Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/October 28 to November 3, 2018

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Prepared with commentary by Rogerknots and Igordebraga

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Somebody to Love

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"Here we are, born to be kings, we're the Princes of the Universe!" Or at least of Wikipedia, as the late, great Freddie Mercury (#1) and his band Queen (#14) gather lots of views with the release of Bohemian Rhapsody (#13), starring Rami Malek (#15), in a great performance that to borrow from another musical hit, might lead to people saying "A Star Is Born" (#17). Readers are also celebrating Halloween (#2) - and on a lesser level, the Day of the Dead (#8), them who never leave this list (#12) and have two high entries (#3, #5) - by watching slasher movies (#16) and binging on Netflix shows about haunted houses (#11, #21) and teenage witches (#6, #18). The other prevalent topics are a record-breaking Indian statue (#4, #10), Western-themed video games (#9, #22), wrestling events (#7, #20), and politics, with the results of the elections in my country (#23), to borrow from that man still blaming everything wrong in the U.S. on immigrants (#24, #25), can be summed in just one word: "Sad!"

For the week of October 28 to November 3, 2018, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank Article Class Views Image About
1 Freddie Mercury   2,090,170
 
It seems that he is the champion, indeed. The lead singer of the groundbreaking rock band Queen (#14) was played by Rami Malek (#15) in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (#13), which is currently outperforming most expectations at the box office.
2 Halloween   1,745,391
 
It’s amazing how consistent this holiday’s view count has been over the years. Every October 31st, parents scramble for the last bag of candy, a trillion mouth bacteria have the best day of their lives, and roughly 1.7–2.0 million people check the Wikipedia page for some reason. I’m sure there’s some cool explanation for why this is, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what.
3 Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha   1,529,577
 
The 5th richest man in Thailand and the owner of Leicester City F.C. (pictured) unexpectedly passed on October 27th in a helicopter crash. Srivaddhanaprabha was the founder and CEO of a chain of duty-free shops in Thailand, King Power International Group. Srivaddhanaprabha leaves behind his wife and his four children.
4 Statue of Unity   1,271,087
 
The world’s tallest statue has been unveiled in India, rising up to a height of 597 feet(182 m), about twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty. The monument honors the Indian statesman Vallabhbhai Patel (#10), who was crucial to the unification of the Indian state.
5 Whitey Bulger   1,185,140
 
In a sequence of events seemingly straight from a gangster movie, the 89 year old mob boss was beaten to death by multiple inmates on Monday. The hit was apparently orchestrated by mafia hit man Fotios “Freddy” Geas. Bulger was famously discovered living as a fugitive in Santa Monica in 2011.
6 Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV series)   1,131,510
 
The TV adaptation of the dark version of a comic book series spun off from a one-off in a humor anthology from a popular teenage comic series debuted to a very positive reception and strong ratings. Featuring Kiernan Shipka (#21) as the titular character, the show explores questions of belonging, split identities, and sleep demons. In short, the perfect coming-of-age recipe.
7 WWE Crown Jewel   990,608
 
The timing was terrible for this WWE event, hosted by wrestling legend Hulk Hogan (pictured): returning to Saudi Arabia just after the Killing of Jamal Khashoggi led to calls for cancellation and boycotts by some wrestlers.
8 Day of the Dead   939,479
 
Ever since last year, we can celebrate the Mexican carnival of the cadaverous with this beautiful song:

Remember me
Though I have to say goodbye
Remember me
Don't let it make you cry

9 Red Dead Redemption 2   852,942   Rockstar Games has outdone themselves once again, creating their most expansive and visually stunning title yet. The game has earned an equally staggering amount of money, claiming the largest opening weekend in the history of entertainment.
10 Vallabhbhai Patel   835,622
 
The Indian statesman memorialized in colossal form by #4.
11 The Haunting of Hill House (TV series)   783,363 After adapting the Netflix original movie Gerald's Game out of a Stephen King novel, Mike Flanagan (pictured) decided to take one of King's favorite horror books (#21) and use it to make a limited series for the streaming service.
12 Deaths in 2018   718,134
 
As our #1 once sung:

"One shaft of light that shows the way
No mortal man can win this day
It's a kind of magic..."

13 Bohemian Rhapsody (film)   685,645 The biopic of our #1, directed by the same Bryan Singer who brought the X-Men to the big screen (along with an uncredited Dexter Fletcher once Singer was fired) had mixed reviews because the non-musical moments are a bit melodramatic bordering on soap opera (to the point an entire Queen tour is ignored to add gravitas to their Live Aid performance) but is making a killing at the box office.
14 Queen (band)   671,908
 
The innovative and iconic rock band led by our #1. Two of the surviving members, Brian May and Roger Taylor, were deeply involved with the above entry (the last one, John Deacon, has basically retired from the public eye).
15 Rami Malek   657,376
 
The Egyptian descended star of TV's Mr. Robot had some film roles such as the Pharaoh from Night at the Museum, but certainly has now broken into the public eye by filling in the shoes (and teeth) of our #1 in #13.
16 Halloween (2018 film)   594,728
 
Ousted from the top of the box office by our #13 after two weeks leading it, Halloween ignores decades of either divisive or terrible sequels to just say that famed slasher Michael Myers had been imprisoned for the same four decades that passed since the first movie. With him on the loose to slaughter on the title holiday (#2) the challenge to stop him is up to his archnemesis Laurie Strode (played by Jamie Lee Curtis, pictured).
17 A Star Is Born (2018 film)   594,526
 
Bradley Cooper stars (and directs, writes, produces and writes songs) in the fourth version of this story, where he's a famous musician who falls in love with a struggling one played by Lady Gaga and reveals her to the world. Following acclaim by reviewers and audiences, expect A Star Is Born to be an awards contender.
18 Kiernan Shipka   584,836
 
For me and many others, Shipka will always be Sally Draper from Mad Men. But now she can add another notable role to her resume, protagonist Sabrina Spellman in our #6 (whose other TV portrayer, Melissa Joan Hart, also had gathered fame as teen actress).
19 Nick Mullens   522,694
 
The third quarterback to start for the San Francisco 49ers this season made a great first impression, leading the team to a 34–3 massacre over their cross-bay rivals Oakland Raiders.
20 WWE Evolution   521,486
 
In contrast to the Crown Jewel (#7) not having female wrestlers because Saudi law prohibits it, WWE held its first event with a card of only women, including former MMA superstar and current WWE Raw champion Ronda Rousey (pictured).
21 The Haunting of Hill House   507,771
 
The book adapted by #11.
22 Red Dead Redemption   460,465
 
Our #9 might have the number 2 on its title, but it's technically a prequel to this "Grand Theft Auto on a horse" as it ends just as the original starts.
23 Jair Bolsonaro   455,443
 
The ignorant right (in both the "believes\spreads fake news" meaning and the "narrow-minded\stubborn" one) of the United States already put a questionable candidate in the White House, who this week expressed outrage at a migrant caravan and interest in ending birthright citizenship to the sons of immigrants (a right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment). And now their equivalents in Brazil decided to show up! The alternative was far from perfect (their previous stay at the presidency had rampant corruption and ended with the economy degraded), but when that's an excuse for electing a guy who barely accomplished anything in nearly three decades as a Congressman and is the constant source of inspiring quotes such as "I'm a victim of prejudice against heterosexuals" and "The only mistake of the dictatorship was torturing and not killing"? 2019 hasn't even started and I'm already bummed.
24 Donald Trump   418,619
 
25 Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution   418,103
 

 

Exclusions

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  • 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 exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% 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.