Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2020-05-31/Traffic report
Traffic report
Come on and slam, and welcome to the jam
- This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Rebestalic (April 19 to 25), Sailawen (April 26 to May 2), Rebestalic, Sailawen, Thatoneweirdwikier, Igordebraga (May 3 to 9), Rebestalic, Igordebraga (May 10 to 16) Thatoneweirdwikier (May 17 to 23).
COVID-19 is still present, though readers are seemingly gravitating towards anything that will keep their heads off the goddamned pandemic. And nothing was stronger than the broadcast of a Michael Jordan docuseries. Yeah, it's time to hoop, so shoot, baby, shoot, baby!
(data provided by the provisional Top 1000)
Everybody get up, it's time to slam now (April 19 to 25)
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (April 19 to 25, 2020)
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kim Jong-un | 
|
2,655,866 | 
|
It has now been widely reported that Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong-Un may be ill, and perhaps gravely. We don't know for sure, due to the North Korean media's/Government's reluctance to disclose whatever's happening by the second--a behaviour which is understandable on the grounds of maintaining civil order. Unfortunately, rumours have also begun to circulate amongst the facts; I've personally been told that Mr. Kim has died from his illness, despite there being no apparent evidence for such a claim. What is certain, however, is that we won't really know all the nitty-gritty details until a while after this ordeal. |
| 2 | 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic |
|
2,583,983 | 
|
The current pandemic was able to be referred to as the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic because its first cases were identified on the 31st December 2019--that is to say, New Years' Eve. Ever since, the baton for the most-coronavirus--affected country has changed hands multiple times; from China, to various countries in Europe, and now to the United States. At the time of writing, total infections number almost three million--that's more than the populations of some whole countries. |
| 3 | Michael Jordan | 
|
1,908,722 | 
|
Oh yes, that's legendary basketball Michael Jordan only just missing the height mark set by an Army National Guard member who has the advantage of standing on a chair. Jordan, 6′6″ (1.98 metres) tall, was born in Fort Greene, Brooklyn to Deloris and James R. Jordan Senior. He tried out for his varsity team at Emsley A. Laney High School in his second year at the school but was rejected (ironically, because the people there thought he was too short). The young Michael, naturally, wasn't very happy--and made himself a tough act to follow at the school's Junior varsity team. Things (overall, of course) just got better after that. Jordan - who now owns both the Charlotte Hornets and a steakhouse chain - is known as the best basketballer ever, and his career up to the last title he got in 1998 is currently being chronicled by the ESPN\Netflix show The Last Dance. |
| 4 | Waco siege | 
|
1,787,369 | 
|
The Waco siege, also gathering Netflix viewers through the miniseries Waco, to me, is a very complicated piece of history. Here's an oversimplification: In early 1993, the Mount Carmel Center was home to the Branch Davidians, near Waco, Texas, a religious sect led by David Koresh (who appears in this list at #8). Now, along comes the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives--they suspect the Branch Davidians of possession of illegal weapons. The ATF soon launched a raid, and the Branch Davidians, having knowledge of the raid, returned fire, and things got messy. Eventually, the ATF withdrew-- and with the knowledge that federal employees had been killed, the FBI took over and began a siege, which would last fifty-one days and cost 86 lives, including that of Koresh (who at one point, proclaimed that he was Jesus Christ himself, and God had commanded him to stay in Mount Carmel Center). |
