The Top 25 Report

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (March 20 to 26, 2016)

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Summary: Despite a flurry of caucuses this week (most of which were won by Bernie Sanders, who capped the week by becoming the least likely Disney Princess in history) a lack of debates means that interest in politics among our viewers has ebbed. And with next week being a rare fallow period in the primary season, that means that *gasp* we won't have to talk about politics! For a while. Which, given the reactions we've been getting, would be a breather I can tell you. Of course, we still have to talk about Donald Trump, though whether his presence on this list is actually due to politics is debatable. In other news, numbers are down for both Easter and its Indian counterpart Holi this year, which is odd, given the lack of interest in politics. Fittingly, death continues to be a companion of Eastertide, with Garry Shandling, Johan Cruyff, Phife Dawg and Rob Ford all dying this week, and, of course, the tragedy in Brussels. The second season of the Netflix/Marvel collaboration Daredevil finally got a decent airing on this list, having been hobbled in views by an awkward release date (the entire season was released at once on March 18, two days before this list's timeframe).

As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of March 20 to 26, 2016, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:

Rank	Article	Views	Notes
1	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice	3,152,933	Warner Bros might have cause to breathe again for the first time in three years, as their tent-pole gamble and hopes for an entire franchise have, it seems, paid off. Maybe. With $420 million earned worldwide in its first week, the official founding stone for DC's cinematic universe has gone down a storm, with the studio's highest ever domestic opening weekend. But, having cost an estimated $400 million to make and market, this movie will have to make $800 million worldwide just to break even, and after earning an atrocious "B-" Cinemascore from male fans, and a dismal 29% RT score, it's uncertain whether this storm will end up more of a squall.
2	Donald Trump	1,480,800	OK. What did he do this week? Not much, actually. Except insult Ted Cruz's wife Heidi for being unattractive. To be fair, he did this in response to a Cruz-affiliated superPAC posting a nude photoshoot Trump's model wife Melania did for GQ years ago, along with implicit slut-shaming and insinuations she was unfit to be First Lady (they must have never heard of Carla Bruni). Cruz was quick to distance himself from that image, and to defend his wife, calling Trump a "snivelling coward", but it seems Wikipedia viewers aren't listening. Ted and Heidi rank at 61 and 82 on the raw list, respectively, while Melania is at 32.
3	Garry Shandling	1,227,744	The popular comedian, whose groundbreaking sitcom/talk show hybrid The Larry Sanders Show was an early hit for HBO and widely considered one of the best TV comedies of all time, died this week at the age of just 66.
4	Good Friday	797,456	The dark bit of Easter, this commemorates (despite its name, "celebrates" isn't really the right word) the torture and crucifixion (Passion) of Jesus Christ, as opposed to Easter Sunday which celebrates his resurrection.
5	Johan Cruyff	754,660	This hugely respected Dutch footballer, who spent most of his career at Ajax and Barcelona, both as player and manager, died this week at the age of 68. Considered by many to be one of the best footballers of all time, he presided over the rise of his country from a minnow to a footballing superpower in the 1970s.
6	Bluetooth	702,091	As learned on Reddit this week, the ubiquitous wireless technology was named after Harold Bluetooth, who first unified Denmark in the tenth century. Its logo is the bind rune that forms his initials. Despite the technology having originated with the Swedish company Ericsson, the name was coined by an American employee at Intel.
7	Punisher	669,723	After years in B- and C-movie purgatory, Marvel Comics's most merciless antihero finally got a decent mainstream adaptation, thanks to a primary plot thread on this season of Daredevil\|Daredevil and a surprisingly sympathetic portrayal by The Walking Dead's Jon Bernthal.
8	Deaths in 2016	658,762	The annual list of deaths has always been a fairly consistent visitor to this list, averaging about 500,000 views a week. Since the death of David Bowie, this article's views have jumped on average.
9	Daredevil (season 2)	601,562	Numbers are up this week for the Marvel/Netflix series, which suggests that, despite critics' claims of a sophomore slump, interest may be more prolonged than I originally thought.
10	Elektra (comics)	593,434	The impractically underdressed ninja assassin from the Daredevil comics got her introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe last week, played by French/Cambodian actress and karate expert Élodie Yung.
11	Easter	572,136	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.
12	Daredevil (TV series)	554,821	Numbers are way down on last year if only this week is counted, but up if you count last week. Still, neither tally compares to the interest given Marvel/Netflix stablemate Jessica Jones last year.
13	Brussels	531,791	It is interesting to note that it is the city itself, and its nation (below) that drive our viewers here in the wake of the 2016 Brussels bombings. It couldn't be because no one knows where Brussels is, right? I mean that'd just be silly.
14	Belgium	515,583	See above.
15	Phife Dawg	499,531	The rapper died this week at the age of just 45, from diabetes.
16	2016 Brussels bombings	497,745	ISIS have a lamentable but undeniable talent for horrific escalation. Just three days after committing this atrocity, they orchestrated a suicide bombing in Iraq that killed at least as many people. Currently losing territory to the dozen or so groups fighting it, it has decided that Europe is now a field in its battle against modernity.
17	Holi	591,417	This fun Hindu festival of colours and love, notable for people throwing coloured powder on the streets, fell on March 24 this year.
18	WrestleMania 32	482,495	WWE's annual pay-per-view pantomime will take place on April 3, 2016, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and, apparently, will feature Roman Reigns (pictured). He's on the poster anyway. I'm sure it will be very expensive.
19	Rob Ford	454,095	The former mayor of Toronto, whose main claim to fame was that he admitted to smoking crack cocaine on the grounds that he had been too drunk to remember if he hadn't, died this week at the age of 46, not, surprisingly, from complications resulting from substance abuse but from a rare form of cancer. Which allows us to say, without irony, that he was taken from us too young.
20	10 Cloverfield Lane	452,611	The fact that this science fiction thriller, which was produced by J. J. Abrams and includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead (pictured) in the cast, has apparently nothing to do with the original Cloverfield (it was initially titled "The Cellar") does not seem to have deterred audiences or critics. It has earned $70 million in its first 17 days; nearly quintuple its production budget, and has a 90% RT rating.
21	Gal Gadot	442,741	The Israeli actress and former combat instructor has grown in popularity since being announced as DC Cinematic Universe's anointed Wonder Woman, and the first official live-action Wonder Woman since Lynda Carter in the 70s.
22	The Walking Dead (season 6)	442,349	Two weeks from its season finale, story arcs are tying up with multiple bangs in this AMC series.
23	2016 ICC World Twenty20	435,545	If there is one thing to show how powerful the Indian presence on the English Wikipedia is, it would be cricket. I mean sure, cricket's popular in England, but English topics don't usually make it up here. Twenty20 cricket is a leaner, faster version of the game that lasts for three hours instead of three days (no, that isn't an exaggeration) and has made it a bit more like baseball. And this year, the world championship is being held in India, with the final on April 3.
24	Deadpool (film)	405,976	If Warner Bros wanted to scare itself straight after the high of Batman v Superman's opening numbers, they could always look to Marvel/Fox's Deadpool, which has so far made $745 million worldwide on a $58 million budget. No specific reason that it's up this week, except people really like it.
25	Fidel Castro	399,021	With Barack Obama becoming the first US President to visit Cuba in 88 years, interest turned to the man who was basically the reason why it took so long.

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.