Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/November 12 to 18, 2023

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (November 12 to 18, 2023)

Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, Ollieisanerd, Ktin, GeorgeBailey, Rajan51 and a helpful IP.

⭠ Last week's report → Next week's report

This week goes all over the world but with special focus to India again, specially the tournament that tops the list one more time.

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	2023 Cricket World Cup	3,710,562	After six weeks, the World Cup entered the knockout stage last week, with India and Australia beating New Zealand and South Africa in the semi-finals by comfortable margins. All eyes then turned to the final to be held at the world's largest cricket stadium. In the Sunday after the period covered by this Report, Australia has won their sixth World Cup (more on that in next week's edition).
2	Cricket World Cup	3,653,598
3	Tiger 3	2,489,468	While this woeful choice of image clearly shows that we (the editors of this wonderful crowdsourcing project) can not be trusted to know anything that happens outside of the core anglosphere, the movie in and of itself has been creating quite a stir at the box office. Starring Bhai in and as the titular character in this action thriller series, the movie is yet another banger that seems to be coming from the Hindi movie industry (did someone say, Bollywood?)
4	The Marvels	1,220,998	The world's biggest film franchise had its 33rd film open to mixed reception from both the critics and audiences last week. It may have been a sequel to a billion dollar film, but it featured three other characters, two of whom were only introduced on Disney+ shows, one of which was one of Marvel's least watched shows, and the third was the lead in one of its worst shows. This, combined with the declining quality (and public interest) of the MCU resulted in the franchise's lowest opening weekend at the domestic box office. Things don't seem to be improving, with the second weekend projected to have the MCU's biggest drop.
5	Suella Braverman	1,070,416	The former British Home Secretary was dismissed from the government on November 13, apparently the trigger for her sacking was some comments in a Times article she wrote saying, "police officers play favourites when it comes to protesters", and called pro-Palestinian protesters "mobs" after they planned to disrupt the annual Remembrance Day services.
6	Deaths in 2023	913,191	In the quiet embrace of eternal night, A soul departs, taking its final flight. Gone from our sight, but not from our love, In memories, they dwell, in realms above. – Elysia Evermore
7	David Beckham	892,350	The famed footballer went to India as part of his humanitarian work for UNICEF, and while there Beckham watched the hosts win the semi-final of #1, and met with cricketers including #8, before attending a post-game party hosted by Shah Rukh Khan. PS: Or, was it a pre-game party? It does not matter. If Khan calls you home for a party, you just show up. Here, he did not even have to bend it like Beckham.
8	Virat Kohli	884,049	The Indian cricketer scored his 50th century in One Day Internationals in the semi-final against New Zealand in #1, breaking the record for most centuries in the format, which was previously held by his icon Sachin Tendulkar.
9	David Cameron	863,413	This week the former British Prime Minister made a surprise comeback to politics after he was appointed Foreign Secretary in the same cabinet reshuffle in which #5 got fired. Cameron hasn't been an MP since 2016, so current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointed him to the House of Lords instead.
10	The Killer (2023 film)	860,359	David Fincher, one of the greatest directors of his generation if not ever, released his new movie, a graphic novel adaptation where Michael Fassbender plays a hitman fond of The Smiths.
11	Madame Web	800,724	If you thought Morbius wasn't enough of a deep cut for Sony's Spider-Man Universe, now the latest character that they exploit without Marvel Studios bothering in a movie (#18) is a supporting one rather than a villain, the clairvoyant and precognitive Cassandra Webb.
12	Diwali	737,573	India's festival of lights. And for The Office fans, an excuse to hear this again.
13	Mohammed Shami	728,882	This Indian cricketer steered his team to a comfortable victory in the first semi-final of #1 by taking 7 wickets during the match, and broke a number of records in the process. He got a well deserved player of the match award for his performance.
14	2023 Israel–Hamas war	722,004	The West Asian war continues.
15	Leo (2023 Indian film)	702,307	Phew! At least we got this image right (see #3 above), and did not embarrass ourselves by adding a picture of a lion or something like that. This one, a Indian Tamil language movie starring Thalapathy, has stirred the local box offices, and of course, this report -- where it has found a position for the last five weeks. Shall we wager a bet to see if this will find a mention next week? Coin-toss we think.
16	Taylor Swift	691,320	The Eras Tour moved from Buenos Aires to a series of sold-out concerts in Rio de Janeiro. And it was sadly marred by a terrible heat wave hitting Brazil, as the 60 °C (140 °F) apparent temperature inside Engenhão led a fan to die during the Friday concert, prompting Taylor to postpone the Saturday gig to Monday hoping for better conditions (to the dismay of those who couldn't stay for more than the weekend).
17	The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes	631,791	During the pandemic, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes revived The Hunger Games (last seen in 2015) by telling the origins of Coriolanus Snow, who in Katniss Everdeen's time is the evil president of Panem, but 64 years prior was just a starving student assigned to mentor one of the teenagers sent to kill each other in an arena, namely a girl with an affinity for both singing and snakes. If the book flew under many people's radar, more attention is brought to the film adaptation with Tom Blyth as Snow, Rachel Zegler as his Tribute, and Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman, Hunter Schafer and Viola Davis in supporting roles. Reviews were mixed to positive and The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes took the top of the box office from #4.
18	Madame Web (film)	612,138	The solo movie for #11, where the character usually portrayed as an elderly woman was de-aged to be played by Dakota Johnson. The trailer dropped really close to release given Madame Web hits theaters on Valentine's Day, leapfrogging over the Kraven the Hunter movie that would come out this year before the actors' strike delayed it to August.
19	Travis Kelce	598,222	#16's boyfriend, who also continues to help his Kansas City Chiefs in the 2023 NFL season.
20	UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying	541,974	From American Football to the real one. As the rest of the world plays the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification Europe instead sees who will enter its continental tournament. Seven more teams punched their tickets to Germany, including a surprising return of Albania, and the remaining 8 spots will be settled next week.
21	Dodi Fayed	526,434	Like last year, the most sought character as The Crown returned (with half of the episodes in its concluding season) was not one of the British royals, but Lady Di's boyfriend who died with her in that fatal car crash.
22	Matthew Perry	520,757	The other five from Friends took the week for each to post a tribute to the deceased portrayer of Chandler Bing. PS: What prescient lines from this star who said about his own impending death, "if I did die it would shock people, but it wouldn't surprise anybody". Rest well, dear sir! Truly wish you are in a better place. Thank you for enriching our lives.
23	Robbie Williams	515,673	Netflix released a miniseries where this British singer tells the story of his life, with a career launched by boy band Take That and propelled further with solo hits like "Angels" and "Millennium".
24	Cassie Ventura	484,738	This American singer/model/actress/dancer had her career propelled by Sean Combs and dated him for over a decade, a relationship which was seemingly very dysfunctional given Ventura filed a $30 million lawsuit accusing him of rape and "repeated physical abuse", with the allegation of being a "cycle of abuse, violence and sex trafficking." She dropped the lawsuit the following day after reaching a settlement with 'Diddy'.
25	Markwayne Mullin	480,461	Keeping off Killers of the Flower Moon is also something related to Oklahoma, the state's junior senator who seemed to challenge Teamsters president Sean O'Brien to a fight, in which O'Brien said "I'd love to do it right now," in which Mullin responded with "stand your butt up." Thankfully, no fists were thrown.