The Top 25 Report
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 14 to 20, 2016)
edit← Last week's report – Next week's report →
Summary: There was a lot going on this week: the Grammys; the Presidential primaries in Nevada and South Carolina; the death of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, which provoked an entirely predictable and completely unnecessary political firestorm. But what people wanted to know about more than anything, it seems, is Deadpool; a film which, judging from the box office receipts, they've already seen. Still, that's a lot to take in, and I can't really blame people for seeking an escape.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of February 14 to 20, 2016, 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 Deadpool (film) 
2,846,632 
The Marvel Comics antihero film starring Ryan Reynolds (pictured) was released on February 12 to a stellar reception. Regarded as a risk by its makers 20th Century Fox, the film has earned nearly $500 million worldwide in just ten days. Reviews are surprisingly strong as well, with the film averaging 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. 2 Antonin Scalia 
2,131,575 
Oh dear. US politics are getting dirty again. The longest-serving Supreme Court Justice in modern history, Scalia held his position for nearly 30 years until his sudden death this week at the age of 79. Despite his rigidly originalist Constitutional stance and reactionary views on homosexuality and abortion, he was apparently well-liked even by the more liberal members of the court. Even so, his death leaves the Court in an even 4-4 split between liberals and conservatives, a fact which concerns the Republican-held Senate enough that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who famously said his one goal would be to make Barack Obama a 1-term President, to strike a similar vow this week: that the Senate would not approve any replacement justice that Obama might put forward. Whether he will follow through with his threat, and whether voters will reward such obstructionism or reject it, remains to be seen. 3 Deadpool 
1,735,849 
Marvel may have disavowed their X-Men franchise until Fox gives it back to them, but their fourth wall-tickling, chimichanga-chomping, bullet-spraying loony toon obviously remains a potent force, whether they like it or not. 4 Valentine's Day
1,271,571 
The annual greeting-card consumption festival got fewer views than usual this week. Typically (see 2013 and 2014 and 2015), Valentine's Day makes it annual appearance at the top of the chart. Since the 14th fell on the first day of this week's report, it didn't have the benefit of the pre-holiday views in its totals. 5 The Life of Pablo
1,060,242 
The latest album from Kanye West (pictured) was released this week to positive-if-perplexed reviews and some typically unhinged comments from its creator (see #8) 6 Alexander Hamilton 
1,051,465 
This Founding Father of the United States, who was shot in a duel by then-Vice President Aaron Burr, is probably best known as the soon-to-be-ex-face of the ten dollar bill. Rather surprisingly, his life became the subject of a hit off-Broadway musical, the theme to which earned a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album this week. 7 Donald Trump 
998,114 
In the alien, non-Euclidean geometry of this year's United States presidential election, down apparently means up. It doesn't matter what Donald Trump does; engage in a Twitter war with the Pope, tell a group of veterans that he would deal with Islamic terrorists by having them shot with bullets dipped in pigs' blood, or have "loser.com" redirect to his Wikipedia page, he can't be brought back to Earth. Having secured the Republican New Hampshire primary for on February 9, he went on to win the South Carolina primary by a similar margin, despite pundits predicting that Ted Cruz would benefit from the state's large Evangelical demographic. If he pulls similar numbers on March 1's "Super Tuesday" primaries, expect his nomination to be declared secure. 8 Kanye West
833,443 
It's the Grammys again, and that means it's time for another incoherent spiel from Kanye West. The previous recipient of the dubious honour of having "loser.com" redirect to his Wikipedia page made, if anything, an even more insulting fool of himself this year, this time targeting Album of the Year winner Taylor Swift. After West claimed he wouldn't attend the ceremony if he didn't win said award (he wasn't nominated) Swift made an oblique reference to him in her acceptance speech, and in particular the lyrics to one of the songs on his just-released album, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that bitch famous/Goddamn, I made that bitch famous." This line is presumably a reference to the time he jumped on the stage during her acceptance speech at the VMAs to tell her she didn't deserve to win. After failing to win the award he wasn't nominated for, Kanye went on Twitter to claim he was $53 million in debt and that Mark Zuckerberg should help him out. Some are beginning to wonder if hip hop's insufferable genius may be easing on the "genius" while doubling down on the "insufferable". 9 O. J. Simpson
934,959 
