Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2016-09-06/Special report
Olympics readership depended on language
The past few weeks of the Traffic Report have been dominated by the 2016 Summer Olympics. Since the Olympics are one of the world's biggest international events, you might guess that it dominated the most-viewed articles of other language Wikipedias. And you would be right. But the topics of interest around the world show interesting variations. We love the Olympics, but also love our own Olympics and Olympians.
Using the WMF data available through TopViews*, we compiled charts of the 15 most popular Olympic-related articles for the period of August 5–21, the official period of the Olympics, for seven different language Wikipedias: English, Spanish, German, Portuguese (the language of Brazil, the host country), Russian, French, and Japanese. We considered, but declined, to include the Chinese Wikipedia due to its blockage in China greatly affecting its viewership.**
First of all, Michael Phelps really is popular worldwide. His biography was far and away #1 in English, #2 in Russian and Spanish, #3 in Portuguese, #4 in French, and #5 in German. Similarly, Usain Bolt was generally behind Phelps, and solidly the second most popular athlete of the Games. He ranked #3 in English, #4 in Spanish, #5 in Russian, #6 in Portuguese and French, #8 in Japanese, and #11 in German.
But the old saying "big in Japan" did not apply to Phelps, where he placed 12th, the only place where Bolt was about 25% more popular. To be big in Japan, though, you really had to be Japanese—the top seven Olympic-related articles were filled by Japanese medalists, not even interrupted by general articles like 2016 Summer Olympics (#1 on five lists) or the All-time Olympic Games medal table which were usually popular across the board. Japan's list was led by Saori Yoshida, who won wrestling silver, and had 240% the views of Phelps. She was followed by many others, presumably now household names in Japan, including gymnast Kōhei Uchimura (#2) and table tennis whiz Ai Fukuhara (#3).
Though the Japanese Wikipedia is the most extreme case, it is not fair to single it out; the data reveals that every language edition tends to favor its own. French judo practitioner and gold medalist Teddy Riner beat Phelps and Bolt on the French Wikipedia. Elsewhere, local favorites were not far behind Phelps and Bolt. In Spanish, Argentine tennis player Juan Martín del Potro, who won silver, was #5, and Spaniard Rafael Nadal was #9. In German, horizontal bar gold medalist Fabian Hambüchen (#8) was the top local hero. And in English, American gymnasts including Simone Biles (#4) and Aly Raisman (#9), and swimmers Katie Ledecky (#8) and Ryan Lochte (#11), were prominent, though India's P.V. Sindhu, who won silver in badminton, drew an impressive #6 showing on the otherwise American-dominated list. Sindhu and the top Americans, other than Phelps, do not appear on the other charts. And vice-versa: English speakers, for instance, were not focused on the three medals won by Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina (#6 in Russia); she doesn't appear anywhere on the English (or other) charts.
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Everybody wants to know how everyone else is doing; medal table charts were also popular articles, including the All-time Olympic Games medal table and the 2012 table. But people especially want to know how their country is doing. Thus the Spanish Wikipedia saw Mexico at the Olympics at #10, Colombia at the Olympics at #11, and Argentina at the Olympics at #13. Brazil at the Olympics was #5 on the Portuguese Wikipedia, and in their respective domains, Russia at the 2016 Summer Olympics was #3, and France at the 2016 Summer Olympics was at #10.
Not popular in English, but rather popular elsewhere, was Football at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Perhaps because the American women's team floundered, no football-related articles are in the English Top 15, but such articles hit #3 in Germany (who won medals in both men's and women's), #7 in Spanish, #8 in Portuguese, and #14 in Russian. But if your country is good in a sport, like Germany was in football, or France was in the modern pentathlon (women's silver, #5), that's what you're most likely going to watch.
Our data collection showed that the Olympics were very popular everywhere. Other non-Olympic topics do appear in their general charts (remember the charts below are Olympic-only articles), just as we see on the Traffic Report, but to about the same extent. The lone exception may be Russian, where the popularity of other articles such as the film Suicide Squad seemed a bit higher—perhaps a reflection of the disqualification of many Russian athletes.
