WP:TOP25

Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (November 10 to 16, 2013)

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Summary: It's not hard to guess which event is leading interest in the top 25 this week. The sheer scale of Typhoon Haiyan is staggering; estimates place its maximum windspeed upon first landfall in the Philippines on November 6 at 315 km/h, which would make it the most powerful tropical cyclone ever to reach land. To date, the storm has killed nearly 4000 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 4 million homes. Fortunately, if there's one thing Wikipedia does well, it's cyclones. Our coverage of hurricane- and typhoon-related topics is genuinely excellent, so we proved a good first resource for those seeking news and information. However, despite constant, repeated warnings from climatologists not to confuse climate with the weather, the public immediately made a connection between Typhoon Haiyan and global warming, or its supposed non-existence. The most viewed article of the week? The bogus controversy of "Climategate". Rather oddly, the one article pertinent to the subject that did not reach the top 25 this week was Typhoon Haiyan. When a manufactured controversy barely implied by a hideous natural disaster draws 10 times more attention than the disaster itself, it does perhaps open a window onto humanity's priorities. In nobler news, Armistice Day, known in the US as Veterans Day and in the UK and Commonwealth as Remembrance Day, fell this week, and its emotional weight will no doubt increase as we approach its 100th anniversary in 2018.

For the week of November 10 to 16, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:

Rank	Last	Wks	Article	Class	Views	Notes
1	9	2	Climatic Research Unit email controversy		2,119,177	It's not really surprising that this "scandal", better known as "Climategate", has crawled back up into the limelight after the initial release of the IPCC's fifth report, before shooting to the top in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan; what is surprising is that people keep citing it as evidence of fraud, given that eight committees acquitted the scientists in question of any wrongdoing. But then, reality has never sat well with the Internet.
2	-	-	Sachin Tendulkar		873,040	The best cricketer in history retired this week after a 24-year career, during which he scored 18,426 runs in one day internationals and 15,470 runs in test matches (both all-time records) and was the only person ever to score a hundred hundreds. His fans declare him the God of the religion of cricket; the devout Hindu wishes they would not.
3	22	8	United States		513,779	The 3rd most popular Wikipedia article between 2010–2012, and 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.
4	-	-	Remembrance Day		508,542	The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 was meant to signify not only the end of the Great War, but of war itself. No one could be insane enough to wound humanity again as brutally as it had been wounded during those four agonising years. Instead, it signified only a moment's respite; the first interlude in a century-long Grand Guignol which would feature the deaths and suffering of tens of millions and which, in many ways, has yet to conclude. In the chaos and carnage we have since visited upon ourselves, it is fitting that each year we try to recapture that moment of peace, passing it into the future like an eternal flame.
5	14	45	Facebook		479,015	A perennially popular article
6	-	-	Typhoon		461,381	The name for a tropical cyclone in the western Pacific (in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic, they're called hurricanes) became an international topic of discussion when Typhoon Haiyan hit the news.
7	-	-	Veterans Day		457,001	The American name for Armistice Day- see #4 above.
8	13	7	Eminem		443,100	The rapper's latest album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2, was released on November 5.
9	19	8	Lorde		441,556	The just-turned 17-year-old singer-songwriter from New Zealand released her modestly titled debut album, Pure Heroine, on 27 September.
10	20	48	World War II		415,995	Another perennially popular article. (The 16th most popular article from 2010–12, in fact, see Table 2 here.)
11	-	-	Philippines		390,494	The largest Catholic country in Asia has borne the wrath of winds far too heavily of late. Only last year, Typhoon Bopha took the lives of 1600 Filipinos, and now, the tragedy they face is far greater. One hopes this does not bode ill for the future.
12	24	3	Global warming		387,568	Arguably the most controversial topic of our time, the topic came back into the news thanks to the IPCC's fifth report, the first draft of which was submitted to policymakers on 27 September. Now, thanks to Haiyan, it's only become more prominent.
13	21	26	List of Bollywood films of 2013	List	384,356	An established staple of the top 25.
14	-	-	John F. Kennedy		375,502	The ever-popular, ever-tragic 35th US President surged in the lead up to the 50th anniversary of his assassination on 22 November. As indeed did his assassin (see below).
15	8	3	Krrish 3		364,716	Bollywood's homegrown superhero movie franchise opened its latest instalment on 1 November to take advantage of the Diwali holiday, and earned Rs 728 million (US$11 million) in its first three days.
16	-	-	Greenhouse gas		337,218	Another climate change-related article
17	-	-	Climate change		330,684	And speak of the Devil. Here's hoping that saying doesn't prove overly appropriate.
18	7	55	Deaths in 2013	List	328,833	The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article.
19	25	5	India		326,405	The second-largest English-speaking population on Earth also made it into the top 25 this week.
20	-	-	Andy Kaufman		312,059	Andy Kaufman's habit of not revealing his punchlines and permanently leaving his audience in the dark has led to the persistent rumour that his death was just another practical joke. Hence the sudden spike in interest when an actress claiming to be his daughter showed up saying he was still alive. Of course, it turned out to be just another Kaufman-esque joke, perpetrated by his still-living brother.
21	-	-	Lee Harvey Oswald		312,052	The assassin of President Kennedy (no, I am NOT going there) is prepping for his showing next week, when his big moment reaches its 50th anniversary.
22	12	3	The Marshall Mathers LP 2		311,806	The latest album by rapper Emenem was released on November 5.
23	23	19	IPv6		302,759	This issue has reappeared in the top 25, after hovering below it for some time. It is something of a crisis, though not one that is necessarily apparent. It may come as a surprise to some, but the Internet is, for lack of a better word, full. Every computer online is assigned a specific address, made up of a sequence of numbers, that allows other computers to contact it over the Internet. The original number sequence, known as IPv4, is currently the norm for ~99% of online computers. It allows for a maximum of about 4.3 billion addresses; a number that maxed out in January 2011. The long-term plan is to migrate over to IPv6, which allows for 3x10³⁸ addresses; however, since this would require a massive software and even hardware upgrade, many companies are reluctant to undertake it. Until now we've been stalling for time by harvesting abandoned addresses and re-allocating them, a decidedly short-term measure.
24	-	-	Copenhagen treaty	Unassessed	302,442	The treaty we signed in 2009 that demanded we follow the Kyoto Protocol on climate change has been patchily applied since then. One is tempted to say it's the thought that counts, but...
25	-	-	Ram-Leela		301,164	This links to a redirect; however it is likely not what people are searching for; they are probably looking for this hit Bollywood film. Wikipedia users aren't the only ones to get confused; the Delhi High Court demanded the film change its name to avoid confusion with the traditional play.

