Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (October 11 to 17, 2015)
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Summary: We live in a harsh, uncertain world. There's an escalating war in Syria that seems to be drawing in the entire northern hemisphere, a resulting European migrant crisis, a slow rise to the boil of the unending Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and ever more school shootings in the US. But people aren't turning to Wikipedia to comprehend these things; they're turning to Wikipedia to, well, keep up with the Kardashians, follow their latest shows, and track Internet memes. Is the world hiding from itself? Or is Wikipedia not seen as a valid source for such information? Difficult questions. But then, those are in abundance these days.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of October 11 to 17, 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 Lamar Odom 
2,067,704 
At this point in their evolution, the Kardashian clan have coalesced into their own self-sustaining media ecology, independent of outside events, common sense and perhaps even thermodynamics. That the former LA Laker, Mr Khloe Kardashian's unconscious appearance at a Nevada brothel called the Love Ranch was not only enough to have him top the list, but to garner almost as many views as the next three topics combined would suggest a sizeable portion of humanity is prepared to follow them onto their planet. 2 UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying 
746,591 The English-speaking world has been well-served in qualifiers this year. This week's near-double jump in numbers was likely due to both Northern Ireland and Wales earning a berth at next year's finals in France. 3 Bernie Sanders 
728,853 
The junior Senator from Vermont, longest-serving Independent in US history and self-described Socialist, has been for the left of American politics what Donald Trump has been for the right; the voice of angry disaffection. This week, he reappeared on this list after polls claimed he'd won this week's Democratic debate. While no one seriously expects him to win the Democratic nomination, he has provided a much-needed prod for Hillary, who has at times acted as if she was being ordained, rather than elected. 4 American Horror Story: Hotel
723,745 
The fifth season of American Horror Story premiered on October 7. The second episode, "Chutes and Ladders", saw a decent-ish 50% drop in views from the premiere. 5 A. P. J. Abdul Kalam 
584,665 
This beloved former scientist and reluctant politician, whose death last July at the age of 83 led to him topping this list, reappeared on the week of his first post-mortem birthday. 6 Crimson Peak
580,155 
Director Guillermo del Toro's everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Gothic romance has been declared merely "average" by critics, received a withering "B-" from the usually generous Cinemascore, and opened to a dead-on-arrival $12 million. Interesting that it nonetheless managed to be the most viewed film of the week on Wikipedia, given that box office is usually a good indicator of views. Perhaps it was del Toro's nerd-friendly back catalogue, or the presence of Marvel heartthrob Tom Hiddleston. 7 Pablo Escobar
572,268 
The fascination with the Netflix series Narcos continues to keep the Capone of cocaine near the top of this list. 8 Deaths in 2015 
538,797 
The viewing figures for this article have been remarkably constant; fluctuating week to week between 450 and 550 thousand on average, apparently heedless of who actually died. 9 The Martian (film)
532,484 
The adaptation of Andy Weir's popular novel about an astronaut stranded on Mars (played by Matt Damon) has grossed $319 million worldwide as of October 17 on a budget of $108 million. 10 The Walking Dead (TV series)
526,852 
The show's sixth season premièred on October 11. 11 Watermelon steak
490,549 
As learned in a Reddit thread this week, watermelon can be used as a poor man's Portobello mushroom; when grilled or baked, it apparently develops a meaty texture. I'll take their word for it. 12 The Walking Dead (season 6)
460,509 People are likely searching for this list to check air times. 13 Black hole
437,079 
grok.se's down this week which means I'm stripped of one of my principal investigating tools. So when faced with a topic as general as this, I find myself flying blind. However, this Reddit conversation is the likeliest culprit. 14 Christopher Columbus
428,470 
Some things in world history were probably inevitable. The world, as everyone in Columbus's time knew, is round, and also finite, and sooner or later, Old World populations, with their diseases and their muskets, would have come into contact with Native Americans, bringing death with them. Nothing could have stopped the decimation of the New World by disease; the pace of exploration was unlikely to wait for Edward Jenner. But it is difficult to look back on centuries of massacres, enslavement and genocide and not consider them a stain on the conscience of humanity. Or at the very least, to wonder if they should be marked with celebration; particularly of this man, who cut off the hands of natives who refused to provide him with gold, and particularly in the continental United States, where he never set foot. This year, the debate has become that most insidious of cultural phenomena, an internet meme, and is slowly transforming this once-revered figurehead into a not-undeserved target of hate. One potential benefit of this is that Americans might gain a clearer vision of their own history, even if a future "Juan Ponce de León Day" seems unlikely. 15 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
420,933 A Google Doodle celebrated the would-have-been 67th birthday of this Pakistani singer who died in 1997 at the age of just 49. 16 Billy the Kid
404,761 
A newly authenticated photograph of the outlaw could be sold for as much as $5 million. 17 Steve Jobs
389,159 
Steve Jobs died four years ago, and the latest entry to the mind-boggling list of artistic depictions of Steve Jobs is the movie Steve Jobs, which opened in New York and Los Angeles on October 9. Writer Aaron Sorkin also previously tackled Facebook in The Social Network. Can a film about Wikipedia be far behind? Jobs director Danny Boyle has already said he's in favor of it. Could Chris Pratt as Jimbo Wales be far off? 18 American Horror Story
423,973 See #4. 19 List of Bollywood films of 2015
361,173 
Not an unusual visitor to the Top 25. 20 Jim Webb
357,303 
Unlike the demolition derby that is the current Republican Presidential race, in which the two popularly favoured candidates are unlikely to be selected by the party magnates and the rest pile onto each other for second place, the Democratic race has been almost Zen in its sparseness. At one point Hillary Clinton seemed in danger of running unopposed, until a popular revolt led to the rise of Bernie Sanders. And so it has been since. The idea that the Democratic race was anything other than Sanders vs Clinton would probably have come as a surprise to most Americans before this week's Democratic debate in Las Vegas, when the also rans finally got a chance to introduce themselves. And also-rans they truly are. Even Joe Biden, who isn't running, is polling higher than any of the remaining three, and this week one of their number, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb, decided to blame that fact on CNN reporter Anderson Cooper. At a meeting with the Council on Foreign Relations, he claimed that Cooper, who moderated the Democratic debate, only allowed him 14 minutes to speak, even though that was five minutes longer than the time given to fellow candidate Lincoln Chafee. The general tone of the blogosphere in response to this has been along the lines of "get over it", but it apparently has led to a spike in interest on Wikipedia, if not in the polls. 21 UEFA Euro 2016
349,760 See #2. 22 Ken Allen
339,130 
His name may suggest a Palo Alto Internet entrepreneur, but Ken Allen was in fact an orangutan who lived, grudgingly, at the San Diego Zoo. As learned in a Reddit thread this week, he managed to escape his enclosure three times, and join the humans ogling the other animals. Needless to say, he was adored by the public. NOTE: The image at left is not, in fact, Ken, but a fairly close free-to-use approximation.
23 Fargo (TV series)
329,544 
The second season of this highly acclaimed detective anthology series (based on the film of the same name) premiered on October 12. 24 The Flash (2014 TV series)
319,333 
The second season of this spinoff from the hit series Arrow (DC Comics' second attempt to create a TV universe, after the late and much lamented DC Animated Universe) premiered on October 6. 25 Chronostasis
317,585 
As learned in a Reddit thread this week, the reason that it takes the first second of a ticking clock longer to move is because it takes your brain a while to catch up with your eyes when they rapidly change their focus.
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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.