So, just like the Ancient Olympic Games brought together all of Greece, the modern Olympics does seem to bring us all together. We may celebrate our own victories a bit more, but that is part of a human nature we all share and treasure.
English Wikipedia
| Rank | Views | Article | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8,541,642 | Michael Phelps | American swimmer |
| 2 | 5,834,783 | 2016 Summer Olympics | |
| 3 | 3,972,644 | Usain Bolt | Jamaican sprinter |
| 4 | 3,047,891 | Simone Biles | American gymnast |
| 5 | 2,069,683 | Olympic Games | |
| 6 | 2,046,156 | P.V. Sindhu | Badminton silver for India |
| 7 | 1,941,000 | Aly Raisman | American gymnast |
| 8 | 1,833,635 | Katie Ledecky | American swimmer |
| 9 | 1,833,545 | 2012 Summer Olympics medal table | |
| 10 | 1,825,836 | List of Olympic Games host cities | |
| 11 | 1,784,183 | Ryan Lochte | American swimmer |
| 12 | 1,717,762 | All-time Olympic Games medal table | |
| 13 | 1,635,559 | 2024 Summer Olympics | |
| 14 | 1,630,544 | 2020 Summer Olympics | |
| 15 | 1,524,028 | India at the 2016 Summer Olympics |
Spanish Wikipedia
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German Wikipedia
Portuguese Wikipedia
| Rank | Views | Article | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 433,708 | Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016 | 2016 Summer Olympics |
| 2 | 423,637 | Lista de medalhas brasileiras nos Jogos Olímpicos | List of Olympic medalists for Brazil, back to 1920. |
| 3 | 362,416 | Michael Phelps | |
| 4 | 351,361 | Jogos Olímpicos | Olympic Games |
| 5 | 315,302 | Brasil nos Jogos Olímpicos | Brazil at the Olympics, they hosted and won 19. |
| 6 | 277,247 | Usain Bolt | |
| 7 | 247,965 | Anéis olímpicos | Olympic symbols |
| 8 | 215,149 | Futebol nos Jogos Olímpicos | Football at the Summer Olympics |
| 9 | 197,842 | Daiane dos Santos | Brazilian gymnast at 2004–12 Olympics |
| 10 | 193,547 | Quadro de medalhas dos Jogos Olímpicos | All-time Olympic Games medal table |
| 11 | 192,958 | Olimpíada | Olympiad |
| 12 | 186,631 | Marta (futebolista) | Brazilian footballer Marta, Olympic flag carrier |
| 13 | 186,364 | Seleção Brasileira de Voleibol Masculino | Brazil men's national volleyball team won gold. |
| 14 | 168,989 | Arthur Mariano | Brazilian gymnast won bronze. |
| 15 | 154,990 | Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2012 | 2012 Summer Olympics |
Russian Wikipedia
French Wikipedia
| Rank | Views | Article | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 669,735 | Jeux olympiques d'été de 2016 | 2016 Summer Olympics |
| 2 | 429,262 | Teddy Riner | French judo gold medalist |
| 3 | 405,793 | Tableau des médailles des Jeux olympiques d'été de 2012 | 2012 Summer Olympics medal table |
| 4 | 373,679 | Michael Phelps | |
| 5 | 328,205 | Pentathlon moderne | Modern pentathlon, France won women's silver. |
| 6 | 328,032 | Usain Bolt | |
| 7 | 255,625 | Jeux olympiques | Olympic Games |
| 8 | 245,390 | Tony Yoka | French boxer, won gold |
| 9 | 238,487 | Décathlon | Kévin Mayer of France won silver |
| 10 | 199,487 | France aux Jeux olympiques d'été de 2016 | France at the 2016 Summer Olympics |
| 11 | 187,973 | Estelle Mossely | French boxer, won gold |
| 12 | 187,174 | France aux Jeux olympiques | France at the Olympics |
| 13 | 171,942 | Jeux olympiques d'été de 2020 | 2020 Summer Olympics |
| 14 | 156,970 | Football aux Jeux olympiques d'été de 2016 | Football at the 2016 Summer Olympics |
| 15 | 153,247 | Pentathlon | See #5 |
Japanese Wikipedia
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| Rank | Views | Article | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 820,546 | 吉田沙保里 | Saori Yoshida won wrestling silver. |
