Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/September 9 to 15, 2018

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Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (September 9 to 15, 2018)

Prepared with commentary by Stormy clouds

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The Court of the Rising Sun

While incorporating some notable deaths, this week's iteration of the Top 25 Report is not entirely consumed by them, a nice change of pace from recent weeks. Rather, it is the action at Flushing Meadows, and a controversy embroiling tennis' biggest female name, which takes centre court. Further down, the list is populated with a veritable cornucopia of visual treats, from blockbuster releases to streaming delights. Google also contributes an engrossing entry, which almost excuses them for their surveillance of us all, while Eminem's return makes the list feel less empty. Finally, of course, the shadow of 9/11 weighs heavily over the report too. More diversity than recent reports insures that this one is intriguing. Enjoy.

For the week of September 9 to 15, 2018, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	About
1	Naomi Osaka		2,104,708		Sport makes its way atop the report again, forcing me to reminisce of heady days of yonder. Simpler times, before a string of high-profile deaths took over. Osaka became the first Japanese victor of a Grand Slam, triumphing over her heavily favoured opponent (#9) in straight sets amidst controversy, and thus claiming pride, glory, and fame in Flushing Meadows; this propelled gargantuan views on her article, lifting the sportswoman to #1.
2	Mac Miller		1,587,222		And now from rising stars to fallen ones, we return to the land of the deceased with the 26-year old rapper behind hits such as 100 Grandkids and an ode to el futuro Presidente. Having died of an apparent drug overdose, just missing on an infamous illustrious club, hip-hop fans flocked towards his article, while his more heinous and repugnant fans took it as an opportunity to harass #16, his ex-girlfriend.
3	September 11 attacks		1,565,391		Franklin Delano Roosevelt infamously declared December 7 to be a "date that will live in infamy". For the modern generation, that date is September 11. Very few people will ever forget first hearing of the incident that felled two towers, and cost nearly 3,000 people their lives. The 20th century was changed irrevocably and profoundly by the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, its ramifications clearly persisting as far as the fall of the Berlin Wall. History will come to see 9/11 in a similar fashion, the catalyst for the War on Terror, a war whose consequences are still playing out, even with the malevolent mastermind gone. A day that changed America forever. A day that proved the Big Apple was strong. A day that will live forever in infamy, lest we ever forget. As such, with the seventeenth anniversary falling during the week, it is scarcely surprising to see it here.
4	The Nun (2018 film)		1,277,971		After a duo of films about a doll made a tidy return, Warner Bros. returned to the well to conjure another box office hit. The film itself is supposedly less superb than its receipts would indicate, reliant on lazy scares and melodrama (Habits horror movie should shake). From my perspective, a possessed and demonic novitiate is far from the scariest thing related to the convent.
5	The Predator (film)		880,436		Speaking of mediocre Hollywood releases, we have the newest installment in the apex sci-fi franchise. The unstoppable, well, predator, returns to the silver screen some thirty years after it tormented the T-800, and despite the immense talent on show, and the solid reputation of the director, the flick has underwhelmed both financially and critically. Guess we don't all get to the choppa.
6	M. Visvesvaraya		758,439		M. Visvesvaraya, an engineer from India, appears on the list courtesy of Google, (It was always going to be Google or r/TIL) as the search engine giants devoted a doodle to the genius responsible for many monumental civil engineering triumphs across India, from the Krishna Raja Sagara dam to the flood defence system of Hyderabad. Most of his work centred on the Mysore State, earning him both a knighthood and the Bharat Ratna.
7	Deaths in 2018		737,098		Ever a constant on the report, the reaper slices into the Top 10 once more, as another raft of people were taken down the Styx this week, and as ever swathes of people checked in on the list of the fallen, bolstered in terms of views by the demises of #2 and #10.
