Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2022-08-31/Traffic report

Traffic report

What dreams (and heavily trafficked articles) may come

By Igordebraga, YttriumShrew, SSSB, Kingsif and ElijahPepe

This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, YttriumShrew, SSSB, Kingsif and ElijahPepe

There's a man who lives a life of danger (July 24 to 30, 2022)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	The Gray Man (2022 film)	1,180,156	Former Mouseketeer and Young Hercules star Ryan Gosling has come a long way and has plenty of momentum to keep going with sequels and spin-offs of his Netfix thriller film already announced. Gosling was also in the news publicizing his role as Ken in Greta Gerwig's Barbie film due for release in July 2023.
2	Hunter Moore	1,048,357	Still on Netflix, but non-fiction, was the miniseries The Most Hated Man on the Internet, concerning this guy and his website Is Anyone Up?, which became a haven of revenge porn.
3	Deaths in 2022	950,612	You better watch out Oh, what you wish for It better be worth it So much to die for
4	Tony Dow	931,514	The older brother in Leave It to Beaver, who also worked as a director, sculptor and effects artist, died at the age of 77.
5	Nope (film)	930,777	Jordan Peele continues to show he's a surprisingly good horror director with Nope, although it's not as acclaimed as his previous films Get Out and Us.
6	Droupadi Murmu	885,977	India's new president was elected last week, and sworn in this week, as unlike America India's presidential transition period is only a few days long.
7	2022 monkeypox outbreak	852,237	The monkeypox outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organisation, which is basically WHO-speak for "a bad thing that is around the world and progressively getting worse". Fortunately, as a disease it is less severe than AIDS, much less transmissive than COVID-19, and it's been around since the 1970s, meaning we know how to treat it and vaccines are available, which was not the case for COVID-19 or AIDS when they first emerged.
8	Paul Sorvino	789,617	A character actor who died at the age of 83, leaving behind an extensive filmography that included works such as Goodfellas, Reds, Law & Order and Nixon, as well as three children, including fellow actors Mira Sorvino and Michael Sorvino.
9	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever	780,586	Four months before release a trailer was finally issued for the last Marvel Cinematic Universe movie of 2022, which has the major issue of being a sequel to Black Panther when lead actor Chadwick Boseman died before filming started. Positive reaction to the preview, which included tributes to Boseman and a first look at Namor, shows people are more than willing to return to Wakanda.
10	2022 Commonwealth Games	676,511	The Olympic Games for former British Empire countries began in Birmingham (the original one, Americans) and has largely gone smoothly so far, except for a major rail strike. The Games were originally going to be hosted in Durban, but got moved in 2017 due to concerns about financing.

Rising up to the challenge of our rival (July 31 to August 6)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	India at the 2022 Commonwealth Games	2,807,590	The Commonwealth's quadrennial sports reunion is ongoing in Birmingham, weirdly only the third time it's been hosted in England. India may be a republic, but it is still part of the Commonwealth and by far the largest country in it, and its subpage is naturally the most viewed article of all this week.
2	2022 Commonwealth Games	2,387,924
3	Bill Russell	1,350,667	"The single most devastating force in the history of the game" according to his coach, Russell, who holds the most championships in the history of the NBA as center for the Boston Celtics (the finals MVP award is named after him), died this week at 88.
4	Taiwan	1,273,315	The dispute over the People's Republic of China and Taiwan flared up this week as #8 took a visit to Taiwan on her trip to Asia, resulting in live-drill military exercises in the waters around Taiwan and the suspension of citrus fruit, frozen horse mackerel, and chilled white striped hairtail from Taiwan.
5	Brittney Griner	1,058,124	In February, this U.S. basketball player was arrested at Russian customs after vape cartridges containing hashish oil were found in her luggage (for the record, she says she packed them by accident). This week she was sentenced to 9 years in prison for it. There is a controversial proposal to swap her for Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout.
6	Hunter Moore	1,003,335	Continuing his place as #2 from last week, release of The Most Hated Man on the Internet, a Netflix documentary covering the site Is Anyone Up? has renewed interest in Hunter Moore, its creator, also predominantly featured in the documentary.
7	Deaths in 2022	941,381	If I don't meet you no more in this world Then I'll meet ya on the next one And don't be late
8	Nancy Pelosi	860,035	Pelosi is on a tour of Asia, and caused some controversy, and a mini-crisis when she visited #4. See there for more details.
9	Prey (2022 film)	859,080	The Predator is back, even if no one was counting on it after the 2018 movie, in this Hulu\Star+ period piece where the alien hunter comes to Earth in the 18th century. A taut and thrilling experience that also has a great performance by Amber Midthunder as the Comanche woman trying to prove her worth by facing this extraterrestrial opponent, Prey earned great remarks all around, and in fact has a Rotten Tomatoes score higher than the Arnie-starring original.
10	Anne Heche	818,734	Actress Anne Heche was involved in a series of car crashes earlier this week that left her severely burned and intubated, dying of her injuries on August 12.

