Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (October 12 to 18, 2014)
edit← Last week's report – Next week's report →
Summary: The first transmissions of the Ebola virus in the United States sent the numbers spiralling to near-record levels, but not even War (in the Middle East) or Death (who retained his traditional seat in the top 25) let alone Pestilence, could distract the human race from what really mattered: the fall TV and movie seasons. 10 of the top 25 articles this week concerned currently running films or television shows, numbers that are sure to increase as the year draws to a close.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of October 12 to 18, 2014, 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 Ebola virus disease 
8,267,784 
Thanks to the ongoing and unprecedented outbreak in West Africa, this notoriously fatal disease has topped the list for three weeks running. This week, however, the first two confirmed transmissions on US soil occurred within days of each other, causing numbers to nearly double. Note: includes views from the Ebola redirect page.
2 The Walking Dead (TV series) 
922,674 
The show's fifth season premièred on 12 October. 3 Ebola virus 
908,196 See #1. 4 Facebook
864,835 
A perennially popular article. 5 American Horror Story: Freak Show
789,206 
The fourth season of the American Horror Story series debuted on 8 October. 6 Gotham (TV series) 
778,351 
This televisual reboot of the Batman franchise debuted on 22 September 2014, and is in the Top 25 for a fourth straight week. 7 Gone Girl (film)
683,924 
This 2014 American mystery film starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike (both pictured at left) and directed by David Fincher has been the lucky recipient of a dose of controversy, with many feminists decrying it for perpetuating myths about rape accusation. The filmmakers are pleading innocent all the way to the bank, with the movie earning $170 million worldwide in its first 15 days. 8 Elizabeth Peña
664,389 
This accomplished Cuban-American actress, best known for her films in the late 80s/early 90s such as *batteries not included, La Bamba and Jacob's Ladder, died this week at the age of 55. 9 Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa
592,426 The worst epidemic of this hideous virus in history has so far killed nearly 5000 people and infected nearly 10,000, and shows no signs of slowing. The world is belatedly waking to the implications, particularly since the disease has now spread to the US. 10 Deaths in 2014 
549,853 
The list of deaths in the current year is always a popular article. 11 The Evil Within
549,502 
The Triple-A game studios told us survival horror was dead, and promptly proved it by not making survival horror games. Apparently they didn't tell Shinji Mikami (pictured), the godfather of the genre, because he's back in his bailiwick under the aegis of major studio Bethesda Softworks. Although Mikami is noted for the militaristic Resident Evil, this game is more in the spirit of recent indie horror hits like Slender, Amnesia and Outlast; stripping you of your weapons and ammo, and forcing you to run and hide. 12 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
547,476 
The exploits of ISIL remain well-covered in the news, despite having been eclipsed by the Ebola outbreak. 13 Google
541,858 
Always a fairly popular article. 14 The Walking Dead (season 5)
537,254 See #2. Probably due to viewers checking the TV listings. 15 Annabelle (film)
533,984 
This not-quite-prequel to last year's horror hit The Conjuring was released on 3 October, and stars Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton, and Alfre Woodard (pictured at left). Despite bad reviews, it has so far grossed just under $145 million worldwide. 16 The Flash (2014 TV series)
509,544 
This spinoff from the hit series Arrow marks DC Comics' second attempt to create a TV universe, after the late and much lamented DC Animated Universe. Judging by the ratings, it's working. 17 American Horror Story
507,994 See #4. 18 Indian Super League
497,521 
It's fair to say that football has yet to make many inroads in the cricket-mad nation of India. The heavily-promoted creation of this new league is intended to change that. With a potential audience of 1.3 billion, the potential is vast, but the cultural barriers are pretty big. 19 Deadpool
485,115 
This week Marvel announced that this popular character, a crazed assassin with penchants for random behaviour and breaking the fourth wall, will get his own movie, starring Ryan Reynolds (pictured), who also played the role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. 20 Christopher Columbus
476,580 
He didn't discover America, didn't discover the world was round and was apparently such an incompetent ruler that Ferdinand and Isabella fired him from his governorship of Hispaniola. But he did indeed sail the ocean blue and, 520 years later this week, the implications of his having done so are still disputed. But there's no denying that, for better or worse, the modern age began with that landing. 21 Rekha
466,718 
This veteran Bollywood actress made a rare TV appearance this week on an episode of Bigg Boss, the Indian equivalent of Big Brother. 22 Malala Yousafzai
433,689 
On 10 October 2014, it was announced that Yousafzai was a winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize (the youngest ever recipient at age 17), an honour she shared with Kailash Satyarthi 23 United States
403,637 
A perpetual bubble-under-er that, while it seldom makes the top 25, usually appears in "Top of the Year" lists. Not really surprising that the country with by far the most English speakers would be the most popular on the English Wikipedia. 24 Gone Girl (novel)
399,851 
The 2012 novel by Gillian Flynn is the basis for the film appearing at #7 this week. 25 Fury (2014 film)
394,542 
This World War II-set action film starring Brad Pitt (pictured) is set to take the top slot at this weekend's boxoffice, though from the looks of things, Gone Girl still has the buzz.
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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). There are a number of articles that reappear frequently in the raw 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.
- Malware: Even malware has a sense of humour.
- Undefined. A common error message in computing, these are automated visits by a buggy computer program.
- Alive/Alive!: Links to disambigs with no apparent reason for being.
- Online shopping: Massive view spike commenced in Sept without explanation.
- Rock music. Ditto.
- Payday loan: A scammer attempting to bilk the desperate.
- Lamington: Less than 0.1% from mobile views; a dead giveaway for spam.
- Angelsberg: On the other hand; 100% mobile? Just as bad.
- Amazon.com: A relatively high 5.86% of mobile views, but remains suspicious after a long period of bot manipulation.
Specific exclusions this week: (note that mobile views of 0% is also strong evidence of spammers, which is the case among all these entries)
- Jack Trice: Has a mobile fraction of 0.01%. That's right; of the more than 2 million "views" for this article this week, 1 in 10,000 used a mobile phone. Yeah. That happened.
- Principal component analysis: Mobile fraction of 0.12%
- Website: Mobile fraction of 97%
- Omega Pocket Watch: Note the capitals. Has a mobile fraction of 0. Yes, 0.