| 5 | Scottie Pippen |
|
1,601,645 | 
|
Scotty Maurice Pippen, AKA Scottie Pippen, is an American former basketball player. Pippen had the good fortune to, in the 80s/90s, be a Chicago Bulls player--and of course, that meant playing with Michael Jordan (#3) and winning six NBA rings with him. From what I've read about him, he's considered a legendary small forward; so legendary, in fact, that his jersey was one of only four retired by the Bulls in all of its history. Pippen is three years younger than Michael Jordan and taller (by two inches). |
| 6 | Too Hot to Handle (TV series) |
|
1,560,653 | 
|
The people at Too Hot to Handle - a reality, dating, game show, aimed at teaching people to make relationships meaningful (as opposed to one night stands, where things are only rosy for, well, one night), released on Netflix on the 17th this month - will not like it if you try anything sexual. |
| 7 | 2020 NFL Draft | 
|
1,490,297 | 
|
The 2020 NFL Draft was the 85th of such drafts for the NFL. Due to the current pandemic, it was held by videoconferencing. The very first pick of the entire draft was 2019 Louisiana State University Tigers quarterback Joe Burrow (pictured) for the Cincinnati Bengals. Here's a video of him playing in his team (as well as general highlights of the game his team were playing)--he's truly amazing. |
| 8 | David Koresh |
|
1,191,287 | 
|
You know quite a bit about this guy already. (see #4) |
| 9 | Extraction (2020 film) | 
|
1,061,174 | 
|
How would you feel if you were a black-market soldier hired by another black-market soldier to rescue the child of India's biggest drug lord from the hostage of Bangladesh's biggest drug lord? Well, Chris Hemsworth (pictured) has been through a lot, all the way from posing for photos for GQ to acting as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where/when needed. No surprises, he took on the role as the black market soldier I mentioned first. Netflix released Extraction on the 24th of April this year. |
| 10 | Jerry Krause |
|
1,032,853 | 
|
More The Last Dance entries: Jerome "Jerry" Krause is perhaps best known for being the general manager of the Chicago Bulls for eighteen years; his tenure saw the prime of Michael Jordan's (#3) playing career. Krause was born in Chicago. He became a basketball scout after graduating from university, and became General Manager of the Bulls in 1985. Krause resigned from general managerial duties in 2003, and passed away in early 2017. Pictured to the left is Chicago Stadium; this was the home stadium for the Bulls for the early part of Krause's managerial career. |
I believe I can fly (April 26 to May 2)
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (April 26 to May 2, 2020)
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Irrfan Khan |
|
6,304,066 | 
|
Indian actor, who has starred in many films, including Haasil, Life of Pi, Hindi Medium, Jurassic World, and Slumdog Millionaire. He had a neuroendocrine tumor, but he died of a colon infection on April 29, 2020, at the age of 53. |
| 2 | Kim Jong-un |
|
3,742,963 |
|
Dictator of North Korea. Rumors circulated that he was ill, perhaps gravely. But, on May 1st he was seen in public. He could have been social distancing, like everyone else? |
| 3 | Rishi Kapoor |
|
3,305,092 | 
|
Acclaimed Indian actor, whose career spanned fifty years. He starred as a romantic lead in ninety-two different films. He died of leukemia. |
| 4 | 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic |
|
2,099,719 |
|
The virus that originated in China, that is ravaging the world. I'm pretty sure everyone is affected by this virus, especially America. Over three million people are infected worldwide. |
| 5 | Dennis Rodman | 
|
1,783,655 | 
|
Retired basketball player. In the 90's, he played for the Chicago Bulls, with Scottie Pippen and… |
| 6 | Michael Jordan |
|
1,540,916 | 
|
…one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and the subject of a documentary by ESPN and Netflix. |
| 7 | Extraction (2020 film) |
