← Last week's report – Next week's Report →
Summary: The first week of May is home to many festivals, from May Day and International Workers' Day to Cinco de Mayo. The viewing figures for those articles are, as usual, lower than last year's, with our readership focused on more transitory issues, such as celebrity death, TV listings, and a juicy racist scandals.
For the week of April 27 to May 3, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages, were:
Rank | Last | Wks | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | - | - | Donald Sterling | 2,155,108 | What's more likely to generate watercooler conversation than a racist outburst by a privileged aged white guy? A nonsensical racist outburst. If one does not wish to "associate with black people", as he put it, owning a basketball team is probably not the way to go. Nor, for that matter, is having a black girlfriend. And if he doesn't want black people "brought to his games," one wonders how he deals with his team's roster, which currently consists of 12 black people and two Caucasians. He's been banned from the NBA, though that is unlikely to affect his revenue stream. | ||
2 | 8 | 3 | The Amazing Spider-Man 2 | 618,326 | For a sequel to a reboot no one asked for, this movie is proving very popular with the public; after finally opening in its home territory, it scored $35 million on its first day, on top of $155 million it has already earned overseas. It's not surprising that this was released in foreign markets before its home territory; the original Spider-Man made $822 million worldwide, with the domestic and international grosses split roughly 50/50. The rebooted Amazing Spider-Man (this film's predecessor) made $752 million worldwide, but with international grosses now comprising 2/3 the total. This radical shift in Hollywood's biosphere has taken place in just a decade, and it is already altering hunting strategies, for good or ill. | ||
3 | - | - | Bob Hoskins | 593,143 | Much loved and respected actor who passed away on 29 April. Although he played the quintessential well'ard Cockney in films like The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa, Hoskins was perhaps ironically best known for playing the American PI pastiche Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. | ||
4 | 4 | 13 | Amazon.com | 538,283 | This article has been veering wildly (and suspiciously) around the view graph for several weeks, but at least now its presence on the list has a reason: Amazon Fire TV; a digital streaming device to watch online content on a HDTV. How it distinguishes itself from the three or four other such devices currently on the market is a matter of some dispute. | ||
5 | - | 2 | May Day | 499,206 | Before it was International Workers's Day (see below), May Day, aka May 1, was a fount of odd and esoteric traditions. | ||
6 | 2 | 27 | Game of Thrones | 492,768 | New seasons of this immensely popular show always draw people to Wikipedia. | ||
7 | 6 | 58 | Deaths in 2014 | 422,311 | The list of deaths in the current year is always a popular article. | ||
8 | - | - | Man-Thing | 407,317 | Marvel Comics' monster-man, to whom DC's Swamp Thing, debuting 18 months later, would bear an uncanny resemblance, got some press after it was revealed he would appear in an upcoming episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. | ||
9 | - | 2 | Shakira | 372,839 | The Colombian singer with the famously swiveling hips had a number of encounters with the media this week; between a being the subject of a popular Reddit thread, being upstaged by Ariana Grande at the iHeartRadio Music Awards (see below), and posting a photo of her adorable toddler Milan on her Twitter feed, she's certainly made a splash amongst the cyber-chatterati, whether she intended to or not. | ||
10 | 7 | 5 | Game of Thrones (season 4) | 371,364 | This is the page with the plot synopses for each episode. | ||
11 | 9 | 4 | List of Game of Thrones episodes | 337,680 | The episode list is probably used to look up air dates. | ||
12 | 11 | 68 | 307,856 | A perennially popular article. | |||
13 | - | 28 | United States | 302,899 | The 8th most popular article of 2013 and the 3rd most popular Wikipedia article between 2010 and 2012. Even when not on the list, this article is a perpetual bubble-under-er. Not really surprising that the country with by far the most English speakers would be the most popular on the English Wikipedia. | ||
14 | - | 2 | International Workers' Day | 291,900 | The date coincides with May Day and dates back to the Socialists and Communists of the Second International. Even though Communism is somewhat passée these days, it seems interest in the day hasn't waned. | ||
