Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (May 11 to 17 2014)

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

Summary: It's a relief to see Google Doodles having an impact again; their wide coverage means that they inspire curiosity on many subjects which, for reasons of nationality, ethnicity or gender, might not be known in the English-speaking world. It's a shame then, that Wikipedia so often fails to keep up; articles on Google Doodles are almost invariably C-class, and seldom do justice to their subjects. Still, interest in Google Doodles has been waning in recent months- Audrey Hepburn's last week was the first to top the list since December- so any rise in popularity is worth celebrating.

For the week of May 11 to 17, 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	-	-	Dorothy Hodgkin	1,818,292	The Nobel Prize winning pioneer of protein crystallography got a Google Doodle on her would-have-been 104th birthday on 12 May.
2	3	2	Conchita Wurst	1,579,871	It wouldn't be Eurovision without some unsettling political subtexts, and while Russia's not-quite-invasion of Ukraine may have had less impact than expected (they both gave each other points, albeit not a lot) the same cannot be said for its antediluvian restrictions on the LGBT community, (Eurovision is known as the "gay Superbowl", after all) reaction to which almost certainly played a part in this gender-bending Austrian singer's triumph over bookies' favourite, Sweden's Sanna Nielsen.
3	-	-	Brown v. Board of Education	1,314,710	This week marked the 60th anniversary of this landmark US Supreme Court decision, that effectively ended the Jim Crow apartheid that had characterised the American South and parts of the West since the Civil War. While it should be noted that America marked the anniversary under a black President, most news articles covering it have noted how far the US still has to go.
4	-	-	Maria Gaetana Agnesi	1,140,470	This 18th-century child prodigy, who spoke seven languages by the time she was 11, discovered the algebraic curve somewhat insensitively known as the "Witch of Agnesi"; a not-particularly clever pun on the Italian words versiera (sheet, the name of the curve) and avversiera, (female devil). Yes, can't have our women dabbling in all that diabolical math, now can we? Only in the modern era has the curve gained scientific applications, appearing in such phenomena as x-rays and power dissipation in resonant circuits, leading to long-overdue recognition and a Google Doodle for her 296th birthday on 16 May.
5	-	-	Godzilla (2014 film)	833,060	It seems that Hollywood's trust in Gareth Edwards, director of the microbudget scifi flick Monsters, was well placed, as his take on the Godzilla mythos has emulated its hero, stomping the box office to dust with $93 million in three days. Critics seem to like the movie too; it's RT rating is currently 73%. Personally, I had issues with it, but then, what do I know?
6	6	15	Amazon.com	685,552	This article suddenly reappeared in the top 25 after a long absence, but at least it has a reason: Amazon Fire TV; 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.
7	-	-	Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site	638,076	Otherwise known as Monroe Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas, this was one of the segregated schools that triggered the dispute that led to the Supreme Court resolution that ultimately ended segregation in public schools.
8	5	4	Mother's Day	623,525	The second Sunday in May (that's May 11 to all you ingrates who forgot) is far and away the most popular time of year to celebrate Mother's Day, and, even as the day fell, panicked college students in all participating countries rushed to their computers to learn they'd blown it.
9	-	-	Narendra Modi	604,300	To describe the newly-elected Prime Minister of India as controversial would be to understate the case rather substantially. Thanks to a slick ad campaign and a sound economic record as governor of the state of Gujarat, he led his Hindu nationalist BJP to victory with a stomping 52% of seats. Both a nationalist and a fundamentalist, he is proud member of the RSS, the same paramilitary group that assassinated Gandhi, and debate still surrounds the extent of his role in a pogrom against Muslims in Gujarat during his tenure. It says something that the elected leader of one sixth of the world's population needed a visa ban lifted to visit the US.
10	-	2	Indian general election, 2014	544,994	You'd think, given the push that Indians often give articles on this list, that their election, which concluded on 12 May, would be higher up.
11	8	29	Game of Thrones	500,729	New seasons of this immensely popular show always draw people to Wikipedia.
12	-	-	Solange Knowles	444,410	The younger sister of Beyoncé Knowles got some unwanted notoriety after TMZ published security footage of her assaulting her brother-in-law, Jay-Z, in an elevator. The reason is unknown, though speculation has ranged from both being members of the Illuminati to Jay-Z being the father of Solange's baby. Which should serve as reminders to everyone not to read speculation.
