Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (July 6 to July 12, 2014)
edit← Last week's report – Next week's report →
Summary: This week its still more and more FIFA - 14 entries out of the top 25. Tennis and pop culture make a few cameos.
As prepared by Milowent, for the week of July 6 to 12, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages, were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Amazon.com 
1,234,236 
The Amazon.com article suddenly reappeared in the top 25 a few months ago after a long absence; then it was No. 5 two weeks ago (466,100 views), and dropped out again last week (247,821). It had a big jump again this past week, all the way up to No. 1. It's always difficult to determine the reasons for the popularity of website articles (how many are simply misaimed clicks on the Google search list?), but another round of stories about Amazon and drones, as well as a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit complaining that Amazon is promoting in-app purchases by children contributed to this article's popularity this week. 2 2014 FIFA World Cup 
1,179,986 
Down from 1,604,100 views last week, the tournament came to a close on July 13 with Germany defeating Argentina in the final match. 3 FIFA World Cup 
1,049,265 
The broader article on the history of the World Cup competition may have been accessed by people looking for the long view, but in truth it was probably more to do with people looking for the more specific article above. Up from 758,356 views last week. 4 Indonesian presidential election, 2014
653,933 
The presidential election in Indonesia was held on July 9, though results are not due until July 20. The race pits Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa against Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla. 5 Laverne Cox 
552,258 
The American transgender actress became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy award in an acting category; she was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Sophia Burset in Orange Is the New Black. 6 Lionel Messi 
470,138 
The Argentine forward and captain of the national team is a contender for the title of "best footballer on the planet", though he was unable to lead his team to victory in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final on July 13. Somewhat as a consolation, he was controversially given the Golden Ball award for being the best player of the tournament. 7 Neymar
465,282 
Brazil's star footballer retained great readership interest despite being knocked out by an injury in their July 4 match against Colombia. His absence led to Brazil's crushing loss in its next match against Germany; Neymar reportedly turned off his television to play poker after Germany scored its seventh (and final) goal. 8 Brazil national football team
451,828 
Despite the heartbreaking loss to Germany, Brazil's fans can take solace in the fact that they have won five World Cup championships, more than any other country (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, and 2002). 9 Novak Djokovic
445,169 
Djokovic won the men's singles title at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships on July 6, which day saw the bulk of the week's views for this entry. 10 Transformers: Age of Extinction
444,905 
This action film, the fourth in the live-action Transformer film series, is down from #3 last week. 11 Germany national football team
442,229 
Germany has now won four World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990, and 2014). 12 List of FIFA World Cup finals
438,538 
This was also the featured list on July 14, the day after the week covered by this report. 13 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
430,542 
This American science fiction film, the sequel to 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes, was released in Australia on July 9 and the United States on July 11, with largely positive reviews from critics. 14 Miroslav Klose
424,905 
The German professional footballer is the overall top scorer in the FIFA World Cup's history with 16 goals 15 Deaths in 2014 
382,650 
The list of deaths in the current year is always a popular article. 16 Roger Federer
378,572 
Beat by #9. 17 2010 FIFA World Cup
359,346 
The current World Cup continued to buoy interest in the last one for another week. 18 Facebook
349,063 
A perennially popular article. 19 LeBron James
346,144 
Unlike the many athletes above, this person plays a sport where one can touch the ball with his hands. But he also knows how to whip up a media frenzy, as his decision to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers was preceded by ludicrously intense levels of speculation. 20 FIFA World Cup records
321,618 
Lots of World Cup records were broken this year in addition to Klose's goals above, thanks to Germany's almost merciless thrashing of Brazil in the semi-finals match. 21 Netherlands national football team
308,342 
As if Brazil losing 7-1 to Germany wasn't enough, the Netherlands beat them 3-0 to reach third place in the World Cup. 22 Argentina national football team
302,526 
Even with arguably the best footballer of the tournament in the team, the Argentines had to settle for second place in the World Cup. 23 Orange Is the New Black
290,118 
The second season of the women-in-prison TV series premièred in its entirety on Netflix on 6 June. 24 2006 FIFA World Cup
284,631 Interest in this year's World Cup apparently buoyed interest in the one previous to the last one as well. 25 Ronaldo
283,705 
Retired Brazilian footballer, just to ensure FIFA domination of the Top 25 this week, perhaps. As a football commentator this year, he had to bear the sight of his own top scoring record get beaten by the German player Miroslav Klose while his countrymen were being dominated by the German team.
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). Please keep in mind that the explanations given for these articles' popularity are, fundamentally, educated guesses. Just because one can't find a reason for an article to be included doesn't mean there isn't one; conversely, just because a plausible reason is found for a view spike, that doesn't mean it wasn't due to a bot.
- There are a number of articles that reappear frequently in the top 25 for no determined reason, and have been excluded as likely being due to automated views. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish.
- Because the Internet: A massive view spike on July 11 and 12, apart from average daily view counts around 1100 on all other days, with no obvious human explanation. The title of this second studio album by Donald Glover could be related to the cause. By the way, the album cover is an animated gif, something you don't often see on Wikipedia.
- Alive/Alive!: Links to disambigs with no apparent reason for being.
- Undefined. A common error message in computing, these are automated visit by a buggy computer program.
- IPv6: We have to face facts; we allowed this into the top 25 for months as it is the kind of issue that would appeal to web denizens (ala Bitcoin) but its insane popularity is just too high explain by human interest alone. It's getting help.
- Ddd: Hello? Spambot here. Just checking in.
- Wright brothers: Odd spike.