Almosts:

PlayStation 4 (289,833 views); Typhoon Haiyan (285,031 views); The Walking Dead (TV series) (275,793 views)

Exclusions:

This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages, 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 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.
- G: This, or alternately G-force, frequently appears in the top 25. It is probably due to people typing "G" for "Google" in Google Chrome's search bar and hastily clicking "enter".
- Lycos: the geriatric web portal seems to be back en vogue, for no apparent reason.
- XXX (film): Why an 11-year-old Vin Diesel movie would consistently surf the edge of the top 25 for weeks on end I have yet to fathom. If it's a bot, it's obviously one with delusions of coolness.

Specific exclusions:

Articles in the list this week for which no rationale could be found. If you know a reason for their presence, please post it on the talk page.
- A rather uncreative bot is spamming this week's list with Trivial Pursuit-esque topic headers: "Human Interest"; "Entertainment Culture"; "Hospitality Recreation"; "Health Medical Pharma" etc. (for some reason, always capitalised- also, whoever created this bot has apparently never heard of the slash).
- Meat: This article's been rising since October, though why is not entirely clear.
- Vegetarian cuisine: Suddenly surged in the days following 7 November. Perhaps in opposition to the above? Who knows.

Notes:

Number of views needed to reach Top 25 this week: 301,164. Last week: 270,492

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