13	7	2	Eurovision Song Contest 2014	442,884	There's always a political undercurrent to Eurovision, but it surfaced pretty nastily this year. Even for such a gay-friendly event, it was perhaps a bit untoward to boo the Russian entry, the winsome, 17-year-old Tolmachevy Sisters, simply for the homophobic decrees of their leader. Still, from the looks of things, they bore the abuse with grace.
14	12	7	Game of Thrones (season 4)	439,681	This is the page with the plot synopses for each episode.
15	16	6	List of Game of Thrones episodes	393,564	The episode list is probably used to look up air dates.
16	9	60	Deaths in 2014	382,289	The list of deaths in the current year is always a popular article.
17	-	-	Godzilla	379,473	The man himself (or monster, dinosaur, radioactive Jurassic aquatic reptile, rubber suit, whatever he is) and his 60-year-legacy of destructive romping got queried in the week of his American big-screen debut (no, we're not mentioning that).
18	17	70	Facebook	337,889	A perennially popular article.
19	-	-	2014 FIFA World Cup	336,973	It took 29 months and 820 qualifying matches involving 207 national teams representing more than 99 percent of the world's population, but we now have the final 32, complete with the traditional first timers (Bosnia), the heavy favourites (five-time winners and hosts Brazil), dark horses (Honduras) European stalwarts (Germany, Spain, England, Italy, France) and African hopefuls (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon). Now all that remains is to see whether Brazil can get its act together and finish construction in time for the games' launch on 12 June. And if they can pull that off, they may even be able to explain why they built a 42,000-seat stadium in the middle of the Amazon jungle.
20	20	11	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	330,645	Joss Whedon's extension of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into television had its first-season finale on 13 May. With ratings consistent, a second season has been greenlit.
21	4	2	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	320,423	A franchise that no one asked for has proven a bitter pill to swallow, at least in America. While the series's box office numbers as a whole are merely flat, it has had to rely increasingly on worldwide sales to attain them. The original Spider-Man film in 2002 made half its money at home and half overseas. For the rebooted Amazing Spider-Man, (this film's predecessor) the split was 2-1 for overseas grosses and, while this movie might just attain its series's standard tally of between $700 and $800 million, the overseas share is holding steady at 3-1. This declining domestic interest is even more obvious once inflation is accounted for. How it will affect the franchise's future is uncertain; at least one more sequel and a Venom spinoff are planned, but it's possible later instalments may be retooled in future to be more attractive to international audiences.
22	-	-	Casey Kasem	305,521	There isn't an American of my generation or older who would not recognize Casey Kasem's voice; the legendary radio personality hosted the national show American Top 40 for a total of 25 years, but will probably be best known outside the US as the English voice of Shaggy Rogers, the owner of Scooby-Doo; a role he played for nearly 40 years (That isn't his normal voice though; if you want to hear what he usually sounded like, check out his cameo in Ghostbusters). Now that I've finished fanboying, the reason for his inclusion is... odd. Kasem is 82 and suffering from Lewy body dementia, a condition with symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease. This has left him entirely in the care of his wife, actress Jean Kasem, a scenario fiercely contested by her three stepchildren, who claim she has been preventing him from seeing them. On 12 May, Kasem's daughter Kerri obtained conservatorship over her father's affairs, against the protests of Jean, who apparently then absconded with him, leaving his whereabouts unknown for days. He was eventually found in Port Orchard, Washington, by all accounts none the worse for his experience, though the reasons behind it remain murky.
23	18	41	List of Bollywood films of 2014	288,263	An established staple of the top 25 returns.
24	-	-	Once Upon a Time (TV series)	286,110	The third-season finale of this hit TV show, which follows the current trend of updating and urbanising fairy tales, aired on 11 May.
25	-	-	H. R. Giger	276,261	The Swiss surrealist artist, whose work on the Alien franchise has secured his position as one of the most continuously ripped-off artists in modern history, died on 12 May after a fall. His distinctive "biomechanical" art style, combining industrial landscapes, muted tones and twisted sexuality, has become the standard trope for scifi horror across all visual media.

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.

- 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.

Specific exclusions this week:

- Eglinton West line: a proposed underground rail line in Toronto that was abandoned in 1995 got a suspicious 1-day spike on 12 May, despite not having enough search volume for Google to graph it.