The Top 25 Report
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (December 25 to 31, 2016)
edit- Prepared with commentary by Serendipodous.
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Circle of Death: And so, 2016 ends as it began, with a flurry of unexpected and tragic deaths. The deaths of Carrie Fisher, George Michael and Debbie Reynolds in such close proximity sent a collective shock wave through our user base. Indeed, if this were any other year, this list might have seen record breaking numbers. Our viewers, bless their hearts, were driven to a quest to understand their idols' world. This was, as I am sure they learned, a monumental task in Carrie's case. In her stand up show Wishful Drinking, Carrie outlined her family story using the sort of blackboard one normally associates with TV murder investigations; to fully grasp every scandal, tragedy and shenanigan her family have witnessed would take an article of its own. But our users seem game; this list very much resembles Carrie's board. I've tried to give a vague outline of the connections below, but forgive me if I missed anything.
For the week of December 25 to 31, 2016, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Carrie Fisher 
9,202,699 
It's not enough that 2016 took so many beloved people from us; at times the year seemed to be sadistically toying with us. When we first heard that the onetime Princess Leia had suffered a heart attack on a plane, naturally we feared that 2016 was about to turn its murderous eye onto one of the icons of our childhood. And then she was reported to be in stable condition, and we breathed again. And then, out of the blue, George Michael died. And then she did as well. But, as she said, given enough time, everything becomes funny, so maybe she would have found the humour in this. 2 George Michael
7,744,516 
Like many in the music business, George Michael spent much of his life under masks. A British singer of Greek descent, he changed his name from Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou. Throughout the 80s, he adopted the swagger of a preening sex god whilst being secretly gay. After being forced out of the closet in the most humiliating circumstance imaginable, he decided to own his identity, and campaigned vociferously on gay rights issues. Perhaps the best outcome of his sudden death on Christmas Day has been the outpouring of stories by people whose lives were bettered by his quiet charity, news of which has quieted Britain's notoriously homophobic tabloid press. 3 Debbie Reynolds 
7,331,227 
The mother of Carrie Fisher, who was a world-class movie star in her own right, having appeared in Singin' in the Rain, How The West Was Won and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, for which she was nominated for an Oscar, outlived her daughter by less than 48 hours. According to her son, her last words were, "I miss her so much; I want to be with Carrie." 4 Billie Lourd 
3,175,053 
What must it be like to lose both your mother and your grandmother in the space of two days? The only child of Carrie Fisher, who, initially against her family's wishes, is also an actress, with a regular role in the horror/comedy TV series Scream Queens, had to face that horror just after Christmas. Thankfully, her family and fellow cast members have rallied around her. 5 Eddie Fisher (singer)
2,883,834 
The father of Carrie Fisher was a mega-selling crooner in the days before rock and roll. His best known song is probably "Oh My Papa"; known to my generation most likely because Krusty the Clown sang it on The Simpsons. In her stage show, Wishful Drinking, Carrie explained how, having fathered her and her brother, he went to console his best friend's widow, Elizabeth Taylor, in the wake of his death. "My father flew to Elizabeth's side, gradually making his way slowly to her front". She would very quickly ditch him for Richard Burton. Carrie seemed to have forgiven him by his final years; she sent him strippers on his 81st birthday. 6 Todd Fisher
2,247,399 The brother of Carrie Fisher, whose eclectic career has flitted between the entertainment industry and architecture, appears to have assumed the role of holding his family together in the wake of his mother and sister's deaths. 7 Dangal (film)
1,776,966 
Aamir Khan (pictured) is without question the biggest star in Bollywood, a world where star power counts for a lot. So it's not surprising that his latest film is already breaking records, having made ₹1.07 billion ($15.78 million) in its first three days. And it's not stopping; viewing numbers have doubled since last week. 8 Rogue One
2,239,147 
Felicity Jones (pictured) stars in this Star Wars universe movie, which has grossed over $700 million. It probably won't dominate this chart as thoroughly as Star Wars: The Force Awakens did a year ago, but it will probably do quite well all the same. 9 Deaths in 2016 
1,484,927 
The deaths list had always acted as this list's lodestone; it was so consistent on a day-to-day basis that where it appeared was an indication of the weekly traffic levels. Not anymore. Notable deaths have been so freakishly frequent in 2016 that as the year nears its close, people are struggling to make sense of it, even to the point of personifying 2016 as a kind of sentient demon. In the wave of the new year, we've seen the list cross a million views, possibly for the first time since we started this project. 10 Bryan Lourd
1,372,098 The onetime partner of Carrie Fisher and father to her only daughter, Billie Lourd, is notable not only for being one of the premier talent agents in Hollywood, but also for having left Carrie for a man. 11 Joely Fisher
1,348,625 
The younger half-sister of Carrie is also an actress, having forged a successful career in sitcoms. 12 Boxing Day
1,124,457 
And, just like every year, the most queried element of the holiday season is not Christmas, but its less-celebrated addendum. Perhaps Americans remain puzzled over why their Commonwealth cousins get an extra day of Christmas each year, and what on Earth the Nativity has to do with pugilism (to be fair, no one really knows how Boxing Day got its name, and any stories you hear are pretty much stabs in the dark). 13 Geeta Phogat 
1,026,565 India's first ever gold medal in wrestling at the Commonwealth Games, and also the first ever Indian female wrestler to have qualified for the Olympics, is the subject of the film Dangal (see #7). 14 UFC 207 n/a 952,106 
The latest Ultimate Fighting Championship event was held on December 30, 2016 at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, and saw the defeat of superstar Ronda Rousey (pictured). 15 Star Wars 
931,707 
See... pretty much everything on this page. 16 Alexis Ohanian
898,863 
The founder of Reddit married Serena Williams on December 29. 17 Tricia Leigh Fisher
895,305 The half-sister of Carrie Fisher is, again, also an actress, perhaps best known for playing Heidi Fleiss in Heidi Fleiss: The Making of a Hollywood Madam. 18 Charles Macintosh
879,453 
The Scottish chemist and inventor of the Mackintosh raincoat got a Google Doodle on his 250th birthday on 29 December. 19 Ronda Rousey
875,321 The face of UFC was beaten in just 48 seconds at UFC 207 (see above) by Amanda Nunes. 20 Andrew Ridgeley
869,122 The singer was the other half of George Michael's band Wham!. 21 Darth Vader
845,520 The most iconic villain in modern history (I challenge you to disagree) made an appearance in the latest Star Wars spinoff, Rogue One. He's actually appeared on this list several times over the last few weeks, but his low mobile count suggested he was usurping the throne. This time I feel his mobile count is high enough to warrant inclusion. 22 'Tis the Season disambig 832,847 
For the third year in a row, a Google Doodle sent hundreds of thousands of people to a disambig page. You'd think they would have sorted this by now. 23 Elizabeth Taylor
809,183 
The immortal screen goddess was, very briefly, Carrie Fisher's stepmother; her father Eddie having divorced her mother Debbie Reynolds and married Taylor after being caught in an affair. Taylor would then cheat on him with Richard Burton, leading to a divorce and remarriage. Then another divorce and remarriage. To Richard Burton. Are you keeping track? This is complicated. 24 Elizabeth II 
765,187 
For yet another week, the longest-reigning British monarch in history places on this list thanks to The Crown, a $100 million melodrama about her early years in which she is played by Claire Foy. 25 Connie Stevens
732,958 
The actress was Carrie Fisher's second stepmother after Elizabeth Taylor (see above), and the mother of her half-sisters Joely (#11) and Tricia (#17).
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 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 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.