The Top 25 Report

A Special Traffic Report: The U.S. Presidential Election

November 15, 2016

From the time Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the U.S. presidency in June 2015, he became a regular part of the WP:TOP25 (Top 25 most viewed weekly articles on Wikipedia), and dominated the top levels of our reports for weeks at a time. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's popularity was much more soft -- the interest in her article could never compete with the antics and press coverage of Trump. It took a year after Trump rode down the escalator for Hillary Clinton to even appear in the Top 25 at all, in June 2016. She only appeared on the Top 25 ten times between June 2015 and the election, and led the Top 25 only once when she officially accepted her party nomination in late July 2016. Meanwhile, Trump was a ratings juggernaut -- he appeared on the Top 25 a whopping FIFTY-FIVE WEEKS during his campaign, and was in the Top 10 for 32 of those weeks. He was also #1 for nine weeks, including for four straight weeks in February-March 2016 when it became clear he was going to win the Republican nomination.

Of course views are an indication of interest, not support, and Wikipedia viewcounts reflect worldwide views, not just those of American voters. But Hillary Clinton failed to draw interest even close to that of Trump. And when her primary opponent Bernie Sanders was vigorously challenging her for the nomination, he regularly exceeded her viewcounts. In fact, Bernie appeared on the Top 25 chart for eleven weeks, one more than Hillary, despite having a far shorter candidacy.

One thing our charts have revealed over time is that topics that we may not think are very popular (because we do not personally like them), like wrestling and mixed martial arts, or comics, or particular Netflix shows, are in fact very popular. This popularity is certainly affected by the demographics of Wikipedia readers, but it is hard to discount Trump's immense popularity in Wikipedia viewcounts as meaningless.

The below chart chronicles the relative ranking and viewcounts of the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton articles from June 2015 through the week of the election in November 2016. The notes column references relevant events during the campaign, and also comments on Bernie's performance during the peak of his run.

(This week's traffic report also includes some comparison of this year's recent views to those of the 2008 and 2012 election. For a more in-depth analysis of 2008 numbers, see User:Andrew Gray/Election statistics, which made amazing observations including that VP candidate Sarah Palin was more popular than her running mate John McCain.)

Notes on methodology: This chart covers the 75 weeks from June 7-13, 2015 through November 6-12, 2016. We chose the week before Donald Trump announced his candidacy as the starting point, since he ended up dominating traffic. Hillary Clinton appeared once on the Top 25 in the period before this analysis began; that was in April 2015 when she announced her candidacy. Rankings of 1-35 in the chart are true rankings and exclude extraneous articles affected by bots or other issues; any weekly ranking number above 35 reflects the article's raw ranking in the WP:5000. The relative ranking of an article is of course influenced by the popularity of other topics in any given week. An article might appear at #15 on the Top 25 one week with 500,000 views, and could be #25 or lower the next week with the same number of views, if other important events intervene to take up slots. Nevertheless, the ranking of an article may still say something about the relative popularity of a topic as compared to other topics vying for reader attention.

Please see WP:TOP25 for the weekly archives of our Top 25 Wikipedia traffic reports, which go back to January 2013.

