Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (January 11 to 17, 2015)
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Summary: With the 72nd Golden Globe Awards held on January 11, many movie-related articles appear in the Top 25, but the Charlie Hebdo tragedy also remained a top story, taking up slots 2, 3, and 8. We apologize for the delay in delivering the report this week, but processing time for the WP:5000 was diverted in part to create a Top 10,000 list for 2014. Look for additional information on that next week in the Signpost.
As prepared by Milowent, for the week of January 11 to 17, 2015, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Chris Kyle 
2,959,672 
A huge jump from 1.2 million views last week, fueled by the Clint Eastwood-directed film American Sniper based on Kyle's experiences. Kyle was murdered in February 2013 by a PTSD-afflicted veteran whom he had taken to a shooting range. 2 Charlie Hebdo 
1,574,119 
Down from #1 last week. There have been far more heinous acts of terror committed in the name of Islam; in the days leading up to this attack, as many as 2000 people were murdered in Nigeria by Boko Haram. But it would take a skilled writer to envision an act more symbolic. A group of obsessive theocrats savage a longstanding French satirical magazine for the crime of violating their religious custom, carving a jagged gash between piety and freedom of expression. They go on to murder a Muslim police officer in cold blood. Another gunman _targets a kosher market, murdering four more for the crime of being Jewish, while a Muslim employee risks his life to save the survivors. A better fable of the wrenching complexities inherent in the defining cultural divide of our time could not be asked for, were it not written in blood. 3 Je suis Charlie
1,450,62 
Up from 492,145 (#13) last week. "I am Charlie", the call of defiant solidarity that spread throughout France and then the world after the Charlie Hebdo shooting, continues its popularity, perhaps proving that the "keep" voters at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Je suis Charlie (closed January 11) had the better argument. 4 American Sniper (film)
1,112,696 
Another big jump in views for director Clint Eastwood's latest film. 5 Boyhood (film)
900,015 
Though released theatrically in the United States in July 2014, this coming-of-age drama film, shot intermittently over a 12-year period, only reached wide attention when it won three Golden Globe Awards on January 11, for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director (Richard Linklater), and Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Arquette), followed by six Academy Award nominations on January 15. 6 I (film)
896,273 Indian Tamil film released January 14. 7 Stephen Hawking
835,693 
The Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, black hole theorist and latter-day science icon makes his 11th straight appearance in the Top 25 this week (really?, this is starting to seem odd now ...), thanks in large part to his biopic, The Theory of Everything, which opened in the United States on November 7, and this week won a Golden Globe for Eddie Redmayne, who portrays him in the film. 8 Charlie Hebdo shooting
719,940 
See #2. 9 The Imitation Game 
700,545 
Has received eight Oscar nominations. 10 Birdman (film)
680,588 
Has received nine Oscar nominations. 11 Michael Keaton
653,459 Stars in #10. 12 Alan Turing 
631,921 The subject of #9. 13 Martin Luther King, Jr.
593,352 
The American holiday dedicated to him falls on January 19 this year. 14 Peyton Manning
578,765 
Manning's American football team lost to his former team in the playoffs this year. 15 Amal Clooney
576,293 
George's spouse attended the Golden Globe awards on January 11, which appears to track a peak in views. 16 Foxcatcher
539,371 
Had three Golden Globe nominations, and now has five Oscar nominations. This film is about John Eleuthère du Pont's efforts in hiring the Schultz brothers to help train US wrestling and swimming Olympians, and du Pont's subsequent murder of David Schultz. It been nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture. 17 Boko Haram
525,139 As of January 2015, this terrorist Islamist group based in northeast Nigeria now controls about 20,000 square miles of land. 18 List of Super Bowl champions 
510,909 It is American football playoff time once again. 19 PK (film)
504,632 
Numbers are still steady for this Bollywood film, starring Aamir Khan and Anushka Sharma. Released on December 19, it has already become the highest grossing Bollywood film of all time. 20 72nd Golden Globe Awards 482,125 A big driver of traffic this week. 21 Deaths in 2015 
479,681 
The viewing figures for this article have been remarkably constant; fluctuating week to week between 450 and 550,000, apparently heedless of who actually died. 22 Facebook
473,619 
A perennially popular article. 23 Mia Khalifa
525,139 This Lebanese porn actress gained attention by becoming the most popular porn star on Pornhub.com, and with her Middle Eastern background being fodder for additional news coverage. 24 Gone Girl (film)
444,788 
Four Golden Globe nominations. One Oscar nomination. 25 Cristiano Ronaldo
436,351 
The Real Madrid footballer won the 2014 FIFA Ballon d'Or on January 12.
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 also exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (2% or less) or almost all mobile views (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.