15 | 12 | 9 | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | 286,070 | Joss Whedon's extension of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into television returned on 1 April after a three-week hiatus. | ||
16 | - | - | Emma Stone | 276,871 | It is interesting that the actress who played Gwen Stacy is the one element of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 other than the film itself to appear in the top 25. Even her real-life boyfriend and nominal star of the show, Andrew Garfield, didn't break the top 25. | ||
17 | 15 | 39 | List of Bollywood films of 2014 | 271,099 | An established staple of the top 25 returns. | ||
18 | - | - | Iggy Azalea | 264,780 | The Australian/American rapper released her debut album, The New Classic on 21 April and sold 52,000 copies in its first week. | ||
19 | - | 3 | Cinco de Mayo | 256,974 | One of the most self-explanatory article spikes on Wikipedia ever, this celebration of Mexican-American culture (originally meant to commemorate a Mexican victory over the French) occurred, conveniently, on May 5. | ||
20 | - | - | Adam Silver | 254,106 | The just-appointed Commissioner of the NBA became something of an overnight hero when he held a strident press conference banning Donald Sterling (see #1) from associating with the NBA. | ||
21 | 22 | 46 | YouTube | 248,990 | A perennially popular article. | ||
22 | - | 2 | Pope John Paul II | 241,712 | The much-beloved last Pope but one became a saint this week, leading to some slightly whiffy press coverage concerning the canonizations remarkably short turnaround. | ||
23 | - | - | Alla Rakha | 236,918 | The tabla player and frequent accompanist of Ravi Shankar got a Google Doodle on what would have been his 95th birthday on 29 April. | ||
24 | - | - | Star Wars Episode VII | 236,774 | Disney's attempt to resurrect the Star Wars franchise released its casting decisions this week, but not the characters they would be playing, leading to mass speculation. | ||
25 | - | - | George Clooney | 234,593 | Surprisingly, the megastar actor/director has never appeared on this list until now, the week he declared himself off the market. I guess it takes the shattering of a million girls' dreams to drum up the necessary attention. |
← Last week's report – Next week's Report →
Summary: The first week of May is home to many festivals, from May Day and International Workers' Day to Cinco de Mayo. The viewing figures for those articles are, as usual, lower than last year's, with our readership focused on more transitory issues, such as celebrity death, TV listings, and a juicy racist scandals.
For the week of April 27 to May 3, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages, were:
Rank | Last | Wks | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | - | - | Donald Sterling | 2,155,108 | What's more likely to generate watercooler conversation than a racist outburst by a privileged aged white guy? A nonsensical racist outburst. If one does not wish to "associate with black people", as he put it, owning a basketball team is probably not the way to go. Nor, for that matter, is having a black girlfriend. And if he doesn't want black people "brought to his games," one wonders how he deals with his team's roster, which currently consists of 12 black people and two Caucasians. He's been banned from the NBA, though that is unlikely to affect his revenue stream. | ||
2 | 8 | 3 | The Amazing Spider-Man 2 | 618,326 | For a sequel to a reboot no one asked for, this movie is proving very popular with the public; after finally opening in its home territory, it scored $35 million on its first day, on top of $155 million it has already earned overseas. It's not surprising that this was released in foreign markets before its home territory; the original Spider-Man made $822 million worldwide, with the domestic and international grosses split roughly 50/50. The rebooted Amazing Spider-Man (this film's predecessor) made $752 million worldwide, but with international grosses now comprising 2/3 the total. This radical shift in Hollywood's biosphere has taken place in just a decade, and it is already altering hunting strategies, for good or ill. | ||
3 | - | - | Bob Hoskins | 593,143 | Much loved and respected actor who passed away on 29 April. Although he played the quintessential well'ard Cockney in films like The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa, Hoskins was perhaps ironically best known for playing the American PI pastiche Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. | ||
