The Top 25 Report
 | This page contains material that is kept because it is considered humorous. Such material is not meant to be taken seriously. |
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 5 to 11, 2023)
editPrepared with commentary by Benmite, Igordebraga, SSSB
Most of last week's entries repeat, including the same top three. Something in Arizona will change things up next week, don't worry.
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pathaan (film) | 
|
2,115,950 | 
|
Along with making all the crore, Bollywood's biggest hit of the year has also managed to keep the top of this list for three straight weeks. It only seems improbable to pull a fourth with Super Bowl LVII right around the corner. |
| 2 | ChatGPT | 
|
1,871,580 | 
|
No big new developments when it comes to this all-in-one chatbot that can do just about everything but become human – but let's not jinx it. Still, it's generated more chatter about it than even it could produce, hence its steadily rising position on this list. It is also helped with the recent news of Microsoft's plan to partner with OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT. |
| 3 | The Last of Us (TV series) |
|
1,658,357 | 
|
HBO's TV adaptation of what is commonly believed to be one of, if not the greatest video game of all time is now on its way to being hailed as one of the greatest series of all time if IMDb ratings are to be believed. The week had two episodes because HBO chose to anticipate one to Saturday rather than take their chances against the Super Bowl. I haven't gotten around to watching it myself, but it has a bittersweet gay romance and Anna Torv – two of my favorite things – so I should probably get on that. |
| 4 | Kiara Advani |
|
1,538,943 | 
|
This popular Indian actress, who's starred in two movies on the list at #18, got married to #9 this week. |
| 5 | 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake |
|
1,492,216 | 
|
February 6 saw an earthquake, with an epicenter in south-east Turkey, about 28 mi (45 km) from the Syrian border (hence the name). The earthquake was bad enough, registering at least Mw 7.8, but then followed a series of aftershocks, one registering as high as Mw 7.7 made matters worse. Other aggravating circumstances, including it happening when most people were in bed, a multitude of other issues in war-torn Syria, and sub-par building construction, mean that this is the deadliest earthquake since the 2010 Haiti earthquake, with over 34,000 fatalities at time of writing. |
| 6 | Pedro Pascal |
|
1,284,539 | 
|
Stars in #3 as Joel, the protagonist of both the series and its source material. And also hosted Saturday Night Live. |
| 7 | Burt Bacharach |
|
1,272,831 | 
|
Bacharach's might be a name you don't recognize if you're below a certain age, but rest assured that even if you haven’'t heard of him, you've heard him – that is, you've heard one of the countless hit songs he wrote from the 1960s all the way to the 1990s that were performed countless times by countless artists before his death this week at age 94. |
| 8 | Kim Petras |
|
1,241,199 | 
|
This pop singer made history at the Grammys by becoming the first openly trans person to win the award. The word "openly" is the keyword here, as it would be disgraceful to ignore the electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos, who won three Grammys all the way back in 1970 for her debut album Switched-On Bach, nine years before publicly revealing her gender identity.
Petras may not have the same creds as Carlos, but she made sure to thank the trans women who came before her to make her win possible. Absent from her victory speech, though, was an acknowledgment of her continued work with and fervent support of Dr. Luke, the 2010s hitmaker accused of sexually assaulting fellow pop star Kesha. Talk about unholy. |
| 9 | Sidharth Malhotra |
|
1,105,868 | 
|
A highly successful and well-known actor in his own right, who got married to #4 (having met her when both filmed Shershaah). |
| 10 | Deaths in 2023 | 
|
972,921 | 
|
Here's one of #7's songs you might've heard (even Spider-Man likes that one): But there's one thing I know The blues they send to meet me Won't defeat me, it won't be long Till happiness steps up to greet me |
| 11 | P. K. Rosy |
|
959,781 | 
|
A Google Doodle honoured this early actress of Indian cinema on what would have been her 120th birthday. |
| 12 | LeBron James | 
|
953,726 | 
|
One of the best basketballers ever has further cemented his legacy by becoming the biggest scorer in NBA history once he reached 38,390 points. Maybe now he can focus on getting the Los Angeles Lakers back in the playoffs, given they even lost the game where LeBron broke the record. |
| 13 | Hogwarts Legacy | 
|
951,140 | 
|
Yer a vidya game, Harry! The newest game by Avalanche Software is far from the first to be set at Harry Potter's stomping grounds (and irrefutably not the best, since what could be better than PS1 Hagrid?) but it's definitely the most advanced.
