summer season now in full swing, it's getting hard to keep up with the new releases, overshadowed as they are by current massive hits like Baahubali: The Beginning, so people turn to Wikipedia for help.
24	Facebook	285,120	Back on the list for the first time in a month, probably spurred by its connection to the Wi-Fi Sense controversy (see #21)
25	Caitlyn Jenner	278,823	I Am Cait, the reality television series starring the former track and field star, honorary Kardashian, and recently transitioned woman, premiered on the E! network on July 26.

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). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we also exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (~2% or less) or almost all mobile views (~95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish.

Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.