4 | 4 | 13 | Amazon.com | 538,283 | This article has been veering wildly (and suspiciously) around the view graph for several weeks, but at least now its presence on the list has a reason: Amazon Fire TV; a digital streaming device to watch online content on a HDTV. How it distinguishes itself from the three or four other such devices currently on the market is a matter of some dispute. | ||
5 | - | 2 | May Day | 499,206 | Before it was International Workers's Day (see below), May Day, aka May 1, was a fount of odd and esoteric traditions. | ||
6 | 2 | 27 | Game of Thrones | 492,768 | New seasons of this immensely popular show always draw people to Wikipedia. | ||
7 | 6 | 58 | Deaths in 2014 | 422,311 | The list of deaths in the current year is always a popular article. | ||
8 | - | - | Man-Thing | 407,317 | Marvel Comics' monster-man, to whom DC's Swamp Thing, debuting 18 months later, would bear an uncanny resemblance, got some press after it was revealed he would appear in an upcoming episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. | ||
9 | - | 2 | Shakira | 372,839 | The Colombian singer with the famously swiveling hips had a number of encounters with the media this week; between a being the subject of a popular Reddit thread, being upstaged by Ariana Grande at the iHeartRadio Music Awards (see below), and posting a photo of her adorable toddler Milan on her Twitter feed, she's certainly made a splash amongst the cyber-chatterati, whether she intended to or not. | ||
10 | 7 | 5 | Game of Thrones (season 4) | 371,364 | This is the page with the plot synopses for each episode. | ||
11 | 9 | 4 | List of Game of Thrones episodes | 337,680 | The episode list is probably used to look up air dates. | ||
12 | 11 | 68 | 307,856 | A perennially popular article. | |||
13 | - | 28 | United States | 302,899 | The 8th most popular article of 2013 and the 3rd most popular Wikipedia article between 2010 and 2012. Even when not on the list, this article is a perpetual bubble-under-er. Not really surprising that the country with by far the most English speakers would be the most popular on the English Wikipedia. | ||
14 | - | 2 | International Workers' Day | 291,900 | The date coincides with May Day and dates back to the Socialists and Communists of the Second International. Even though Communism is somewhat passée these days, it seems interest in the day hasn't waned. | ||
15 | 12 | 9 | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | 286,070 | Joss Whedon's extension of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into television returned on 1 April after a three-week hiatus. | ||
16 | - | - | Emma Stone | 276,871 | It is interesting that the actress who played Gwen Stacy is the one element of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 other than the film itself to appear in the top 25. Even her real-life boyfriend and nominal star of the show, Andrew Garfield, didn't break the top 25. | ||
17 | 15 | 39 | List of Bollywood films of 2014 | 271,099 | An established staple of the top 25 returns. | ||
18 | - | - | Iggy Azalea | 264,780 | The Australian/American rapper released her debut album, The New Classic on 21 April and sold 52,000 copies in its first week. | ||
19 | - | 3 | Cinco de Mayo | 256,974 | One of the most self-explanatory article spikes on Wikipedia ever, this celebration of Mexican-American culture (originally meant to commemorate a Mexican victory over the French) occurred, conveniently, on May 5. | ||
20 | - | - | Adam Silver | 254,106 | The just-appointed Commissioner of the NBA became something of an overnight hero when he held a strident press conference banning Donald Sterling (see #1) from associating with the NBA. | ||
21 | 22 | 46 | YouTube | 248,990 | A perennially popular article. | ||
22 | - | 2 | Pope John Paul II | 241,712 | The much-beloved last Pope but one became a saint this week, leading to some slightly whiffy press coverage concerning the canonizations remarkably short turnaround. | ||
23 | - | - | Alla Rakha | 236,918 | The tabla player and frequent accompanist of Ravi Shankar got a Google Doodle on what would have been his 95th birthday on 29 April. | ||
24 | - | - | Star Wars Episode VII | 236,774 | Disney's attempt to resurrect the Star Wars franchise released its casting decisions this week, but not the characters they would be playing, leading to mass speculation. | ||
25 | - | - | George Clooney | 234,593 | Surprisingly, the megastar actor/director has never appeared on this list until now, the week he declared himself off the market. I guess it takes the shattering of a million girls' dreams to drum up the necessary attention. |