8	Elon Musk		729,998		Elon Musk has taken a few reputational knocks in recent months. Following the Tham Luang cave rescue, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO controversially referred to one of the cave divers as a "pedo". More recently, he smoked a joint during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, sending Tesla shares into a tailspin (from which they have recovered), despite the increasing legality of the drug stateside. All of this contributed to an inordinately high number of views of the billionaire genius' article.
9	Serena Williams		614,288		Serena, with 23 Grand Slam titles to her name as a solo player, is indisputably the greatest female tennis player of her generation. Thus, it came as a shock that she lost on home turf clay to #1. Despite only managing to claim six games over the two sets, much of the attention after the game fell not on Osaka's shoulders, but on the very public disagreement between Williams and umpire Carlos Ramos, which culminated in Ramos awarding penalty points against Williams for off-court coaching from Patrick Mouratoglou, and subsequently breaking her racket. This led Williams to proclaim Ramos a "liar" and a "thief", and to cite sexism as a cause for his perceived biases. This, like a net, split the tennis community right down the centre.
10	Burt Reynolds		603,183		Hollywood lost a great last week as Burt Reynolds succumbed to cardiac arrest at the age of 82, and the ramifications of his death were still rippling this week, seeing him make the Top 10. The actor, famed for his captivating turn in Smokey and the Bandit amongst many other renowned flicks, was one of the largest stars in Hollywood for a generation, and will be sorely missed.
11	Machine Gun Kelly (rapper)		569,313		Machine Gun Kelly, or MGK, has been embroiled in controversy with Eminem for years now, after Kelly made a somewhat paedophilic comment about Eminem's then 16-year old daughter. This led to a somewhat unclear fallout, with Kelly claiming in his song "Rap Devil" (get it?) that Eminem attempted to sideline his career owing to the comment. Anyway, Eminem shot back with a diss track, and this weird back-and-forth has enthralled the masses, sending many to their respective BLP's (Eminem is at #14 this week).
12	Spider-Man (2018 video game)		545,682		Insomniac Games (founder and CEO Ted Price pictured) are legends in western video gaming, have crafted two beloved franchises in the early days of the PlayStation (and Resistance). Following a brief colourful affair with Microsoft Studios, they were handed the reins to Lee and Ditko's web-slinger, and tasked with making an Arkhamesque title. While I will be giving the title an X personally, I hear that it is excellent.
13	A Simple Favor (film)		540,742		Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively (pictured) star in the new film, which I have minimal knowledge about beyond the names of the lead actresses, and the tainted reputation of the director. It seems to be darkly comic, which may appeal to my sensibilities, but will have to compete with another film starring Henry Golding for my attention. Apparently the flick is pulling in reasonable numbers stateside, placing it at #3 for the weekend, behind our #5 and #4.
14	Eminem		521,228		A serious contender for the throne of the Greatest Rapper Ever, Eminem returned to the public consciousness with a bombastic new studio album, as the Rap God launched a series of attacks against his younger counterparts, like #11. He warned them all a decade back not to mock him, and Slim Shady has returned to deal vengeance in a dramatic fashion, propelling him to several weeks of very high views. Seems like his supposedly suicidal strategy may pay dividends
15	American Horror Story: Apocalypse		512,875		American Horror Story is an anthology mega-hit which I never really bought into, but has terrified viewers of FX for seven years now, and has proceeded onto its eighth season, depicting an apocalyptic end, seeing the talented cast, centered on Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters (pictured), return for another brush with horror and the grotesque. Peters has been quitely building an excellent corpus recently, capped off by an exceptional turn in American Animals. Hopefully he replicates this form on the small screen.
16	Ariana Grande		488,312		And we return to another fixture of the report, as Ms. Grande has seemingly seeped deep into the consciousness of Wikipedians worldwide, making her way into almost every iteration of the report for months now. As such, I feel we are approaching template time: *Obligatory reference to her engagement to Pete Davidson. ( Done) *Obligatory reference of her former relationship with Mac Miller (#2), and the horrendous abuse she received online as a result. ( Done) *Obligatory puns using titles of the few songs I am familiar with. ( Done) *Obligatory reference to her tragic source of fame in conventional media. ( Done). *Obligatory forced unfunny Starbucks joke. ( Done) All set then.