Our earthly rulers falter, our people drift and die (August 7 to 13)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Anne Heche	6,740,122	An actress who never took off as a leading lady but had a steady line of work that included roles like Wag the Dog and Chicago P.D., albeit her public image was more shaped by a relationship with Ellen DeGeneres and a subsequent mental breakdown following the break-up, Anne Heche suffered a sequence of two car crashes last week which caused a massive house fire and sent her to intensive care, where she passed away after 6 days at the age of 53.
2	Olivia Newton-John	5,004,161	Forever known as the star of Grease, along with scoring quite a few hit songs like "Physical" that made her one of the best-selling musical acts of the 20th century, Olivia Newton-John was an Australian of two other countries (British born, American based) who survived a breast cancer in the 90s but saw it return in a more intense form, having spread to the bones, in 2017, ultimately causing her death at 73.
3	Salman Rushdie	2,562,277	In 1988, the publication of the novel The Satanic Verses (#8) caused uproar among some in Islam, and the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill its author, Salman Rushdie. 33 years later, a man attempted to follow through on that by stabbing him at a literary event in Chautauqua, New York. By all accounts he is recovering from the attack, but will likely suffer permanent damage.
4	Laal Singh Chaddha	1,703,109	The latest Indian film to make a big impact here is a Bollywood remake of Forrest Gump starring Aamir Khan (pictured) in the title role, as previously played by Tom Hanks. It has not received the acclaim of the film it's based on, and may have to rely on Khan's star power to get it over the line.
5	The Sandman (TV series)	1,612,204	The long-gestating adaptation of Neil Gaiman's magnum opus (#17) managed to stick the landing gracefully, silencing critics who were concerned that the beloved DC comic was unfilmable. In addition to critical acclaim, it became the top Netflix show in just three days, with 69.5 million viewership hours worldwide.
6	India at the 2022 Commonwealth Games	1,458,127	The Commonwealth Games closed out this week, with the next one to be hosted in regional Victoria. It is of course impossible to sum up everything that happened, so I'll do some blind patriotism and mention that New Zealand did very well. India also did quite well as they tend to, although it wasn't their best medal haul. Congratulations to all the competitors, and we'll see most of you in four years!
7	2022 Commonwealth Games	1,393,046
8	The Satanic Verses	1,310,550	#3 penned this novel in the late 1980s, which included a sequence based on the life of Muhammad. After the book was released, some Muslims accused it of blasphemy, resulting in book burnings, bans in multiple countries, the aforementioned fatwa and multiple assassination attempts. The controversy sparked a complex international debate about balancing freedom of expression with religious tolerance, a question that still lingers today.
9	Prey (2022 film)	1,189,306	With a title that reverses the name of its franchise, Predator, this streaming release with the alien hunter targeting Native Americans and French expeditionaries in the 18th century has been very well received.
10	Deaths in 2022	1,046,385	Oh, it gets dark, it gets lonely On the other side from you...