|
1,494,347 |
|
Basically a film about a black-market soldier hired by an another black-market soldier to rescue a drug lord's child from another drug lord. Confusing… |
| 8 | Waco siege |
|
1,411,012 |
|
A very complicated siege of Mount Carmel Center, because the ATF believed the people inside had illegal firearms and practiced polygamy. Eventually the FBI got involved and Mount Carmel burned down. Netflix has released a miniseries on it. |
| 9 | Kapoor family |
|
1,132,724 | 
|
A Hindi movie family/clan, of which #4 was a part of. Their members have starred in numerous films. But Kapoor is a common Indian surname, so there are many Kapoors in the film industry. |
| 10 | Remdesivir |
|
1,026,249 | 
|
A drug which is currently undergoing clinical trials, to cure the virus which caused #4 above. It was originally developed to fight Ebola and Marburg virus disease, but was ineffective. |
Fly like an Eagle, to the sea (May 3 to 9)
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (May 3 to 9, 2020)
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elon Musk |
|
2,799,218 | 
|
On a negative note, the entrepreneur responsible for Tesla, Inc., SpaceX, etc. has been endorsing nonsense about the pandemic (#4). On a positive one, he had a child with #3. |
| 2 | Judy Mikovits |
|
2,253,234 | 
|
If someone's Wikipedia article starts with "discredited American ex-research scientist who is known for her anti-vaccination activism", you might suspect she's the most unreliable person possible. But some people have decided otherwise in having spread Mikovits' video Plandemic where she rattles misinformation about COVID-19 (#4). |
| 3 | Grimes (musician) |
|
1,984,469 | 
|
Canadian musician Claire Elise Boucher has been with #1 since 2018, and welcomed their first son to the world. The couple wanted to call the kid… "X Æ A-12"! Since California law (thankfully) forbids names with numbers, Grimes and Musk would've been better off changing it to "Glen". |
| 4 | COVID-19 pandemic |
|
1,855,828[a] |
|
The current pandemic's total infection count now stands in excess of four million. This is a number that's starting to match some national populations. However, recoveries are also starting to climb (as expected); we're talking about 1 and a half million of them. |
| 5 | Michael Jordan |
|
1,828,984 | 
|
Basketball fans have lost their beloved sport once all leagues suspended operations due to the pandemic. By May, the NBA playoffs should have been on full force, so instead ESPN and Netflix have been filling the void with The Last Dance, recalling the greatest basketballer to ever hit the paint in his final season with the Chicago Bulls (along with a story of his career leading to that point). |
| 6 | Little Richard |
|
1,321,138 | 
|
"A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom!" The rock pioneer who created classic songs such as "Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally" died on the 9th of May at the age of 87 of bone cancer complications. |
| 7 | Victory in Europe Day |
|
992,346 | 
|
May the eighth, 1945: A great day for the Allies. Of course, we're talking about 'Victory in Europe Day' (or 'V-E Day'), the day when the Allies in question accepted Nazi Germany's offer of unconditional surrender (that is, 'We're surrendering. That's it. We don't want anything else because of it.') V-E Day meant that all war in Europe evaporated. V-J Day (Victory in Japan Day) was to come. |
| 8 | Asian giant hornet |
|
980,798 | 
|
The authorities of Washington state have asked locals to be on the lookout for these deadly hornets, which could result in a "full-scale hunt". |
| 9 | Rock Hudson |
|
963,965 | 
|
The late American actor who won 3 Golden Globe Awards has been portrayed in the recent mini-series Hollywood. |
| 10 | Deaths in 2020 | 
|
940,360 |  |
Close the doors, put out the light You know they won't be home tonight… |
- ^ combination of page views for "2019–20 coronavirus pandemic" with "COVID-19 pandemic" due to page move on May 3.