17	White Boy Rick		484,471		In a flick described by critics as superb and exceptional a film, we learn about the life of Richard Wershe Jr. (#24), an FBI informant in the 1980's. Having not seen the movie, a trait I seemingly share with most people, I cannot speak any further about it, other than echoing the general sentiments that Matthew McConaughey (pictured) redeems it somewhat with a great performance, but cannot elevate the film beyond being just alright (alright, alright).
18	UFC 228		452,493		Ah, the kicky-punchy "sport" returns with a bang. Unfortunately, this author neither has the prerequisite knowledge, nor the appetite to acquire it, to delve any deeper into the contests, which remain extremely popular amongst Wikipedians, despite being somewhat too vicious for my personal liking. Anyway, apparently this guy forced this guy to submit, and this was very interesting as it made the former world champion. Then he made a rap with Wiz Khalifa, because why not?
19	Noah Centineo		452,276		A new Netflix star, appearing in #23 as well as To All the Boys I've Loved Before, Centineo has been a fixture on the report in recent times courtesy of the streams of Netflix aficionados heading to his BLP. There is not too much to say here, apart from the fact that there is finally a photograph of him in Wikimedia Commons. Turns out this is what he looks like. So thank you, Philip J Fry, for finally resolving my torturous, tumultuous turmoil, and sparing the report from the inclusion of yet another random image in this seemingly obligatory slot. What a hero.
20	Casualties of the September 11 attacks		442,646		A list of the nearly 3,000 victims of the 9/11 attacks perpetrated by Al Qaeda, their reflecting absence memorialised in perpetuity. This week marked their seventeenth anniversary.
21	Crazy Rich Asians (film)		439,562		Another Hollywood release, albeit a far better received one. Following in the footsteps of Black Panther and Wonder Woman as proof that diversity pays in the modern age is Crazy Rich Asians, starring Henry Golding (pictured). The story, recounting the tale of ludicrously wealth people from the Orient (shocking, I know), seems to be a romantic comedy. I haven't seen it, and given the premise, I will need many assurances regarding the length of Ken Jeong's appearance before I plan a voyage au cinéma.
22	Julie Chen		402,296		Julie Chen, the host of the U.S. version of Big Brother, has been embroiled in controversy due to her husband, Leslie Moonves. Moonves has been accused of sexual harassment, and became the latest high-profile figure to resign owing the the MeToo movement during the week. Chen made waves in the media by standing by her husband, as she hosted Big Brother by stating her full name, Julie Chen Moonves, rather than opting for the utilisation of her maiden name. The ramification of the allegations (Moonves lost his post as Chairman of CBS), coupled with her subtle stand, sent swarms of Wikipedia's culture-obsessed denizens to her article.
23	Sierra Burgess Is a Loser		399,866		You couldn't just let it be. You couldn't just leave it alone You couldn't just allow TV tropes to reign in your curious objects. No. No, you had to meddle, didn't you. You had to demand justice. Shannon Purser was great as Barb, I will concede, but you didn't need to revolt against your streaming overlords. Certainly not if this middle-of-the-road YA flick is what the fight was for. You've seen this before. So anyway, Barb has a movie now, it's stunningly mediocre, and many binge-watchers came here to look up more about it, leaving me to have to engage in yet more YA nonsense. Where's my justice?
24	Richard Wershe Jr.		389,140		Richard Wershe is the FBI informant whose life is depicted in #17. He went into the annals of history as the youngest "rat" in the Bureau's storied past, but succumbed to criminal ways again and was administered a life sentence for possession of drugs of a powdery persuasion. Now, though, his tale will be shared with the masses on the silver screen - perhaps new age snitches receive cinematic attention in lieu of stitches.
25	Ozark (TV series)		384,470		Fittingly, a list heavily populated by the motion picture industry concludes with another dose for the binge-watchers, as their crime drama series returned for a second series a fortnight ago. While inferior to Breaking Bad, to which it is oft-compared, Jason Bateman does an apt job both in front on and behind the camera to endow the series with intrigue, and may even pick up an Emmy or two for his efforts.

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (September 9 to 15, 2018)

Exclusions

• 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.