As predicted by yours truly, the former football player, Leslie Nielsen costar and alleged murderer has become a fixture of this list, thanks to the first season of American Crime Story, the true-crime spinoff of American Horror Story, which focuses on his controversial trial. 10 Neerja Bhanot
804,187 
On September 5, 1986, just two days before her 23rd birthday, this Pan Am flight attendant was shot dead by terrorists affiliated with Abu Nidal as she spearheaded an escape from the hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 that ultimately saved over 300 lives. She was posthumously awarded India's highest peacetime bravery award, the Ashoka Chakra. Her life and death became the subject of a Bollywood biopic this week, Neerja, starring Sonam Kapoor (pictured) in the title role. 11 Nicole, Erica and Jaclyn Dahm
743,949 
As learned in a Reddit thread this week, the identical triplets (yes, that is a thing that happens) and former Playboy centerfolds were tattooed on their buttocks as babies so their parents could tell them apart. Or maybe not; the quoted fact currently has a [citation needed] tag. Anyone willing to track that fact down would, I think, be guaranteed a fascinating research project. 12 58th Annual Grammy Awards 
667,642 
The annual music awards were held this week at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The awards were dominated by Kendrick Lamar, with five wins, and Taylor Swift and Alabama Shakes, with three each. 13 Robert Kardashian
664,250 The now-deceased patriarch of the mediavorous Kardashian clan was a close friend of O. J. Simpson and played a role in the controversial trial that engulfed American pop culture in the 1990s. Of course, the sudden resurgence of interest in the case following the premiere of American Crime Story this week led the less scrupulous end of the media to dredge up colorful supposed links between it and the current generation. 14 René Laennec
645,067 
The gallant inventor of the stethoscope, who did so in part to spare the blushes of young female patients who would otherwise have had to endure him placing his ear to their bosoms, got a Google Doodle on his 235th birthday on February 17. 15 Ryan Reynolds
637,841 see #1. 16 Vanity (singer)
623,584 The former Prince backup singer who had a religious conversion in 1994 after a near-fatal cocaine overdose, died this week of renal failure at the age of just 57, the delayed result of decades of drug use. 17 Deaths in 2016
616,814 
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 views have jumped on average, but may slowly be returning to the mean. 18 Sia Furler
607,424 
Sometimes this job is hard. Thanks to Reddit's jalopy of a search engine, the porno triplets thread took me an hour to track down. And now I have to ascertain why one of the world's most popular and discussed singers could possibly be generating interest this week. Her new album? No, that was last month. Her new single? Nope; two weeks ago. The Grammys? She wasn't there. A Reddit thread? Thankfully no; her viewing patterns don't match. Oddly enough, the closest to an answer I can find is her appearance on James Corden's viral video series, "Carpool Kareoke", in which the notoriously shy and unrepentantly odd singer not only sang a few of her hits (hidden, as always, behind an overlarge wig) but also admitted she believed in aliens. 19 Bernie Sanders
584,875 
The self-described democratic socialist and US Presidential candidate, while still nipping at Hillary Clinton's heels, heads towards near-certain defeat in the South Carolina primary with his sails slightly less billowy after narrowly losing the Nevada caucuses. 20 Sri Srinivasan
583,232 
The current United States Circuit Judge has been touted by a number of left-leaning sources as a favourite to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. 21 The Revenant (2015 film)
572,350 
Alejandro González Iñárritu's Western survival epic continues to be popular, having earned over $380 million worldwide as of February 23 amid anticipation of an impending Oscar win for its star Leonardo di Caprio (pictured). 22 The Walking Dead (season 6)
565,763 
The popular zombie apocalypse TV series returned from a three-month hiatus this week. 23 Negasonic Teenage Warhead
553,691 
The gloriously-named Marvel Comics mutant character (she is in fact named after a song by Monster Magnet) got a starring role in the live-action Deadpool film (see #1) where she was played by Brianna Hildebrand (pictured) 24 List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
548,378 
The political firestorm kicked off by the death of Antonin Scalia led many to look back in the past for precedents. 25 Hamilton (musical)
547,118 
The life of Alexander Hamilton (see #6) seems an unlikely subject for a musical, let alone a hit, yet that is what won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album this week.
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.
- Specific exclusions this week
- Pride and Prejudice: since the inclusion of mobile views, contestable removals from the list have become a rarity. But they must happen every now and again. While the article does have some currency, thanks to the release of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, its ludicrously low 5% mobile view count suggests artificial inflation.