Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (April 12 to 18, 2015)
editSee the main page revision history for full editor credit
← Last week's report – Next week's report →
Summary: Couch potatoes rule this week, as 19 of the 25 slots were taken by either movies, TV, video games, sports or music. The surprising success of Furious 7 maintained its domination for the third week running, even eclipsing the return of Game of Thrones, the most popular fictional topic last year. Game of Thrones even had to compete with the première of Daredevil, the latest televisual extension of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which opened on Netflix this week to stellar reviews. The 2016 US Presidential election got a minor bump as Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio declared their intentions to run, but the only other intrusion of the real world into this bubble of fantasy and pop culture was the murder of Odin Lloyd, which, let's face it, has as much to do with football as it does with crime.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of April 12 to 18, 2015, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Daredevil (TV series) 
1,492,776 
The first of four projects started as part of a deal between Marvel Studios and Netflix, this TV series was released in its entirety on the service on April 10. It's impossible to gauge the public response to this ("ratings" don't really have meaning when applied to Netflix shows) but the critical response has been ecstatic (Rotten Tomatoes currently rates it at 97%) and if its Wikipedia position is anything to go by, the public appear to have taken to it too. 2 Furious 7
1,359,495 
"Fast and furious" pretty much sums up the seventh instalment of this long-running series, as it has managed to accrue an astonishing $1.13 billion worldwide in just its first 15 days on release, including the highest opening weekend gross ever in China. But while box office is certainly the prime mover of Wikipedia views when it comes to movies, it isn't really enough. For a movie to get this kind of attention on Wikipedia, it either needs to be controversial, like Fifty Shades of Grey or American Sniper, or genuinely beloved, like Guardians of the Galaxy. I don't know if it is too early to make the call, but Furious 7 already has an IMDB rating (one of the surest indicators of audience affection) of 7.9; to put that in perspective, a rating higher than 8 makes a film eligible for the top 250 list. 3 Game of Thrones (season 5)
1,269,257 
And it's baa-aack. The TV show that has become synonymous with the Top 25 Report aired its season première on April 12, to record ratings. I am not the world's greatest fan of Game of Thrones, but I swear, even if you thought it was televisual swill, after curating this list for three years solid you'd have the dadadadaDUM! dadadadaDUM! dadadadaDUM! crashing around your skull too. 4 Jordan Spieth 
1,210,126 
This American golfer's stellar performance in the 2015 Masters Tournament drew much attention. On April 10, Spieth broke the 36-hole Masters scoring record by posting 14-under 130 through two rounds, and on April 11 he broke the 54 hole record at the Masters by shooting a 200 total (16 under par). 5 Paul Walker
1,160,566 
Furious 7 will be the last, and definitely biggest, film of Paul Walker's career, and was completed despite his tragic death midway through production. How much of the film's current record grosses was in memoriam to a fallen star is impossible to say. 6 Aaron Hernandez
1,047,045 
What is the only thing America loves to follow more than sports stars? Disgraced sports stars. This very-quickly-former New England Patriot got similar views back in 2013 when he was only a suspect in the murder of Odin Lloyd, but shot back into the list on April 15 when he was finally convicted of first-degree murder and was handed a mandatory sentence of life in prison. 7 Game of Thrones 
974,531 See #3. 8 Daredevil (Marvel Comics)
821,055 
Stan Lee's blind vigilante got a gritty and edgy adaptation for TV this week (see #1). 9 B. R. Ambedkar
789,883 
The architect of India's Constitution and campaigner for the rights of untouchables got a Google Doodle to celebrate his 124th birthday on April 14. 10 List of Game of Thrones episodes 
692,095 Most likely people searching for air dates. 11 The Fast and the Furious
677,842 See #2. 12 Star Wars: The Force Awakens
627,444 
The second trailer for the upcoming and slaveringly awaited Star Wars sequel offered fans a glimpse of Han Solo and Chewbacca when it was released this week. 13 Mortal Kombat X
608,328 
For a series built largely on gore, it's pretty astonishing how much lore it's managed to build up over the years. This game, released on April 7, is the first true sequel this series has had in nearly a decade, and the tenth main title in the series, though its developers insist on pronouncing its numeral "ex". 14 Kintsugi
589,376 The Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with gold to highlight the imperfections became the subject of a Reddit thread this week. 15 Hillary Rodham Clinton 
566,496 
The former First Lady, US Senator and Secretary of State surprised absolutely no one this week when she announced her intention to make a second run for President. 16 Avengers: Age of Ultron
541,147 
The latest instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe premiered in Hollywood on April 13. In any other year, the sequel to the billion-grossing Avengers would be the film to beat at the box office, but with Furious 7 behind it and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ahead, no one is taking bets on who will come out on top. The film opens in wide release on May 1. 17 Deaths in 2015
518,857 
The viewing figures for this article have been remarkably constant; fluctuating week to week between 450 and 550,000, apparently heedless of who actually died. 18 Murder of Odin Lloyd
515,979 See #6 19 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
502,638 
The 16-year-old music festival got into the news this week when Madonna, no stranger to connecting intimately with others in inappropriate spaces, kissed rapper Drake onstage. Apparently it was unplanned. 20 Kingpin (comics)
495,949 
The Joker to Daredevil's Batman got into the list thanks to the release of the new television series (see #1). This incarnation is played by Vincent D'Onofrio (pictured) 21 Facebook
489,294 
A perennially popular article. 22 Marco Rubio
471,412 
The strongly socially conservative Florida senator announced his intention to run for President this week. 23 Vin Diesel
466,871 
Vin Diesel, a.k.a Mark Vincent a.k.a Melkor (his D&D name, and before you say that's irrelevant, he had it fake-tattooed on his stomach while filming XXX) is the nominal star of Furious 7, though Paul Walker (#2) has been in most people's thoughts. He also recently became a father for the third time, so between that and Furious 7's grosses, he has a lot to smile about, even if he will doubtless be remembering his departed friend. By the way, his new daughter's name is Pauline, after Paul Walker. 24 Unfriended
448,868 This real time horror movie, which takes place entirely over Skype, had a relatively spectacular $16 million opening weekend given its $1 million budget, thanks in large part to a highly effective viral marketing campaign, similar to that which propelled The Blair Witch Project into box office stratosphere. 25 List of Arrow episodes
430,673 With the third-season finale coming up next month, people are doubtless looking to see how many episodes they have left.
.jpg)
.JPG)
Exclusions
edit- This list excludes 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 also exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (2% or less) or almost all mobile views (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 talk page if you wish.
- Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.