Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (March 19 to 25, 2017)
editPrepared with commentary by OZOO
← Last week's report - Next week's report →
Roll Over Beasthoven
editThe week's report was led by the death of rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry, leading by about 400,000 views over the biggest film of the week, and indeed, the year so far. Interest remains high in Iron Fist now people are getting the chance to watch it, and another death, that of banker David Rockefeller, rounds off our top 5.
Elsewhere, the usual theatrics (Logan, WrestleMania 33, Donald Trump) are joined by a new Mass Effect game, a Drake playlist and a Power Rangers reboot. Charo is leading the interest amongst Dancing with the Stars fans, the Iranian New Year of Nowruz was observed and a giant chicken emerged, surprisingly not entirely from Reddit. The week was, however, marred by the 2017 Westminster attack.
For the week of March 19 to 25, 2017, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Chuck Berry 1,675,896 The rock and roll pioneer died this week at the age of 90. His best known songs included "Roll Over Beethoven", "Maybellene" & "Johnny B. Goode". 2 Beauty and the Beast (2017 film) 1,272,035 After just two weeks on release, Disney's modern update is top of the Box Office Mojo yearly chart. With remakes of Mulan, The Lion King, Dumbo and many others all in development, it certainly looks like the enduring popularity of these stories will keep Mickey and chums in Pule for many a year! 3 Iron Fist (comics) 1,217,350 The martial arts practitioner is being portrayed by Game of Thrones actor Finn Jones in the new Netflix series. Speaking of which... 4 Iron Fist (TV series) 1,086,690 Here is that series; perhaps surprisingly below the character himself. Reviews for the series - the fourth Netflix/MCU series building up to The Defenders - have not been positive. Not at all. 5 David Rockefeller 1,007,831 The American banker died on March 20 at the age of 101. Noted for his wide-ranging political connections and foreign travel, in which he met with a range of foreign leaders, his net worth at death was estimated at $3.3 billion. 6 Power Rangers (film) 1,086,690 The reboot of the Power Rangers franchise was released last weekend. The film, which stars young actors such as RJ Cyler and Becky G alongside such established names as Elizabeth Banks and Bryan Cranston, has gained attention for being the first blockbuster film to feature LGBT and autistic superheroes; and sits first or second in most box offices, behind #2. 7 Yogi Adityanath 843,511 Was appointed Chief Minister of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (state seal pictured) on March 18, after helping his party to a significant win in the legislative election. 8 Deaths in 2017 701,802 The list of the departed stays at #8; as Wikipedians continue to check for notable deaths they may have otherwise missed. 9 Logan (film) 665,255 Hugh Jackman's ninth and final appearance as Wolverine is retaining the interest of Wikipedia readers. It was 5th in the US box office last weekend; but has surrendered its title as biggest film of the year to Beauty and the Beast. 10 More Life 664,519 Canadian rapper Drake released his latest musical project this week. More Life is described by Drake as a playlist, although quite what distinguishes it from a regular album is unclear to the uneducated eye (me). The playlist has topped albums charts in the US and Canada; and had top 5 placings in albums charts for twelve more of the countries Wikipedia editors monitor. 11 Charo 651,674 The actress, comedian & singer is a competitor on the twenty-fourth season of Dancing with the Stars. The judges have given her scores towards the low end so far, but Wikipedia readers seem to like her; as she sits about 350,000 pageviews ahead of the next DWTS contender, Mr. T. 12 Life (2017 film) 611,541 Disappointingly, this is not a prequel to Drake's new playlist but rather a sci-fi horror starring Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds and the pictured Jake Gyllenhaal. Box offices tend to have it middle of the top 10; although the reviews have been positive. 13 LaVar Ball 505,988 LeVar has usurped his basketball playing son Lonzo Ball (pictured) from this list, which is rarely a positive sign. The former London Monarchs American footballer has claimed his sons will one day be worth a $1billion shoe deal and that Lonzo in particular was better than Stephen Curry and LeBron James, which is a hell of a lot of pressure to put on a 19 year old college player. 14 Nowruz 491,153 The Iranian New Year was observed on the vernal equinox, 20th March. Last years occurrence did not reach the top 25. 15 Dave Chappelle 488,924 The American stand-up comedian's first concert specials for 12 years were released by Netflix on March 21; having been recorded in April 2015 & March 2016. 16 WrestleMania 33 Future 482,321 Just one more week until professional wrestlers and wrestle fans converge on Florida's Camping World Stadium for the WWE pay-per-view flagship event; with thirteen matches on the card including two world championships to be awarded, literally anything could happen on April 2. 17 Brahma chicken 480,965 A viral video emerged this week of a giant chicken. The chicken was identified as likely a Brahma chicken, a breed that can grow to 8kg (18lb). And we all got shocked by the size of the chicken, and then learned about the chicken, and we briefly got distracted from everything else. 18 2017 Westminster attack 474,444 On March 22, a British individual with a string of previous convictions committed the worst terrorist attack in London for twelve years, killing 4 people including a police officer outside the Houses of Parliament before being killed himself. The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, although the Metropolitan Police cast doubt on this and suggested the attacker had acted alone. If the aim of the attack was to create fear, it failed - Britain swiftly returned to normal the next day, with Parliament returning to session and social media arguing about fake Tube signs. 19 Get Out (film) 458,881 Jordan Peele's post-racial horror comedy is still attracting interest, in the fourth week since its US release. 20 Donald Trump 457,458 Still President of the United States, apparently. I know. This week, he has been mostly focused on a failed plan to repeal Obamacare that, analysts said, would have take 14 million Americans off health insurance. I expect he'll give it another crack later. 21 Emma Watson 439,741 The former Hermione Granger stars as Belle in the new Beauty and the Beast, alongside... 22 Dan Stevens 436,948 ... the former Matthew Crawley as the Beast. Stevens is also starring in the current Legion, which you'd think would push him above Watson, really. 23 Mass Effect: Andromeda 434,419 The fourth video game in the Mass Effect series is out now to a mixed-to-positive critical reception. 24 Martin McGuinness 421,600 The Irish republican politician died this week at the age of 66, two months after resigning & retiring as deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, which, combined with his party's refusal to appoint a replacement, brought down the Northern Ireland Executive and caused a snap election which, as yet, has not yet produced a new executive. His pre-politics activity drew comments from some on both sides of the Irish debate, which your commentator has absolutely no interest in bringing into this page. 25 Colleen Wing 417,869 And we end this week's list as we (almost) started it, with a character from Iron Fist. Game of Thrones actress Jessica Henwick portrays the Japanese martial artist in the series. Incidentally, if the list went on just a bit longer, Henwick would be sitting at #27; with her Game of Thrones and Iron Fist co-star Finn Jones one space below her. Which just goes to show. I don't know what it goes to show, but it certainly does.
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). 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.
- The commentator has again opted to exclude XXX (film series) (919,571) and XXX (803,707), although notes that the popularity appears to be falling.
- Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.