Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 16 to 22, 2014)

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

Summary: Well the Winter Olympics dominated this week, as they dominated everything else. With nine slots in the top 25, they were by far the most searched topic, though even they couldn't entirely drown out those Wikipedia mainstays, television, celebrity gossip and random Reddit threads. Surprisingly, some actual news made it into the Top 25 as well this week, with the Euromaidan unrest in Ukraine and Facebook's purchase of WhatsApp generating big numbers.

For the week of February 16 to 22, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages, were:

Rank	Last	Wks	Article	Class	Views	Notes
1	3	4	2014 Winter Olympics		819,448	The 2014 Winter Olympics drew to a close this week. Thanks to Russia's vicious anti-gay laws and roundly condemned political imprisonments, this has become, whether it wanted to or not, a lightning rod for modern civil rights protest.
2	15	2	House of Cards (U.S. TV series)		768,302	The second season of this political thriller series was released in its entirety on Netflix on 13 February
3	4	2	Curling		690,932	The first major event at the Olympics, competitive ice resurfacing (sorry, curling) remains one of the quaintest and most intriguing.
4	-	-	WhatsApp		652,803	The mobile messaging service, which has a reputation as the site kids use to avoid their parents snooping on their Facebook pages, exploded into the public sphere when people wondered why on Earth Facebook would pay $19 billion for it.
5	17	4	True Detective (TV series)		544,945	This HBO police procedural stars Woody Harrelson and actor-of-the-moment Matthew McConaughey
6	8	59	Facebook		511,120	A perennially popular article
7	-	-	Guardians of the Galaxy (film)		507,948	In the great Hollywood high-dive, Marvel Studios has no time for the safety cord. The phenomenal success of their current run of films was built on risk, and this is their riskiest project yet; a $100 million-plus space opera mega-epic about a bunch of guys you've never heard of, including a talking raccoon and a walking tree, directed by a guy who worked for Troma, and whose last film's lifetime theatre gross was exactly $327,716. Well, its first trailer was released on the 18th, so how did it do? Judging by its social media impact, spectacularly. Or at least better than Man of Steel.
8	-	-	Ice hockey at the 2014 Winter Olympics – Men's tournament		502,792	A surprisingly specific article for the top 10, an indication of the event's popularity. Incidentally, Canada won gold; the US barely missed the podium. There will be some rowdy bars in Ottawa tonight.
9	-	-	Playboy Bunny		487,854	Wearers of the first service uniform registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office became a topic on Reddit this week.
10	13	48	Deaths in 2014	List	454,253	The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article.
11	-	-	Ukraine		437,278	Things are moving fast in the country's Euromaidan protests, to the point that anything I say will probably be obsolete by the time this is published. I think I can safely say though that Victor Yanukovych has learned that if you want to rein in a protest, you shouldn't use snipers against people with smartphones.
12	-	-	Meryl Davis		417,711	Along with her partner Charlie White, the US figure skater broke the world record score in ice dancing this week (twice) and took home America's first gold in the event.
13	14	2	Elliot Page		411,692	The Oscar-nominated star of Juno and Inception came out as a lesbian on 14 February.
14	-	-	Bode Miller		406,334	The most successful male American alpine ski racer of all time won the bronze at the Olympics this week.
15	-	-	House of Cards (season 2)		354,671	Wikipedia's status as the world's foremost TV listings guide is reaffirmed yet again.
16	-	-	Ice hockey at the 2014 Winter Olympics		350,132	It's pretty clear from this list what the most popular Winter Olympic event is; I can't say I'm surprised given the cheers I frequently hear from the Czech bar round the corner on hockey days.
17	-	-	Sarah Burke		347,860	One of the biggest players at this year's Olympics, despite not being able to participate. This acclaimed skiier lobbied for the Superpipe event at the Sochi Olympics and succeeded; unfortunately, she never got to see her achievement realised, as she died in a tragic accident in 2012.
18	11	21	The Walking Dead (TV series)		340,918	The show's fourth season recommenced on 9 February.
19	-	-	Kim Yuna		328,747	Figure skater Kim Yu-Na is an icon in her native South Korea; a status cemented by her flawless performance at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. This year, despite delivering what many considered an equally flawless performance, she only won silver, leading to cries of robbery.
20	-	10	Frozen (2013 film)		318,256	Disney's de facto sequel to Tangled has become something of a sensation. It reclaimed the top spot in the US charts on its sixth weekend (a feat only matched by Avatar and Titanic), has already outgrossed its quasi-predecessor-but-one both domestically and worldwide, and is now on the way to joining the exclusive $1 billion club. It won a Golden Globe for Animated Feature and seems a shoo-in for the Oscar. I must say I'm looking forward to the phenomenon fading, as it means I won't constantly hear that Madonna song in my head every time I do this.
21	-	8	Wikipedia		308,953	Wikipedia makes a rare appearance in its own Top 25.
22	18	2	The Lego Movie		308,695	Thanks to rave critical reviews and universal brand recognition, this has become the surprise megahit of the year, earning over $275 million worldwide in just 16 days. Reaction has been polarised among certain groups, with some claiming that it's Hollywood's attempt to indoctrinate our kids with Marxist values, and others arguing that it's a toy commercial you pay to watch. Most people appear not to care.
23	10	3	Winter Olympic Games		307,997	It's a Good Article, but in truth most people searching for it are probably looking for this year's version.
24	20	22	United States		307,997	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.
25	-	-	Kong (dog toy)		301,955	The vaguely suggestive chew toy became a topic on Reddit this week.

Number of views needed to reach Top 25 this week: 301,955. Last week: 303,515.

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

Almosts: Flappy Bird (298,096 views); Guardians of the Galaxy (2008 team) (283,569 views); Jordan Belfort (271,368 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 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.
- Pornography: It could be Wikipedia users returning to their old ways, but I'd rather nip this in the bud before it becomes the next Climatic Research Unit email controversy.
- Java: My only guess is a bot searching for the programming language.
- Several articles related to global warming (including global warming) have been removed from this list; their continued high view counts are raising suspicions of artificial inflation. I'll believe that Climategate was #1 during a typhoon, but that it got more hits than Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving? No.
- IPv6: I have to face facts; I've been allowing 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.
Specific exclusions this week:
- UTF-8: Another obscure technical topic with far more views than sanely plausible.
- Power nap: suspicious 1-day spike
- Ddd: Hello? Spambot here. Just checking in.
- Martine Dalmas: Apparently she's a professor at the Sorbonne. Someone should let her know she has a stalker.