| 2 | 649,113 | 内村航平 | Kōhei Uchimura won two golds in artistic gymnastics. |
| 3 | 553,213 | 福原愛 | Ai Fukuhara won table tennis bronze |
| 4 | 549,533 | ケンブリッジ飛鳥 | Asuka Cambridge, silver in 4×100 relay |
| 5 | 503,043 | 伊調馨 | Kaori Icho, wrestling gold |
| 6 | 482,702 | ベイカー茉秋 | Mashu Baker, judo gold |
| 7 | 442,357 | 水谷隼 | Jun Mizutani, 2 table tennis medals |
| 8 | 429,937 | ウサイン・ボルト | Usain Bolt |
| 9 | 384,173 | 松友美佐紀 | Misaki Matsutomo, tennis gold |
| 10 | 366,963 | 伊藤美誠 | Mima Ito, table tennis bronze |
| 11 | 344,874 | ロンドンオリンピック (2012年) での国・地域別メダル受賞数一覧 | 2012 Summer Olympics medal table |
| 12 | 341,853 | マイケル・フェルプス | Michael Phelps |
| 13 | 328,527 | 近代オリンピックでの国・地域別メダル総獲得数一覧 | All-time Olympic Games medal table |
| 14 | 306,033 | 石川佳純 | Kasumi Ishikawa, team table tennis bronze |
| 15 | 291,440 | リオデジャネイロオリンピック | 2016 Summer Olympics |
Notes
- *One caveat on TopViews: TopViews compiles data on the 1,000 most viewed articles on a Wikipedia for each day. Running charts for longer periods compiles from those daily charts. Thus, when an article drops out of the top 1,000, those views for a day will not be included in the compiled data. Generally speaking, we have found that this gap is not a significant problem when looking at the most popular articles. The English Traffic Report and WP:TOP25 are usually derived from the WP:5000, which includes all viewcount data, but there is no similar source for other-language Wikipedias. On the current WP:5000, the 1,000th most viewed article has under 59,000 views for one day. This number should be significantly lower on other language Wikipedias, which receive less traffic.
- **We also reviewed statistics[1] for the Bengali Wikipedia (7th on the list of languages by total number of speakers), but traffic and usage there was too low to yield usable information. Though their page on the 2016 Summer Olympics was in their top 10 (#5), many of the more viewed articles on that project are traditional encyclopedic topics, e.g., #1 was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader of Bangladesh. Only 21 articles (on any topic) had more 5,000 views during the Olympics on that project.
- The Arabic Wikipedia was also considered.[2] Though it has more traffic than the Bengali project (their 2016 Summer Olympics article was #1, showing users go there for topical information, the general Olympics Games article was #2, and Phelps was #10 among all articles), but only about 50 articles on that project broke 50,000 views during the Olympics, and primary encyclopedic articles (like Egypt and Saudi Arabia) were among them. Ultimately, space and time limitations led to the selection of seven languages to sample.
Discuss this story
For what's worth, Yoshida (4th Olympics, gold at all three previous attempts), Uchimura (world champion every year since 2009) and Fukuhara (on the national team since she was 11 years old, flag bearer at the Beijing Olympics) were all household names in Japan long before people read their Wikipedia bios this year. AtHomeIn神戸 (talk) 01:26, 7 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
In the article, you mentioned that Germany won silver in both men's and women's football; they actually won gold in the women's tournament. Dynaboyj (talk) 05:32, 12 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
- Dynaboyj, thank you for catching that! I guess its clear I'm not German! I changed the word "silver" to "medals" to correct the error.--Milowent • hasspoken 15:45, 12 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I wondered why only these languages were sampled, so I quite appreciate your comments about why other languages were excluded. Nyttend (talk) 12:32, 13 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]