Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/June 23 to 29, 2024

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (June 23 to 29, 2024)

Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, Krimuk2.0, Vestrian24Bio, TheJoebro64 and Rajan51

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June closes with mostly escapism, particularly in the sports front, no matter if the elections that will make life harder on the second semester seep through.

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	UEFA Euro 2024	3,744,974	Europe's national football teams kept playing in Germany, with the week covered by this report featuring the last round of the group stage (featuring a massive upset in Georgia beating Portugal, and a goal in the 8th minute of injury time closing a disappointing winless campaign for Croatia, in what's probably Luka Modric's last tournament) and the first two games of the Round of 16 (both ended 2-0, for the expected side in Germany-Denmark, and the complete opposite in the other as defending champions Italy shamefully failed against Switzerland).
2	Kalki 2898 AD	2,208,179	Indian cinema makes a comeback to this list with this epic science fiction Telugu language film. Inspired by very many Hollywood blockbusters as well as by Hindu epics, particularly the Mahabharata, Kalki is reported to be the most expensive Indian film with a budget of US$72 million. Given its massive opening at the box office, it should have no problem breaking even. Which is good, since the film ends on a cliffhanger, promising a "Kalki Cinematic Universe".
3	Julian Assange	1,311,006	The Australian creator of WikiLeaks was arrested in 2019, after Ecuador revoked his political asylum and he failed to appear in court, and had been doing time in a London prison ever since. Still, the United States wanted to extradite him to be imprisoned in their country due to numerous espionage indictments for all the leaked classified information he put on the Internet, but the Australian government worked on a plea bargain, and Assange pleaded guilty to a charge of “conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information” as part of a plea deal which, due to time already served, resulted in his release from prison, following a flight to attend the federal courthouse of the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands (it's an American territory) and another to Australian capital Canberra. Still, in spite of being free again Assange will have to pay for the costs of those charter flights as he was not permitted to fly on commercial airlines, and thus owes US$520,000.
4	ICC Men's T20 World Cup	1,027,658	India won their second title at the 2024 edition (#10) after 17 years since their first title in the first edition, partially making up for last year's defeat in the other World Cup.
5	Deaths in 2024	984,973	Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep I pray the Lord my Soul to keep If I should die before I 'wake I pray the Lord my Soul to take. (Hush little baby, don't say a word...)
6	2024 NBA draft	931,766	The next batch of basketball rookies were chosen, and this year the top two picks were French, Zaccharie Risacher to the Atlanta Hawks and Alexandre Sarr to the Washington Wizards. (the week also featured a draft for ice hockey, which indirectly appears in this list through an unusual entry down there at #20...)
7	UEFA European Championship	853,203	#1 is the 19th edition of those. 35 teams have played (including defunct ones like the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia), and 10 of those got a title (not counting the defunct ones, only Greece failed to qualify for the 2024 edition, beaten by Georgia).
8	House of the Dragon	825,838	This prequel series of Game of Thrones in the A Song of Ice and Fire franchise released its second episode of the second season on HBO Max last week.
9	2024 Copa América	807,335	Another continental football tournament, this time the South American one with 6 North\Central American guests. Hosts United States started with a win, but then said "Jump back, what's that sound?" losing the next game to Panama, meaning that they could fail to qualify for the playoffs in the group stage's last game (jumping ahead: they indeed lost, showing the USMNT need some improvement before co-hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup).
10	2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup	800,164	India won their first title in a major ICC event after 11 years since 2013 ICC Champions Trophy first in a World Cup after 13 years since 2011 Cricket World Cup both led by MS Dhoni. This was India's first victory since Dhoni's retirement. Rohit Sharma became the third Indian captain to win a major ICC event after Kapil Dev and Dhoni; A feat Virat Kohli couldn't get to. Indian players Sharma, Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja announced their retirement from T20I cricket after the final. The final also marked the end of Rahul Dravid's tenure as the coach of the Indian cricket team.
11	Project 2025	758,745	Conservatives have released detailed plans to revamp the American government in case #24 wins, which people with more common sense are noting as basically turning the country into a right-wing autocracy undermining the rule of law, the separation of powers, the separation of church and state, and civil liberties.
