Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/September 8 to 14, 2019

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Prepared with commentary by A lad insane, FoxyGrampa75 and Igordebraga

Last week's report - Next Week's Report

Days of September Past

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For a list supposedly of recent events, some of whom remain in the public eye for weeks (be it sports - 6 entries! - or Indian movies and Moon missions), many entries in this report actually go a bit back further, headed by two scary things that happened in September: an infamous 2001 terrorist attack whose repercussions seemingly never end, and a 1986 book\2017 movie that is back in theaters. More past things appear with series about 1960s spies (#5, #23), movies about the Elizabethan Era (#24) or 2007 New York (#15), Google Doodles about people from the 19th (#22) and mid-20th centuries (#25), and musicians who broke in the 1970s (#6) and 1980s (#19) joining the yearly death toll (#8).

For the week of September 8 to 14, 2019, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank Article Class Views Image About
1 September 11 attacks   1,787,632
 
It was the 18th anniversary of the day where three (almost four) planes were used as weapons against the United States, starting the War on Terror and our current age of paranoia; views were probably helped by Today's Featured Article being the episode of The Simpsons featuring the Twin Towers that were destroyed that day.
2 It Chapter Two   1,449,139
 
Wikipedians love movies, so this shouldn't be any surprise - horror films are always a hit. This comes two years after the highly lauded initial movie, which broke box-office records. This one hasn't been quite as successful, but much of that may be due to the extended runtime (almost 3 hours) in addition to the R rating shared by both movies, as well as a more mixed critical response.
3 Antonio Brown   905,367
 
After butting heads with the management of the Oakland Raiders he had signed with, this American football player was released and signed with the Patriots for $15 million.
4 Rafael Nadal   833,946
 
Won the US Open, his fourth in the Flushing Meadows court and nineteenth overall (only one more to tie Federer!).
5 Eli Cohen   802,862
 
A Mossad spy whose gathered intelligence was crucial for Israel to win the Six Day War, even if it cost his life at the hands of the Syrian government. Netflix has released a miniseries about his exploits (#23).
6 Eddie Money   753,867
 
The past few years have been inescapable in their love for taking our beloved celebrities from us, and this week was no exception - Eddie Money, of "Take Me Home Tonight" fame, died last Saturday after recently announcing his diagnosis with stage 4 esophageal cancer. I do hope he got his ticket to paradise on the way out.
7 Chandrayaan-2   744,184
 
India's attempt to become the fourth country to land a probe on the Moon (after the US, the USSR, and China) instead made them the second to only crash in our satellite (after Israel), as malfunctions doomed the landing component - the orbiter is still alright.
8 Deaths in 2019   725,112
 
In our ever-morbid fascination with death, we continue to visit the list of those who have recently left us. All is not lost, however, in spite of this weekend's spate of perishings; we still have Maid Marian, the living embalmed and the Prince of Darkness, so there's still a glimmer of hope.
9 Bianca Andreescu   701,332
 
Won the US Open, the first Canadian tennis player with a Grand Slam singles title to her name.
10 Saaho   677,656 Bollywood's latest hit, now among the highest-grossing Indian films ever.
11 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup   621,892
 
The orange ball's quadrennial tournament ended on September 15, crowning the Spanish team of NBA champion Marc Gasol; the US team that would normally be the favorites fielded a team of B-listers and subsequently couldn't even reach the semifinals.
12 Joker (2019 film)   594,435
 
Even if there's no Batman in sight, the solo movie of his arch-nemesis starring Joaquin Phoenix (pictured) has gathered reaps of praise in the festival circuit. It speaks well for both the box office and Report placement of Joker during the wide release next month.
13 Casualties of the September 11 attacks   585,716
 
See #1 - Wikipedians, and those brought here by Google's remembrance, continue to remember those we lost on that fateful day.
14 It (2017 film)   548,991
 
See #2 (Chapter 2). Here, we have Chapter One, which had a more overwhelmingly positive critical response, likely due to a more palatable runtime (although neither would fit on a standard VHS, not like that's a standard measurement anymore).
15 Hustlers (2019 film)   536,206
 
One year after the surprise hit Crazy Rich Asians, Constance Wu again headlines a movie, this time in the company of Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Lizzo, and Cardi B adapting the true story of strippers who drugged and stole from New York big shots. Hustlers got great reviews and opened in second place at the box office behind our #2.
16 Bill Skarsgård   534,244
 
The Swedish portrayer of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, currently scaring filmgoers everywhere in It (#2, #14).
17 Timeline for the day of the September 11 attacks   509,892
 
Again, see #1.
18 John Bercow   509,181
 
The current Speaker of the House of Commons announced his retirement after ten years in the post.
19 Daniel Johnston   474,336
 
They say death comes in threes. We've had our music three this week, for certain - here's our first, Eddie Money up at #6 was the second, and Ric Ocasek, who died a bit too late to make this list, the last. Johnston probably was the least famous of the three, but nonetheless had a significant impact in his genre.
20 Daniil Medvedev   461,114
 
This Russian player lost the US Open to our #4; at least he got to his first Grand Slam final!
21 Khabib Nurmagomedov   455,395
 
Russia's biggest social media star, who also happens to smack people down in the UFC.
22 Hans Christian Gram   451,250
 
Google made a Doodle celebrating the bacteriologist who developed a method to distinguish microscopic creatures.
23 The Spy (TV series)   435,872
 
Netflix premiered on 6 September a miniseries telling the story of our #5, portrayed there by someone more used to comedic roles, Sacha Baron Cohen.
24 Mary, Queen of Scots   419,293
 
HBO made the first broadcast of a movie about the Rising of the North and two queens involved in said conflict. Though an entry only appeared for the one in the title, played by the very Irish Saoirse Ronan (pictured) - the other was her English cousin Elizabeth I (played by an Australian).
25 Ruth Pfau   404,783
 
Google again, homaging the "Pakistani Mother Teresa" who dedicated her life to fighting leprosy.
 

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.