Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (May 4 to 10 2014)

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Summary: Eurovision is known for being political, and it was a doozy this week. Anger over Vladimir Putin's anti-gay laws manifested both positively (in the form of victory for gender-bending Austrian Conchita Wurst) and negatively (the booing of the guileless teenage Russian entrants). In other news, the transition from spring to summer meant that TV and movies share roughly equal space. Expect movies to overtake TV sometime near the end of June.

For the week of May 4 to 10, 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	-	-	Audrey Hepburn	1,617,064	The Oscar-winning actress, UN children's ambassador, epitome of 60s style and embodiment of the "gamine" got a Google Doodle on her birthday this week; she would have been 85 if she hadn't died 22 years ago.
2	19	4	Cinco de Mayo	1,192,811	One of the most self-explanatory article spikes on Wikipedia ever, this celebration of Mexican-American culture (originally meant to commemorate a Mexican victory over the French) occurred, conveniently, on May 5.
3	-	-	Conchita Wurst	739,352	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.
4	2	4	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	670,016	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.
5	-	3	Mother's Day	649,026	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 see if they'd blown it.
6	4	14	Amazon.com	485,896	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	-	-	Eurovision Song Contest 2014	472,907	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.
8	6	28	Game of Thrones	444,209	New seasons of this immensely popular show always draw people to Wikipedia.
9	7	59	Deaths in 2014	396,516	The list of deaths in the current year is always a popular article.
10	21	47	YouTube	363,717	A perennially popular article.
11	-	-	Monica Lewinsky	354,167	The former White House intern got back in the news thanks to an interview she gave in Vanity Fair on the 20th anniversary of her Presidential indiscretions.
12	10	6	Game of Thrones (season 4)	348,853	This is the page with the plot synopses for each episode.
13	-	-	2014 NFL Draft	347,319	The annual pick of the college football crop fell between 8-10 May.
14	-	-	Boko Haram	340,385	This Nigerian Islamic fundamentalist terror group has not done the cause of imposing Sharia many favours in the last few years, which, I suppose, is a silver lining on some pretty dark clouds. From murdering dozens of children to abducting up to 300 schoolgirls with the stated intention of selling them into slavery, they have made their name, which means "Western education is unholy", into perhaps the single greatest advertisement for Western education ever imagined.
15	-	-	Goblin shark	328,062	The depths of the ocean often seem like a repository for the nightmares of H. R. Giger. Fisherman Carl Moore bore witness to this when he caught a living specimen of this rare and surprisingly large deep-sea beast in the Gulf of Mexico, making him one of roughly 10 individuals to look a living one in the eye.
16	11	5	List of Game of Thrones episodes	323,560	The episode list is probably used to look up air dates.
17	12	69	Facebook	308,366	A perennially popular article.
18	-	-	24 (TV series)	302,294	The real time thriller series came back after a long hiatus for a two-part, London-set limited series, 24: Live Another Day.
19	-	2	Floyd Mayweather, Jr.	285,022	The five-division boxing champion may have won his match against Marcos Maidana, but a surprisingly sustained counter-attack momentarily dimmed his aura of invincibility.
20	15	10	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	281,336	Joss Whedon's extension of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into television returned on 1 April after a three-week hiatus.
21	16	2	Emma Stone	277,012	The celebrity couple and stars of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 finally came together on the top 25 list, though she remains the more popular by a hair.
22	-	-	Andrew Garfield	276,633	The British actor and current cinematic Spider-Man joined his paramour Emma Stone on the Top 25 this week.
23	17	40	List of Bollywood films of 2014	271,035	An established staple of the top 25 returns.
24	-	14	Wikipedia	271,035	Wikipedia returns to its own Top 25.
25	13	29	United States	248,034	The 8th most popular article of 2013 and the 3rd most popular Wikipedia article between 2010 and 2012. Even when not on the list, this article is a perpetual bubble-under-er. Not really surprising that the country with by far the most English speakers would be the most popular on the English Wikipedia.

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.

Specific exclusions this week:

- National Board for Prices and Incomes: one-day spike on 5 April.
- Daniel Craig: The current James Bond got a massive one-day spike on 10 May, despite the fact that Google searches for him have actually decreased this week; there are no obvious reasons for the spike, and is likely artificial.