Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (November 24 to 30, 2013)
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Summary: As North America tucked into Thanksgiving, the rest of the world seemed mired in darker matters. Scandal, murder and unspeakable crimes were the theme of the week, as suspects, celebrated and not, had their days in court. The mood was leavened slightly by the usual injection of pop culture: the continued success of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the long shadow of Doctor Who 's fiftieth anniversary, and the death of Family Guy's loyal talking dog Brian Griffin all gained mentions. All this and another celebrity performance at an awards show.
For the week of November 24 to 30, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages* were:
Rank Last Wks Article Class Views Image Notes 1 - - Thanksgiving 
1,080,561 
America's annual turkey-fest to celebrate the cozy beginnings of its long, tempestuous and occasionally abusive relationship with its native population fell on the 28th this year, together with traditional activities such as overeating and family bickering. 2 - - Black Friday (shopping) 
940,694 
If there is such a thing as a holiday while at work, then retailers are having one this week on the day after Thanksgiving, which signifies the moment in the year when they shift from operating at a loss to operating at a profit. 3 2 3 Doctor Who 
615,901 The longest-running science fiction television series in history celebrated its 50th anniversary with a barreling barrage of coverage; beyond the mandatory feature-length episode (see below), there have been documentaries, radio serials, lost episodes making sudden appearances, even a docudrama about its creation starring David Bradley as William Hartnell. 4 - - Thanksgiving (United States)
527,665 It's not really surprising that, of the two countries to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, the one with ten times the population got the most Wikipedia views. 5 - - Brian Griffin
521,100 
The canine member of the Griffin family from the longrunning animated sitcom Family Guy got a lot of attention this week because he is, apparently, dead. And not cartoon-style, suddenly back up after the jump cut dead, or even Dallas-style, it was all a dream-type dead. No, he is, apparently, genuinely, permanently dead. Which, given that he was arguably the show's most popular character, is a surprising move on the show's part. But there's no art to find the tastes of showrunners, and particularly those of Seth MacFarlane. 6 12 3 Bitcoin
517,247 
People just can't stop finding bitcoins. The oddball digital currency that is mostly beloved of child porn addicts, illegal drug consumers and radical libertarians is back in the news this week, for a number of reasons. First, bankers have (prematurely?) suggested it may prove a legitimate competitor to real money; second, another bitcoin "trove" worth USD 6 million was found in a junked hard drive this week; finally, "Bitcoin Black Friday" was declared for the day after Thanksgiving to try and get people to actually spend the frigging things instead of hoarding them. Except that hoarding them is exactly the right thing to do if their value continues to skyrocket as it has done. 7 24 2 The Hunger Games 
454,994 
This hybrid of Metropolis and Battle Royale has become the least likely young adult hit ever. Thanks to the latest film adaptation (see above) it's been getting some Wikipedia attention. 8 22 2 The Day of the Doctor
448,437 The nostalgia-fest that was the Doctor's 50th anniversary special drew in tens of millions of viewers when it was simulcast around the world in 94 countries, and even drew in a respectable box office gross of $10 million, for the cinemas showing it in 3D. 9 - - Ariana Grande
441,822 
The singer gained media attention when she performed at the American Music Awards in a Jessica Rabbity dress. 10 - - Hanukkah
427,202 
The 8-day Hebrew Festival of Lights, commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt against the Persian Seleucid Empire in 200 BC, began on 27 November this year. 11 20 3 Jennifer Lawrence
410,136 
The second installment of the Oscar-winning actress's blockbuster franchise, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, opened this weekend to a record-breaking $158.1 million. 12 10 47 Facebook
385,345 
A perennially popular article 13 11 10 United States
373,686 
The 3rd most popular Wikipedia article between 2010 and 2012, and a perpetual bubble-under-er. Not really surprising that the country with by far the most English speakers would be the most popular on the English Wikipedia. 14 15 28 List of Bollywood films of 2013 List 359,860 