Week	Trump	Views	Clinton	Views	Notes
June 7-13, 2015	2686	36,241	1180	57,011	The week before Trump announced his candidacy, his article was #2686 in the Raw WP:5000 for the week. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who last appeared on the Top 25 in April when she announced her candidacy, appeared at #1180 (raw). Her article was moved to Hillary Clinton this week on June 11, after a long and tortuous debate. The Top 25 this week, however,was led by the death of actor Christopher Lee.
June 14-20, 2015	16	626,629	397	90,946	Trump announced his candidacy by descending the escalator at Trump Tower, and immediately appeared in the Top 25. Hillary Clinton was #397 on the raw WP:5000 that week. In fact, Hillary would not make into the Top 25 for the entire next year, only showing up in June 2016 when she clinches the nomination.
June 21-27, 2015	60	255,019	810	60,972	Trump dropped off Top 25. The most viewed article was Flags of the Confederate States of America, as a result of the Charleston church shooting.
June 28-July 4, 2015	14	434,208	824	66,772	We noted Trump was "currently top in the Republican polls"
July 5-11, 2015	33	338,617	765	71,942	Politics took a back seat to tennis and American women's soccer this week.
July 12-18, 2015	33	423,225	992	63,770	No politics; Suicide Squad at #1.
July 19-25, 2015	5	661,692	767	69,188	We noted that Trump's "improbable rise" was continuing, and that nothing, including insulting John McCain's war record, seemed to affect his numbers.
July 26-Aug 1, 2015	17	357,639	802	57,566	This week we noted Trump had called a female lawyer "disgusting" for breastfeeding in public.
August 2-8, 2015	10	614,810	315	103,841	The first major Republican primary debate was on August 6. But we predicted "He won't be the nominee.... Many Americans are simply watching Trump 'for the lulz'."
August 9-15, 2016	8	601,785	301	107,654	The week of Trump saying "blood coming out of her wherever" about FOX presenter Megyn Kelly. Bernie Sanders (#15, 510,272) makes a strong showing and appears on the Top 25 for the first time.
August 16-22, 2015	9	657,675	301	106,344	FOX came to Megyn Kelly's support this week, and Trump held a large rally in Alabama.
August 23-29, 2015	6	728,358	368	96,650	The feud with FOX did not seem to be harming Trump. Trump continued by feuding with Univision reporter Jorge Ramos (pictured), slamming Jeb Bush, and sometimes tweeting insults at 3am.
August 30-September 5, 2015	15	488,477	550	79,832	Trump signed the "pledge" this week that he would not run as an independent if he did not win the party nomination.
September 6-12, 2015	25	390,147	489	87,820	Trump continues a long run in the Top 25. Was Team Clinton noticing this? Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016 was #20 on our raw data, but with only 0.79% mobile views, we excluded from the Top 25 because of artificially inflated views.
September 13-19, 2015	5	688,313	322	109,373	Trump rises again in the numbers after another Republican debate.
September 20-26, 2015	18	401,070	581	83,320	Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016 appears at raw #18 in our data, but is again excluded with a 0.73% mobile count.
September 27-October 3, 2015	22	332,628	616	75,747	We said of Trump: "A fairly quiet week for The Donald saw him only insult Syrian refugees. And Hispanics. And the victims of the Umpqua Community College shooting."
October 4-10, 2015	47	249,219	445	92,516	Trump drops off the Top 25. American Horror Story: Hotel is #1 this week.
October 11-17, 2015	62	263,041	92	206,742	Trump and Clinton were of little interest this week, but Bernie Sanders (#3, 728,853) makes a strong showing after a strong debate performance.
October 18-24, 2015	81	219,182	140	167,552	The first week Hillary is relatively close to Trump, with about a 52K view differential.
October 25-31, 2015	40	305,565	242	123,247	Ben Carson (#11, 447,916) gains attention after another debate.
November 1-7, 2015	83	217,373	440	93,997	Ben Carson (#7, 584,606) continued to gain attention, leading to negative stories including about whether he misrepresented receiving a West Point scholarship in his autobiography. The sort of most normal scandals that typically doom a candidate, but which don't seem to affect Trump.
November 8-14, 2015	49	293,569	548	84,595	Ben Carson (#13, 393,998) continues his ride of popularity.
November 15-21, 2015	60	303,402	417	101,314	No American politicians this week, though the campaigns' nemesis ISIS is #2.
November 22-28, 2015	65	288,853	1149	60,185	Hillary not even in the Top 1000. When Hillary falls into the mid-hundreds or lower, her spouse Bill Clinton often beats her in views. This week, for example, Bill was #565 with 87,490 views. Jessica Jones was #1 for this week.
