Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (May 24 to 30, 2015)
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A rather ordinary week: The traffic report is nothing unusual this week, with a Google Doodle for astronaut Sally Ride topping the list, the accidental death of famous mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. at #2, and the normal fare of recent popular American movies and television, though Eurovision's finale, where Australia (?!) took 5th, made it to #9. And FIFA "President for Life" Sepp Blatter (#7) won re-election to a fifth term, though he subsequently announced he intends to resign, at some point in the future.
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As prepared by Milowent, for the week of May 24 to 30, 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 Sally Ride 
2,007,493 
As with Inge Lehmann two weeks ago, a Google Doogle, celebrating what would have been the 64th birthday of the first American female astronaut in space, tops the chart this week. Ride is also the youngest American to have gone to space, at age 32. 2 John Forbes Nash, Jr.
1,065,181 
A winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in non-cooperative game theory, creator of the Nash equilibrium, and the inspiration for the book and film A Beautiful Mind which explored his life and history of mental illness, Nash and his wife died on May 23 in New Jersey in a taxicab accident. 3 Mad Max: Fury Road
1,015,622 
Down from #1 and 1.5 million views last week. This action starring Tom Hardy debuted on Australia on May 14 and in the United States the next day. As of May 31, the film has grossed $283 million worldwide. 4 Stephen Curry 
636,375 
Up from #8 and 636,375 views last week. On May 23, during a Western Conference Finals game against the Houston Rockets, the basketball player for the Golden State Warriors broke the record for the most three-point shots in a playoffs, in just 13 games. His team will play in the NBA finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers starting on June 4. 5 Memorial Day
902,107 
The last Monday in May (which was May 25 this year), the day that the United States chose to honour its war dead, is perhaps better known as the traditional beginning of US summer vacation, and is thus eagerly anticipated by millions of people too young to serve but old enough to stand in line for action movies. Hopefully those who looked up this article learned more about its true intent. 6 Game of Thrones (season 5)
820,076 
Numbers are up again this week, by about 100,000 views. 7 Sepp Blatter
786,824 
Americans learned that FIFA has a virtual president-for-life this week, as Blatter was elected to a fifth term as president on May 29, despite the pending FIFA corruption case arising out of a recent FBI investigation. On June 2, Blatter announced he would resign after a successor was elected. 8 Chris Kyle
738,896 
The titular American Sniper is back on the list for a second week after a near-three month hiatus. The film was released on DVD on May 19. 9 Eurovision Song Contest 2015
618,779 
Views are down from 752,700 last week, but still good enough for the Top 10. The song Heroes by Swedish pop singer Måns Zelmerlöw (pictured), a perfectly bland pop song right at home in 2015, won. And what's this about Australia being a part of Eurovision this year? I looked up their entry on YouTube, and the comments there inform me in no uncertain terms that Australia is not in Europe. But they came in fifth, so it was a shrewd marketing move, no doubt. 10 Avengers: Age of Ultron
581,327 
The latest instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe crossed the banner $1 billion worldwide mark last week. Down from 717,191 views last week. 11 Mad Max
544,845 On for another week. The 1979 film starring Mel Gibson that started the absurdly influential Mad Max franchise, now resurrected after three decades in hibernation. 12 Game of Thrones
538,557 See #6 13 Zone rouge 
535,791 
A popular reddit thread discussed the areas in northeast France that were isolated after World War I due to physical and environmental damage. 14 San Andreas (film) 
515,655 
Dwayne Johnson a.k.a. The Rock (pictured at left) is rather well-known to the Top 25, regardless of whether the authors of this report would have otherwise known of seemingly boundless popularity. This week his latest film, an earthquake disaster flick, debuted worldwide on May 29. The film has received mixed reviews from critics, but has already generated revenue in excess of $110 million budget. 15 Deaths in 2015 
514,046 
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. 16 List of Game of Thrones episodes
505,497 See #6. 17 Anne Meara
498,248 
This American actress, and mother of Ben Stiller and wife of Jerry Stiller, died on May 23. 18 Tomorrowland (film)
473,177 
This American science fiction film was released on My 22. 19 Charles Manson
456,423 
No doubt popular due to the debut of the American television series Aquarius, which premiered on May 28. Gethin Anthony plays the psycho criminal Manson. Manson last appeared on the Top 25 report in November 2014 based on news stories that he would be marrying a 26 year old prisoner groupie (which did not happen). 20 General of the Armies
453,960 
The highest possible grade in the United States Army, perhaps popular in part due to Memorial Day (#5). 21 UFC 187
445,817 
Its a good thing the Ultimate Fighting Championship folks didn't start using Roman numerals for their events. UFC CLXXXVII doesn't have the same ring. 22 LeBron James 
428,644 
LeBron and his Cleveland Cavaliers face off against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors in the NBA finals starting on June 4. 23 Facebook
412,951 
A perennially popular article. 24 Pitch Perfect 2
406,239 620,095 
Das Sound Machine and the Bellas continue to do their a capella battle at the box office. 25 19 Kids and Counting
404,192 
Another week in our conscious. The TLC reality show, which concerns the lives of a Christian family with 19 children, shot into public awareness when it was taken off air after it was revealed that one of the children, Josh Duggar, had a history of child molestation.
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.