An established staple of the top 25. 15 - - List of Doctor Who serials List 357,661 The long tail of the 50th anniversary, but also, perhaps, people looking forward to the Christmas special? 16 - - Noida double murder case
353,920 On 25 November, a milestone was reached in this longrunning murder case, which had already become a media sensation in India thanks to generous helpings of salacious innuendo and inferred soap-operatic drama. The parents of Aarushi Talwar were found guilty both of her murder and that of their servant, who were found dead in their house in May 2008. Their conviction rests on contested evidence, and the two are expected to appeal. 17 - - Ian Watkins (Lostprophets)
351,843 
The lead singer of the Welsh band Lostprophets plead guilty to having sexually assaulted a number of children, some aged one or younger, on 25 November. 18 18 56 Deaths in 2013 List 340,984 
The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article. 19 17 50 World War II 
332,621 
Another perennially popular article. (The 16th most popular article from 2010 to 2012, in fact, see Table 2 here.) 20 - - Catching Fire
332,044 The second volume of the Hunger Games trilogy of novels is the source material for the current blockbuster film starring Jennifer Lawrence (see above). 21 - - Mill Ends Park
310,984 
The smallest urban park in the world, which would fit comfortably in a jumbo-sized flower pot (yes, that is the whole thing), became a topic of interest on Reddit this week. 22 - 20 IPv6
297,191 
This issue has reappeared in the top 25, after hovering below it for some time. It is something of a crisis, though not one that is necessarily apparent. It may come as a surprise to some, but the Internet is, for lack of a better word, full. Every computer online is assigned a specific address, made up of a sequence of numbers, that allows other computers to contact it over the Internet. The original number sequence, known as IPv4, is currently the norm for ~99% of online computers. It allows for a maximum of about 4.3 billion addresses; a number that maxed out in January 2011. The long-term plan is to migrate over to IPv6, which allows for 3x1038 addresses; however, since this would require a massive software and even hardware upgrade, many companies are reluctant to undertake it. Until now we've been stalling for time by harvesting abandoned addresses and re-allocating them, a decidedly short-term measure. 23 - - Lostprophets
294,934 The Welsh band (now disbanded, for obvious reasons) became a topic of interest thanks to its lead singer's legal travails (see above). 24 3 3 John F. Kennedy
292,445 
The ever-popular, ever-tragic 35th US President surged during the 50th anniversary of his assassination on 22 November. 25 25 7 India
287,642 
The second-largest English-speaking population on Earth is a regular visitor to the top 25.
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- Almosts:
- Family Guy (285,711 views); Life of Brian (Family Guy) (280,265 views); Mockingjay (278,343 views)
- Exclusions:
- This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages, 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 I can't find a reason for an article to be included doesn't mean there isn't one, and 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.
- G: This, or alternately G-force, frequently appears in the top 25. It is probably due to people typing "G" for "Google" in Google Chrome's search bar and hastily clicking "enter".
- Lycos: the geriatric web portal seems to be back en vogue, for no apparent reason.
- A rather uncreative bot is spamming this week's list with Trivial Pursuit-esque topic headers: "Human Interest"; "Entertainment Culture"; "Hospitality Recreation"; "Health Medical Pharma" etc. (for some reason, always capitalised- also, whoever created this bot has apparently never heard of the slash).
- Java: My only guess is a bot searching for the programming language.
- Specific exclusions this week (if you know a reason for their presence, please post it on the talk page):
- Several articles related to global warming (including global warming) have been removed from this list; their continued high view counts are raising suspicions of artificial inflation. I'll believe that Climategate was #1 during a typhoon, but that it got more hits than Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving? No.
- R.I.O.: I have no idea why this obscure German band got a sudden 2-day spike on 27-28 of November.
- Notes:
- Number of views needed to reach Top 25 this week: 287,642. Last week: 301,164.
- The revision of WP:5000 containing the data used to create this list.