November 29-December 5, 2015	66	281,125	1091	62,267	No politics. Scott Weiland's death is #1.
December 6-12, 2015	1	914,072	594	87,214	Trump hits #1 for the first time, after numerous comments cause the descriptor "fascist" to be used in the media.
December 13-19, 2015	10	720,311	585	87,723	Another Republican presidential debate on December 15 has Trump at center stage. Bernie Sanders was #217 (152,016).
December 20-26, 2015	45	465,532	359	117,725	Bernie Sanders #108 (234,774). The Top 25 is dominated by Star Wars related articles.
December 27, 2015-January 2, 2016	53	338,079	718	83,682	Bernie Sanders #328 (121,182). Another Star Wars heavy week.
January 3-9, 2016	24	415,237	581	93,893	Trump back on Top 25 after a two-week break. Bernie Sanders #227 (145,976)
January 10-16, 2016	31	506,603	375	126,454	Bernie Sanders #89 (296,767). David Bowie's death tops list with 11.7 million views.
January 17-23, 2016	16	554,467	188	175,205	Trump is beaten on the chart for second time by Bernie Sanders (#14, 577,700). We noted he was doing well in the polls against Hillary Clinton despite being a rather unlikely top candidate.
January 24-30, 2016	12	666,806	214	161,587	Bernie Sanders (#17, 552,517). The Iowa caucuses were approaching on February 1.
January 31-February 6, 2016	1	3,083,806	60	329,954	Trump takes 2nd in the Republican Iowa caucus, but gets almost three times the views of the winner, Ted Cruz (#5) (1,051,037). Bernie Sanders (#4, 1,116,291) barely loses the Democratic Iowa contest to Hillary -- but more than triples her views. Hillary Clinton has still not appeared in the Top 25 to this point.
February 7-13, 2016	4	1,504,756	86	285,271	Trump wins the Republican New Hampshire primary. Bernie Sanders (#9, 1,272,272) wins the Democratic contest. Again, Hillary not even in the Top 25, and Sanders more than quadruples her views.
February 14-20, 2016	7	998,114	165	198,068	Trump wins the Republican South Carolina primary despite continuing to say outrageous things. Bernie Sanders (#19, 584,875) loses that one to Clinton, but continues to get more views than her.
February 21-27, 2016	1	1,938,436	95	234,526	We observed what we thought very unlikely only months earlier: "Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee in this year's United States presidential election, barring something crazy happening." Bernie Sanders (#18, 493,031).
February 28-March 5, 2016	1	8,238,809	59	378,292	Massive views for Trump after winning nine more states in a week, including many of the Super Tuesday primaries. Melania Trump (#18, 696,659) appears in the Top 25 for the first time. Bernie Sanders (#28, 526,451). Trump is exceeding Clinton's views by over 20-times this week.
March 6-12, 2016	1	8,257,174	58	339,194	We titled the traffic report this week Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States. Hmmm. Don't say we didn't warn you. Trump continued to win primaries, racks up over 8 million views for the second week in a row. Tawdry press coverage of Trump includes story of a 78-year-old man who sucker-punched a protester at a Trump rally, and Trump offered to pay any resulting legal fees. The Michelle Fields-Corey Lewandowski incident also takes up news time. Bernie Sanders (#22, 577,849)
March 13-19, 2016	1	2,412,293	38	330,364	Trump at #1 for fourth straight week. Bernie Sanders (#17, 577,849). We note that Bernie is consistently beating Hillary in Wikipedia traffic.
March 20-26 2016	2	1,480,800	108	194,251	Trump insults Heidi Cruz as being unattractive this week, and Cruz calls Trump a "snivelling coward." Bernie Sanders is off the Top 25, at #62 (267,113), still ahead of Hillary.
March 27-April 2, 2016	3	1,222,793	122	194,261	Bernie #29 (344,766)
April 3-9, 2016	4	1,021,206	119	217,774	Bernie #27 (373,365)
April 10-16, 2016	6	762,586	89	201,895	Bernie Sanders (#22, 388,018).
April 17-23, 2016	14	720,442	69	247,453	Prince (musician) dies and becomes most viewed article (13,064,933) since Top 25 began in January 2013. Trump the only candidate in the Top 25. Bernie Sanders (#47, 300,246).
April 24-30, 2016	12	685,354	127	178,036	Trump is up to 77% of delegates needed to mathematically guarantee the Republican nomination. Bernie Sanders (#134, 173,289)
May 1-7, 2016	3	992,406	79	243,195	Trump's last two party opponents, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, drop out. Bernie Sanders (#112, 203,785).
May 8-14, 2016	4	633,258	117	190,494	Bernie Sanders (#144, 167,499).
May 15-21, 2016	8	568,970	126	171,310	We noted this week: "Donald Trump seems to have permanently set up camp in the Top 10. If he gets elected, he might be a permanent number one." Bernie Sanders (#144, 163,816).