12	Inside Out 2	710,750	Dune: Part Two lost its status as the year's highest-grossing movie to another sequel, namely Pixar returning to what was once described as "what if emotions had emotions?" and resulting in what became 2024's first billion dollar movie (a relief for Disney after last year had many costly flops). Also it's a great film (but the first is better), different composer.
13	Joe Biden	668,359	Biden partook in the first US presidential debate of the 2024 election alongside his predecessor and rival (#24) on June 27, and to say it was a disaster for the incumbent president would be an understatement. In what has widely been described as the worst televised presidential debate performance in history, Biden frequently lost his train of thought, was often unable to finish a sentence, and largely failed to articulate his policies coherently. His performance has sent much of the Democratic Party into a panic as it debates whether Biden is fit to remain on the November ballot or if he should step aside to enable the nomination of a younger candidate in a brokered convention.
14	Shifty Shellshock	633,012	Remember Crazy Town, a rap rock group who became a one hit wonder with Come my lady\come come my lady\you're my Butterfly, sugar, baby!? Well, one of its two founding members, Seth Brooks "Shifty Shellshock" Binzer, was found dead at the age of 49 of a drug overdose, ending a tribulated life of drug addiction and arrests.
15	A Quiet Place: Day One	608,988	After two movies revealing Jim from The Office is a competent horror director, Michael Sarnoski made a prequel showing New York City being overran by borderline indestructible aliens who attack anything that makes loud noises, while a cancer patient (Lupita Nyong'o, pictured) and a British exchange student (Joseph Quinn) try to quietly make their way out of town. Delivering the same tension of its predecessors, A Quiet Place: Day One had great reviews and should soon recoup its relatively modest $67 million budget at the box office.
16	Bronny James	592,152	LeBron James has stated that he'd probably only retire after being able to play alongside his son LeBron Jr., aka "Bronny". #6 finally opened the doors for that, as the USC Trojans player was picked in the second round by the same Los Angeles Lakers that already employ LeBron (albeit LBJ is now negotating a contract renewal, namely reducing his own salary in order to afford the Lakers to pay for some decent teammates for the Jameses).
17	Opinion polling for the 2024 United Kingdom general election	557,486	July 4 was not only the American Independence Day, but the day of the British elections, that John Oliver stated would be an opportunity to be independent from the Tories.
18	Zaheer Iqbal	553,938	Married actress Sonakshi Sinha in a non-religious civil ceremony.
19	Copa América	552,177	#9 is the 47th edition (blame it on the South Americans never having a consistent interval between editions, while #7 always had a four year gap aside from COVID delaying one to 5). Only two out of the ten teams of CONMEBOL have never won, namely Ecuador and Venezuela (the former is unlucky, the latter is consistently bad given the country prefers baseball). The most successful guest team is Mexico, runner-up in two editions.
20	Celine Dion	528,673	Prime Video released I Am: Celine Dion, a documentary where the singer discusses the progression of the stiff-person syndrome that will probably force her into retirement if not isolation. But until that happens, Dion makes surprise appearances, such as at the 2024 NHL entry draft, held near her home at Las Vegas's Sphere, to announce the Montreal Canadiens pick (she's Canadian, of course she's a hockey fan).
21	Dua Lipa	527,622	If there is one reason for more countries to recognize Kosovo, it's this singer who has been providing club bangers and loads of sex appeal for the last decade. Many readers probably came to check on "Dula Peep" after seeing her showcase the songs from her latest album Radical Optimism at Glastonbury Festival.
22	The Boys (TV series)	519,513	The fourth and penultimate season of Prime Video's violent and satirical take on superheroes has three more episodes left, and episode 5 provided among other things the very unusual sight of farm animals turned superpowered and homicidal.
23	The Bear (TV series)	498,951	The third season of this intense drama series (some consider it a comedy?!) about toxic chefs doing toxic things began streaming its third season in its entirely on June 26. Critical reception is still positive, though not as much as its first two seasons.
24	Donald Trump	472,953	The former US president and current presumptive Republican nominee's candidacy got a substantial boost this week, as he was widely considered to have won his debate against #13. Whether this was due to how uniquely terrible Biden's performance was or to Trump showing uncharacteristic restraint and discipline during the debate depends on the political affiliation of who you ask.
25	Elon Musk	469,554	This billionaire fathered a third child with Shivon Zilis in early 2024 (according to Bloomberg) but was revealed to media last week only. Overall, it is said to be his twelfth child but, who knows...