Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 8 to 14, 2015)
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February is for Lovers: This week saw the 57th Annual Grammy Awards (#13) held on February 8 dominating the chart, as music lovers checked out Sam Smith (#3) pick up four awards, and Beck take album of the year, and watched performers including Sia (#9), Madonna (#11), and Annie Lennox (#16). But Valentine's Day (#1) proved the perfect time for the release of Fifty Shades of Grey (film), with the movie coming in at #5, the book of the same name at #2, and the primary actors at #14 and #15.
As prepared by Milowent, for the week of February 8 to 14, 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 Valentine's Day 
2,215,877 
As in 2013 and 2014, Valentine's Day makes it annual appearance at the top of the chart. 2 Fifty Shades of Grey 
2,168,619 
Unquestionably the film based on this book picked the right weekend to be released. As of Sunday February 15 (one day after this Report's coverage period), the film had grossed over $239 million worldwide. On this chart, it is up from #8 and 713,992 views last week. 3 Sam Smith (singer)
1,331,959 
At the 57th Annual Grammy Awards held on February 8, 2015, Smith won four awards including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for "Stay with Me", Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album. Speaking of "Stay with Me", it is clear that Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne cashed in at the right time, recently settling a dispute with Smith to get a cut of royalties from the song based on coincidental similarities to a part of 1989's "I Won't Back Down". Lots of songs have similar riffs to earlier songs, since there are only so many combinations of notes and chords in pop music that appeal to us. But being similar to a song of the year is apparently worth paying a lawyer to complain about a bit. 4 Beck 
1,317,196 
Beck's album Morning Phase won Album of the Year at the Grammys. And Kanye West took issue with Beck winning over Beyonce, which got himself placed at #18 this week. 5 Fifty Shades of Grey (film) 
1,204,926 
See #2. The film stars Dakota Johnson (#14) (pictured) and Jamie Dornan (#15). 6 Better Call Saul
1,130,822 
A television show spinoff of Breaking Bad (a former chart favorite on Wikipedia) starring Bob Odenkirk (pictured), it debuted on AMC on February 8, 2015. 7 Chris Kyle
1,121,178 
Down from 1.59 million views last week, but still quite strong. If there's one thing America loves, it's a good, old fashioned culture war. Clint Eastwood's latest directorial effort American Sniper may not be wowing the critics (Rotten Tomatoes places it 13th among the films he has directed), nor drawing the crowds overseas (its international box office take is currently less than a third its domestic take) but it has played spectacularly well in America's conservative heartland, leading politicians on the left and right to, well, snipe at each other about what the film and its popularity say about America, its people, and in particular its subject, the now deceased sniper Chris Kyle. While interest seems to be winding down (viewing figures for this article peaked at 5.3 million two weeks ago) the topic still has enough oxygen to keep it in the Top 10. 8 Stephen Hawking
935,172 
The former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, black hole theorist and latter-day science icon makes his 15th straight appearance in the Top 25 this week. Interest is only likely to increase in the run-up to the Oscars, thanks to Eddie Redmayne's likely Best Actor win for portraying him. 9 Sia (musician)
872,633 
The popular singer hid her face once again, but performed at the Grammys on February 8. 10 Facebook
822,844 
A perennially popular article. 11 Madonna
789,813 
Madonna also performed at the Grammys on February 8. 12 Bruce Jenner
766,004 
The former track and field Olympian and current honorary Kardashian remains in the news and on this chart for another week, though this article currently doesn't tell readers why he is so popular, due to an application of WP:BLP policies. 13 57th Annual Grammy Awards N/A 762,411 
Although many less-known winners like St. Vincent (pictured) (Best Alternative Music Album) didn't make the chart this week, there is no doubt that the Grammys were dominant. 14 Dakota Johnson
743,011 See #5. She plays the lead role in Fifty Shades of Grey (film) 15 Jamie Dornan
707,140 
See #5. He plays the lead male role in Fifty Shades of Grey (film) 16 Annie Lennox
685,975 
She also performed at the Grammys. 17 Brian Williams
622,537 
Announced on February 10, the American newscaster was suspended from his evening newscast for six months, due to some troubling revelations that Williams likes to stretch the truth when it comes to his own involvement in newsworthy events. We all probably know people like this, but thankfully they are usually not news reporters. 18 Kanye West
539,439 Sorry Kanye, but Beck still won, so we're not even putting your picture here. 19 The Walking Dead (TV series)
538,754 
See #22. 20 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
531,562 
The battle-ravaged non-country called the "Islamic State" has proved remarkably persistent, even after the brutal Siege of Kobanî, which purged ISIS from the town at the cost of utterly destroying it. Back on the chart for a second week as more killings occur. 21 Deaths in 2015 
507,760 
Back on the Top 25 after the American Super Bowl pushed it off for one week. 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. 22 The Walking Dead (season 5)
501,872 Season Five of this popular show continued after a break since late November, with a new episode on February 8. 23 List of Presidents of the United States 500,304 
Big jump in views on February 13. Reddit? 24 BDSM
482,285 
The content matter of Fifty Shades of Grey (film) (See #2, #5, #14, #15) also edges onto this report. We've chosen to display one of the least controversial of the many photos on that article page here. I'm now a bit afraid to go see the movie. 25 Arvind Kejriwal
476,971 The Chief Minister of Delhi, sworn in for a second term on February 14.
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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.
Specific exclusions this week:
- Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: 9% mobile views, but huge spike on February 14 suggests this is bot driven by some broken-hearted folks.