Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (June 22 to 28 2014)
edit← Last week's report – Next week's Report →
Summary: With Game of Thrones over for another year, the World Cup dominated yet again. And that, with the exception of some odd new entries (College Board, Marfan syndrome... flounder) is pretty much that. This list isn't likely to be particularly eventful until the Cup is won.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of June 22-28, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages, were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 2014 FIFA World Cup 
2,526,115 
With former winners England, Spain, Italy and Uruguay now out, and old stalwart Mexico denied a place in the quarter finals thanks to a Dutch goal at the literal last minute, this World Cup has been nothing if not surprising. And with Costa Rica coming out of nowhere to the shock and awe of everyone, the surprises are sure to keep coming. 2 FIFA World Cup 
935,760 
The broader article on the history of the competition may have been accessed by people looking for the long view, but in truth it was probably more to do with people looking with the more specific article above. 3 Transformers: Age of Extinction 
770,945 
Usually, when a big-shot director is tired of a franchise, the studio will offer him a juicy pay packet to stay on; Paramount gave Michael Bay an entire movie so he would agree to continue to prop up their tent-pole series, which is all the more vital since Marvel and Indiana Jones are now at Disney. The movie's 17% RT rating (even lower than for the much-reviled entry, Revenge of the Fallen) shows just how much commitment Bay brought to the project; that said, its $300 million worldwide opening (of which $100 million was from the US and $90 million, thanks to some shameless in-movie pandering, was from China) shows audiences don't really care. 4 Cristiano Ronaldo 
504,713 
2013's Golden Ball winner is a prime contender for the "best player on the planet" title. His popularity is such that he is on this list despite the fact that Portugal were kicked out at the first round after losing 4-0 to Germany. 5 Amazon.com
466,100 
This article suddenly reappeared in the top 25 a few months ago after a long absence; it's always difficult to determine the reasons for the popularity of website articles (how many are simply misaimed clicks on the Google search list?) but there are at least two possibilities: first, it released its digital media player, Amazon Fire TV on April 2, and second, it is currently embroiled in a dispute with publisher Hachette that could decide whether book publishers even need to exist in the post-digital world. 6 Neymar
453,305 
The 22-year-old wunderkind has scored five goals in the four matches Brazil have played this tournament, including one of the penalties that moves them past Chile to the quarter final. 7 Luis Suárez
449,362 
The Liverpool forward had already earned the nickname "the vampire" for his peculiar habit of biting people during matches, but his latest bout of bloodthirst (against Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini) has proven particularly controversial, as the match ban he received for it was arguably responsible for Uruguay's exit from the World Cup. 8 2010 FIFA World Cup
427,400 
The current World Cup has buoyed interest in the last one, with people doubtless looking for parallels, clues for upcoming matches, or omens. 9 Lionel Messi 
425,487 
The Argentine forward and captain of the national team is another contender for the title of "best footballer on the planet". FIFA certainly thinks so; he won the Golden Ball award three years in a row. He's scored a goal in each of the games Argentina have played so far, making him a key element in the team's smooth progress to round 2. 10 Marfan syndrome
411,191 
The genetic disorder thought by some to have afflicted figures as diverse as Abraham Lincoln and the Pharaoh Akhenaten got into the news this week when Isaiah Austin, a former basketball player for the Baylor Bears, received an honorary NBA draft after being forced to end his career due to a diagnosis. 11 United States men's national soccer team
403,974 
The US doesn't usually make much of an impact on the World Cup, but they've been gradually moving up, and have now advanced to the second round. 12 Orange Is the New Black
388,378 
The second season of the women-in-prison TV series premièred in its entirety on Netflix on 6 June. 13 2014 in film 
384,085 
A new entry for the list, probably in preparation for the Hollywood summer movie season. 14 Game of Thrones
379,908 
Yeah, like ending the season was going to kill this show. 15 Deaths in 2014
375,451 
The list of deaths in the current year is always a popular article. 16 Eli Wallach
370,580 
The prolific screen actor, arguably best known as "the Ugly" in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, died this week at the age of 98, after a 60-year career that saw credits as recently as 2010. 17 College Board
343,319 
The private company responsible for handling the college admissions for 6000 schools' worth of American students got into some hot water this week over a rather odd T-shirt intended for takers of the world history exam that depicted a caricature of Chinese people that would been a bit past the pale in 1954. 18 List of Bollywood films of 2014
320,227 
An established staple of the top 25 returns. 19 Ek Villain
283,087 
The Bollywood romantic thriller opened big in its home market, earning ₹320 million ($5.4 million) in its opening weekend. 20 2006 FIFA World Cup
280,698 
The last World Cup but one, hosted by Germany, has the unusual distinction of having had four times as many viewers as there were people then on planet Earth. 21 Flounder
278,633 
Y'know what? I'm keeping this on here; I mean, I can't think of a rational reason on God's green Earth why it's on here, but there's no compelling reason for it not to be. If anyone can give me a decent reason for its appearance, I'd appreciate it. 22 Janitor (Scrubs)
276,860 
This character from the medical sitcom Scrubs was originally intended to be a figment of the main character's imagination, according to a thread on Reddit this week. 23 James Rodríguez
271,619 
The Colombian midfielder has scored at least one goal in each of his team's matches so far, but is now facing Brazil. 24 2002 FIFA World Cup
261,728 
The first World Cup to be held in 2 countries at once (a fairly big deal, when you consider the relationship those two particular countries have had) 25 Facebook
260,363 
A perennially popular article.
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Almost made it: List of FIFA World Cup finals (#26, 254,158)
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). 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.
- IPv6: I have to face facts; I allowed 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.
- Ddd: Hello? Spambot here. Just checking in.
- Alive/Alive!: Links to disambigs with no apparent reason for being.
- Lycos: The geriatric web portal is back.
- History of Bălţi: There is simply no logical way to explain the rise of this hyper-obscure article except as the result of a traffic-checking botnet, ala cat anatomy
- Specific exclusions this week:
- List of most viewed YouTube videos: One-day spike on 22 June
- Masaaki Yuasa: One-day spike on 27 June
- St. Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin: Been spiking wildly all round the place for weeks
- Triceps brachii muscle: Two-day spike on 25-26 June
- Billboard (magazine): Three massive spikes on 19, 22 and 28 June