August slipped away into a moment in time (August 14 to 20)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Anne Heche	2,360,311	Actress Anne Heche died near the end of last week, meaning the tail from it was enough for her to top this list two weeks in a row, a rare feat.
2	Manti Te'o	2,089,567	Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist deals with the slightly bizarre story of this NFL linebacker who claimed his girlfriend had died of leukemia, only for researchers to discover she didn't exist, causing a lot of confusion until it turned out he had been catfished and had kept up with the lie out of embarrassment.
3	Laal Singh Chaddha	1,697,937	This Bollywood remake of Forrest Gump has, unlike most of Aamir Khan's films, been a box-office flop.
4	Salman Rushdie	1,441,068	Rushdie continues his recovery after his an attempt on his life. The suspect, Hadi Matar, has pleaded not guilty to attempted second-degree murder and second-degree assault. Iran (the country whose leader issued a fatwa for his assassination in 1989) has denied knowledge of the attack, though it was celebrated on state controlled media. Matar's mother, meanwhile, has denounced the attack, and states she never intends to speak to her son again.
5	Rakesh Jhunjhunwala	1,116,027	Splitting author and work is an Indian billionaire who died at 62 of multiple organ failure.
6	The Satanic Verses	959,433	The book which led to the fatwa on #4's life. The book is highly controversial, for numerous reasons, with Muslims claiming it to be sacrilegious and blasphemous. The result is that Rushdie spent the better part of a decade in hiding, with the book banned in several countries. The book's Japanese translator and Norwegian publisher were assassinated in 1991 and 1993 respectively.
7	Deaths in 2022	950,937	Just yesterday mornin', they let me know you were gone Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song I just can't remember who to send it to...
8	Andrew Tate	918,043	The "influencer" who is being investigated for possible human trafficking was banned from some platforms after the media picked up he was a misogynist and Facebook and Instagram decided banning him would be good for PR. TikTok has taken some action, but haven't blocked him, presumably because they decided the users they would drive away outweighed the users they would gain.
9	The Sandman (TV series)	905,666	A magician captures the Lord of Dreams (he was after Death, but that's not important). After (although it's an obvious plot development, spoiler alert) he escapes, he must re-build his kingdom, recapture his stolen artifacts, and bring a Nightmare under control.
10	Elvis Presley	870,060	It's been 45 years since the King of Rock n' Roll was found dead in Graceland. There's even a fairly good biopic in theaters to celebrate him.

I'm a Rastafarian Targaryen, got some dragons and they're really scary (August 14 to 20)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	House of the Dragon	2,221,973	Game of Thrones ended in such a frustrating way that it basically vanished from public discussion since 2019 (not helped by the source material seeming far from finished). But HBO was still intent on delivering more from Westeros, starting with this prequel show focusing on the incestuous dragonriders of House Targaryen. The premiere episode had good reviews and actually drew quite a crowd to both TV and HBO Max, so maybe interest in this world hadn't fully vanished.
2	Manti Te'o	1,898,909	Interest in this linebacker increased last week with the release of Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist, the sixth installment in the "Untold" series. It deals with the slightly bizarre story of how he claimed his girlfriend had died of leukemia, only for researchers to discover she did not exist, causing a lot of confusion until it turned out he had been catfished and had kept up with the lie out of embarrassment.
3	Andrew Tate	1,287,357	This professional kickboxer turned professional misogynist was banned from TikTok this week, having previously been banned from several other platforms last week. Hopefully interest in him will die down now so we can go back to talking about more fun things like terrible movies and a woman being blown up.
4	Liger (film)	1,118,034	Speaking of terrible movies, here's one from India!
5	Deaths in 2022	937,429	You are pulled from the wreckage Of your silent reverie You're in the arms of the angel May you find some comfort here
6	Biagio da Cesena	917,397	Thanks to Reddit, a case of revenge by art: Biagio was the Papal master of ceremonies to four popes who was opposed to nude art in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo responded by putting him in a painting, with a snake biting his penis. Real mature.
7	Anna Mani	792,436	A Google Doodle sent readers to the article of this Indian woman physicist.
8	Top Gun: Maverick	733,864	After making over $1.4 billion worldwide, Tom Cruise's return as a naval aviator is available as digital rental/purchase, bringing in a new influx of viewers. No word on when it arrives on Paramount+ or another streamer yet.
9	Laal Singh Chaddha	712,440	Aamir Khan's latest film, which continues to attract attention despite a lacklustre performance, both critically and commercially.
10	The Sandman (TV series)	698,543	The TV/film/webcast/whatever streaming shows are called these days adaptation of the beloved Neil Gaiman comic is still being watched, unsurpising given the acclaim it has received.

Exclusions

These lists exclude the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the Top 25 Report talk page if you wish.

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