May 22-28, 2016	14	440,280	135	167,826	Bernie Sanders (#144, 163,957).
May 29 to June 4, 2016	18	418,524	175	149,277	Bernie Sanders (#179, 147,417).
June 5-11, 2016	18	526,676	19	482,075	Hillary Clinton's first appearance in the Top 25 -- on the occasion of her finally clinching the Democratic nomination, mathematically. Meanwhile, Trump says the judge in the Trump University lawsuit cannot be fair due to his Mexican heritage, and still beats Hillary by one slot. Bernie Sanders (#72, 260,976).
June 12-18, 2016	18	627,262	87	245,811	Tired of tracking every new story, of Trump we write "Mr. Trump said controversial things this week." Meanwhile, Hillary drops far out of the Top 25 after her first appearance.
June 19-25, 2016	27	519,435	141	178,411	For the first time in months, Trump is not in the Top 25, just barely. The June 23 Brexit vote is a popular topic on the chart.
June 26-July 2, 2016	35	403,068	156	167,689	Some British politics, no American politics, and UEFA Euro 2016 is #1 for second week.
July 3-9, 2016	22	435,864	96	223,365	Trump tweets a picture of Hillary Clinton with a six-pointed star; the campaign later claims it was a sheriff's star, though the image originated from a neo-Nazi internet forum.
July 10-16, 2016	23	422,223	124	180,439	Trump picks Mike Pence (#3) as his running mate.
July 17-23, 2016	2	2,796,617	46	368,084	Trump is bested by wife Melania Trump (#1), as it is found that passages of her convention speech were plagiarized from Michelle Obama's 2008 convention speech. Tim Kaine (#5) is selected as Clinton's running mate, but that doesn't put Hillary back into the Top 25.
July 24-30, 2016	4	1,022,010	1	1,331,698	Due to the Democratic National Convention, Hillary beats Trump for the first time on the Top 25. But Trump suggests that the Russians should hack Hillary's email to remain in the limelight.
July 31-August 6, 2016	5	806,195	45	358,286	The Olympics Opening Ceremony came on August 5, but Trump stayed popular for another week.
August 7-13, 2016	47	449,872	158	205,941	The Olympics dominates news coverage, Michael Phelps is #1.
August 14-20, 2016	58	392,675	204	162,076	The Olympics continues to dominate news coverage, Usain Bolt is #1.
August 21-27, 2016	12	572,600	128	175,587	A head-fake about a softening on Trump's stance on immigration was in the news this week. Meanwhile, Hillary is not even in the Top 100.
August 28-September 3, 2016	15	526,664	128	172,160	Clinton aide Huma Abedin (#14, 526,901) beats Trump by one position, after another texting scandal by her husband Anthony Weiner causes her to leave him.
September 4-10, 2016	14	446,865	113	197,617	Finding no particular controversy this week around Trump, we conclude "he's just... popular."
September 11-17, 2016	7	688,121	20	455,324	Trump dumps birtherism nonchalantly on September 16 and blames Hillary Clinton for creating it. Hillary re-appears in the Top 25 for the first time since July.
September 18-24, 2016	14	441,855	79	230,732	Hillary tumbles far out of the Top 25 again.
September 25-October 1, 2016	2	1,201,566	5	753,800	The first presidential debate was held on September 26. Hillary won the post-debate polls, but Trump beat her on Wikipedia again.
October 2-8, 2016	4	972,408	19	753,800	The infamous audio tape of Trump talking to Billy Bush (#14 this week) emerges. Mike Pence is #15 (545,091), ahead of Hillary, due to the vice-presidential debate. Tim Kaine is #25 (394,598).
October 9-15, 2016	1	1,951,789	3	1,009,711	The second presidential debate occurred on October 9.
October 16-22, 2016	1	2,140,830	6	650,343	The third presidential debate fell on October 19; Trump refuses to say during the debate if he'll accept the outcome if he loses.
October 23-29, 2016	3	898,740	18	551,295	Clinton continues to receive less attention than Trump.
October 30-November 5, 2016	7	949,709	18	580,309	We note of Clinton: "She really needs to start saying some crazy stuff if she wants to win the Wikipedia ratings wars." But maybe it wasn't only about who was saying crazy stuff.
November 6-12, 2016	1	12,331,880	6	2,644,676	In the early morning of November 9 in the United States, Donald Trump is declared the winner of the U.S. presidential election. Though it is clear he will lose the popular vote nationwide, it is also clear he is going to win the battleground states of Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and even Michigan and Wisconsin, which had not been thought to be in serious jeopardy by most pollsters. By 3am, after a phone call from Clinton to concede, Trump speaks to supporters to declare victory.