However, if you've paid any attention to the Wizarding World conjured up by she-who-shall-not-be-named in the past few years, you may have caught wind of her not so fantastical thoughts on people like #8, many of whom she believes are "seeking to erode 'woman' as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators". This led to calls for Hogwarts Legacy to be avada kedavra'd and a couple scathing reviews, but the game has been kept alive by steady sales and the fact that it is apparently not that bad of a game. |
| 14 | Harry Styles |
|
931,469 | 
|
Styles only has One Direction to go, and that's up – the proof is in his win for inarguably the most important Grammy (sorry, #8) – Album of the Year – for his 2022 record Harry's House. Kind of crazy when an album now considered one of the greatest records of the 21st century was also up for the award, while the artist who made it just broke the record for most Grammy wins ever and still didn't make it onto this list, but that's the Grammys for ya! |
| 15 | Pamela Anderson |
|
925,304 | 
|
Anderson, who was inescapable in the 1990s between Home Improvement, Baywatch and appearing on Playboy seemingly every year, continues to make the top 25 report after the documentary about her life (Pamela, a Love Story) launched on Netflix at the end of January. |
| 16 | Mama Cax |
|
802,082 | 
|
Two Google Doodle tributes in one Top 25 report doesn't happen often. Cax was a model and disability rights activist honoured as part of Black History Month. |
| 17 | 65th Annual Grammy Awards |
|
779,856 | 
|
This year's ceremony represented a potential but slow recovery from the pathetic ratings of the past two years, garnering about 3 million more viewers than 2022's show. It's still one of the three least-watched Grammys in history, though, and chances are next year's will be one of the four. |
| 18 | List of highest-grossing Indian films |
|
767,945 | 
|
A frequent visitor to this list - this time due to (I'm just guessing here) a combination of two films which continue to climb through the top ten (#1 and last year's RRR, that in spite of being on Netflix saw a brief theatrical re-release to give scenes like this the big screen they deserve) and the happy couple above. |
| 19 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar |
|
751,362 | 
|
LeBron surpassed this legend for the scoring record, which had been his ever since 1984, and Kareem was present at the Crypto.com Arena to congratulate LeBron. Along with a victorious and long basketball career, another similarity of Kareem and LeBron was film endeavours. |
| 20 | The Last of Us | 
|
665,665 | 
|
The TV series based on this video game premiered on HBO Max last month, and it continues to be popular. |
| 21 | 2023 Chinese balloon incident |
|
644,613 | 
|
A Chinese "weather balloon" spent several days flying over North America, before being shot down by the United States Air Force on February 4. Why? Simply, the US believe it was a spy balloon. Of course, China denies this, saying that this is an over-reaction. The remains of the balloon are now being analysed by the FBI. Since then, further objects have been shot down over Alaska and Yukon. |
| 22 | Bella Ramsey |
|
631,384 | 
|
She starred as Ellie in #3, so people were checking this article to find out more about her. |
| 22 | Cristiano Ronaldo |
|
608,702 | 
|
To the relief of a large portion of Brazil, the 2022 FIFA Club World Cup has not attracted that many views on Wikipedia, but football - the real one, before the Super Bowl makes the one played with an egg-shaped ball dominate this list - makes present with the Portuguese superstar who while earning some bucks playing in Saudi Arabia, scored four goals in one game and also passed the mark of 500 career league goals. |
| 24 | Avatar: The Way of Water |
|
590,119 | 
|
Two water-heavy blockbuster sequels released by Disney, the 20th Century |
| 25 | Black Panther: Wakanda Forever |
|
586,933 | 
|