Hit 'Em High, Hit 'Em Low (May 10 to 16)
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (May 10 to 16, 2020)
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Jordan |
|
1,811,148 | 
|
NBA: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." Michael Jeffrey Jordan, born February 17, 1963, has lived a life in basketball--as far as I know, the latest time that he started playing basketball was by the time he was in high school. Even though he has since retired, he continues to involve himself in the NBA; currently as the owner of the Charlotte Hornets. He recently featured on the TV series The Last Dance. |
| 2 | Jerry Stiller |
|
1,547,994 | 
|
Jerry Stiller was an American actor, comedian, author and voice-over artist. You might know him as the man behind Frank on the sitcom Seinfeld, or being the father of actor Ben (#9), who took on the voicing role of Alex the Lion from the Madagascar films. Stiller the elder's career spanned over sixty years, stopping four years before his death on May the 11th. |
| 3 | COVID-19 pandemic |
|
1,356,237 |
|
Well… I guess it's something all too known by now |
| 4 | Little Richard |
|
1,187,234 |
|
Also known as 'The Innovator', 'The Originator' and 'The Architect of Rock and Roll', Richard Wayne Penniman was a musician who pioneered rock and roll music. He died on the 9th this month. |
| 5 | Elon Musk |
|
1,070,021 |
|
Directly involved in the founding or initial stages of SpaceX, Tesla, Inc., The Boring Company and what is now PayPal, among others. Musk has recently had a child with Canadian musician Grimes (#25), X Æ A-Xii Musk; the first name is pronounced either 'Ex Ash A Twelve' or 'Ex Aye Aye'. |
| 6 | Deaths in 2020 |
|
938,698 | 
|
My lightning's flashing across the sky You're only young, but you're gonna die |
| 7 | UFC 249 | 
|
878,662 | 
|
A UFC bout whose main event was a fight that pitted Tony Ferguson against Justin Gaethje on May the 9th. Gaethje won. |
| 8 | 6ix9ine |
|
818,620 | 
|
6ix9ine has recently released a new album, named '692*'; its last track, GOOBA, is hot stuff on lyric provider Genius (and has amassed almost 3 million views there since; for comparison, Eminem's wildly popular (at least where I'm from) "Godzilla" has 4.4 million, and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" has 1 million - a note that rap songs fare better at Genius due to its user demographics and it being originally founded as a dedicated rap site). |
| 9 | Ben Stiller |
|
771,159 | 
|
Son of Jerry (#2), a recent death. |
| 10 | Fred Willard |
|
719,747 | 
|
Fred Willard, another American actor (as well as a comedian and writer), resonates most to me through his role as Shelby Forthright in WALL-E. You might know him for something else; there's a lot of things that he did in his career (which spanned 61 years, just one short of Jerry Stiller's (#2)). |
Y'all ready for this? (May 17 to 23)
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (May 17 to 23, 2020)
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Jordan |
|
2,340,798 | 
|
Once again, Jordan slam-dunks the charts, likely due to his appearance in the Netflix documentary The Last Dance, which looks at the 1997–98 Chicago Bulls season, his last before a brief un-retirement. |
| 2 | Catherine the Great |
|
1,217,270 | 
|
The former Empress of Russia was portrayed in a recent comedy-drama miniseries titled The Great, released on Hulu on the 15th of May. |
| 3 | COVID-19 pandemic |
|
1,160,774 |
|
As the pandemic grows (roughly 5.5m cases at the time of writing) and more people are getting infected, there is only one question on most people's minds: When will there be a vaccine? |
| 4 | Shad Gaspard |
|
1,025,128 | 
|
The former WWE wrestler was declared missing on May 17 after getting caught in a rip current in Venice Beach, California. After a massive search by the U.S. Coast Guard, his body washed up on shore three days later, and was shortly after identified by the Los Angeles County coroner's office. |
| 5 | Scottie Pippen |
|
1,021,437 |
|
#1's teammate, widely considered the greatest "second banana" of all time, given Jordan owes his six titles to Pippen's help. |
| 6 | Israel Kamakawiwoʻole |
|
959,304 | A singer-lyricist and musician, Kamakawiwo'ole was honoured with a Google Doodle on the 20th of May for his 61st birthday. | |
| 7 | Fred Willard |
|
954,358 | 
|
Another death on the list coming from an American actor and writer, due to natural causes. |
| 8 | Deaths in 2020 |
|
906,183 | 
|
Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there; I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond glints on snow, I am the sun on ripened grain, I am the gentle autumn rain. |
| 9 | Steve Kerr |
|
905,193 | 
|
Former teammate of #1 and #5, now a successful coach with the Golden State Warriors. |
| 10 | Dennis Rodman |
|
826,433 |
|
#1, #5, and #9's teammate, an outrageous player which has some of his exploits (such as Rodman taking a break mid-season to party in Vegas - and marry Carmen Electra along the way - or skipping practice in the 1998 NBA Finals to take part in wrestling events!) in The Last Dance, where Rodman even utters the immortal quote “I was just trying to play basketball, party, fuck all the girls”. |
Exclusions
- These lists exclude 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 exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% 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 Top 25 Report talk page if you wish.
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