Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2016-04-14/Traffic report

Traffic report

A welcome return to pop culture and death

Share this

As predicted last week, we have another breather from American politics; even Donald Trump's appearance at #3 seems only obligatory based on past momentum. The bloated movie blockbuster Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (#1) reigns for a second week. Death fills up three slots in the top ten, with the passing of American actress Patty Duke (#2), Indian actress Pratyusha Banerjee (#5), and the steadily popular Deaths in 2016 (#6). Notably, cricket-related articles fill up three slots in the WP:TOP25, led by Virat Kohli at #9, India's star player as his country hosted the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 championship, a very good showing for the non-American sport. But even more unique is the appearance of South Korean television show Descendants of the Sun at #23, fueled by immense popularity in Asia spilling over into the English Wikipedia. (Want to see the Top 10 articles on the Chinese Wikipedia this week? See our Bonus Report at Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/March 27 to April 2, 2016 China!)

For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.

For the week of March 27 to April 2, 2016, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:

Rank	Article	Views	Notes
1	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice	2,984,071	A second week at #1, and only down slightly from last week's 3.1 million views. Warner Bros might have cause to breathe again for the first time in three years, as their tent-pole gamble and hopes for an entire franchise have, it seems, paid off. Maybe. With $682 million earned worldwide through April 3, the official founding stone for DC's cinematic universe has gone down a storm, with the studio's highest ever domestic opening weekend. But, having cost an estimated $400 million to make and market, this movie will have to make $800 million worldwide just to break even.
2	Patty Duke	1,465,032	Duke was a child star of the 1960s, an Oscar-winning actress in her teens, and went on to a long acting career as an adult. She was also a well-known advocate for mental health issues. She died at age 69 on March 29 from sepsis caused by a ruptured intestine.
3	Donald Trump	1,222,793	Trump is essentially a perpetual motion machine of views at this point. The slightest news or latest squabble spreads throughout the internet immediately. But this has now been going on for so long that there is some anecdotal evidence of "Trump fatigue". This week's primary in Wisconsin, where loads of resources are being expended to defeat Trump, will no doubt be heralded as a watershed event though Trump lost to Ted Cruz.
4	April Fools' Day	956,900	The first day of April, perennial party for practical jokers and pranksters, continues to amuse the cynical and infuriate the gullible. Stories about the best historical pranks tend to proliferate around this date, which randomly led this editor to the Taco Liberty Bell, a prank which just celebrated its 20th anniversary.
5	Pratyusha Banerjee	762,706	The popular Indian television actress was found dead on April 1, an apparent suicide at age 24. She first found popularity in India on the show Balika Vadhu.
6	Deaths in 2016	681,175	The annual list of deaths has always been a fairly consistent visitor to this list, averaging about 500,000 views a week. Since the death of David Bowie, this article's average number of views have jumped.
7	WrestleMania 32	662,845	Up from #18 and 482K views last week. WWE's annual pay-per-view pantomime took place on April 3, 2016, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, featuring Roman Reigns (pictured). Since the actual event took place the day after this week's chart period, it seems likely that this will be on the list for one more week, as Wrestlemania 31 placed for three straight weeks last year. By the way, if you've never read one of these wrestling-event articles in detail, you should check it out just to see the incredible level of detail and sourcing provided.
8	Easter	643,213	It's hard to remember these days, under the onslaught of bunnies, chocolate eggs and marshmallow peeps, that Easter, not Christmas, is the most sacred date of the Christian calendar. But that date moves around -- see computus. Easter falls on the first Sunday after the vernal equinox for most of the Christian world, but a number of articles appeared this year about trying to fix and consolidate the date.
9	Virat Kohli	602,522	The finals of the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 (#20, see also #12) cricket championship were held in India on April 3. Kohli was the captain of the Indian squad and the subject of much press attention for his performances.
10	Gal Gadot	513,404	Up from #21 and 442K views last week. The Israeli actress and former combat instructor has grown in popularity since being announced as DC Cinematic Universe's anointed Wonder Woman (#19), and the first official live-action Wonder Woman since Lynda Carter in the 70s.