Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-12-30/Traffic report
The Force we expected
Not surprisingly, Star Wars: The Force Awakens tops the list, with over five million views, one of the highest weekly view counts we've seen this year. And eleven of the Top 25 entries are Star Wars-related, clearly one of the top pop culture events of the year. (The record of related topics on a single report is 15, which the Super Bowl did in February.) Outside the Star Wars universe, Yoga master B. K. S. Iyengar hit #3 on the strength of a Google Doodle, and MMA fighter Conor McGregor came in #4 after a big win at UFC 194 (#12). And Adele is still going strong, rising back 10 spots this week up to #5 in her ninth consecutive appearance on the chart.
Followers of Wikipedia article statistics should be sure to check out the new Hatnote Top 100, a daily report of the 100 most viewed articles for thirteen different language Wikipedias. This daily report includes mobile data (which stats.grok.se does not), and is updated daily just a few hours after midnight UTC. As an automated report, it does not exclude non-human entries (as this report strives to do), so beware oddities like Java (programming language) which get afflicted by bots. I enjoyed using the Hatnote reports this past week to know in advance that Star Wars: The Force Awakens would top the chart this week. The Hatnote report is derived from Wikimedia's new pageview API, and WMF Labs has already released a Demo Article stats tool that is worth checking out, as it also includes the mobile views which are now a large segment of all Wikipedia views.
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 December 13 to 19, 2015, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Star Wars: The Force Awakens 
5,164,168 
Over 38 years after the release of Star Wars in 1977, the pop culture domination that the franchise has enjoyed is undeniable, now again reinforced by the debut of the latest film. Many people who saw the first film as teenagers could well be grandparents by now. Though just released, this is already the article's ninth appearance on the Top 25 in 2015. It is hard to think of any other pop culture franchise that has had such a long lasting and pervasive effect as Star Wars. For example, the stories of Sherlock Holmes appeared over a forty year period as well (1887–1927), and have generated a large legacy, but cannot compete with the powers of our mass media age. The Force Awakens has already grossed $517 million worldwide in its opening weekend (as of December 20) – just shy of the worldwide opening record of $524 million set by Jurassic World earlier this year. The U.S. opening of $238 million easily beat the $209 million which Jurassic World racked up. The movie has also received very good reviews, though it should be kept in mind that many reviewers in 2015 probably saw the first film as children, creating a powerful force of nostalgia. 2 Star Wars 
2,643,442 See #1 3 B. K. S. Iyengar
1,165,101 
Iyengar, who died in 2014, was one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world, and is often called "the father of modern yoga." A Google Doodle celebrated what would have been his 97th birthday. 4 Conor McGregor
1,139,804 
Up from #17 last week. On December 12, at UFC 194 (#12), the Irish MMA star became the UFC Featherweight Champion after knocking out José Aldo in 13 seconds, capping a pretty good last few weeks for his country in combat sports. 5 Adele
863,442 
"Hello, it's Adele, if you're wondering, after nine weeks yes I'm still here." And will no doubt stay in the Top 25 for a bit longer. Up from #15 last week, with over double the views of the prior week, primarily propelled by the American TV special Adele Live in New York City which aired on December 14. 6 Dilwale (2015 film) 
841,772 
This Indian film, including Kajol (pictured) among its starring actors, debuted on December 18. Dilwale grossed around ₹150 crore (US$22 million) worldwide in its opening weekend, the third highest of the year for an Indian film. 7 Martin Shkreli
772,581 On December 17, the then-CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals was arrested by the FBI on charges of securities fraud. The 32-year-old Shkreli was already the prime target for dissatisfaction with corporate greed these days. Shkreli received widespread criticism in September when Turing obtained the manufacturing license for an antiparasitic drug and jacked up the price by over five thousand percent. 8 Daisy Ridley
765,459 
The English actress stars in #1 in the role of Rey. 9 Star Wars (film) 
750,021 
See #1. The first movie in the series, released on May 25, 1977 in only about 30 movie theaters. 10 Donald Trump
720,311 
The improbable U.S. Presidential campaign of Mr. Trump continues. Every Republican party debate generates more attention for him, and he stood center stage again at the last debate on December 15. Trump continues to ride the top of national polls of Republicans by a wide margin, though the fact that the actual party nomination system in the United States is a state-by-state contest and not a national one will now become more of a focus. The Iowa caucus to be held on February 1, 2016 will be first, and not easy for a cult-of-personality candidate to win, followed by the New Hampshire primary on February 8 and South Carolina primary on February 20. If Trump actually does well through those first three contests, the reaction within the party and by the press is going to be something incredible to behold.
_cropped.jpg)
- Just missing the WP:TOP25, four of out five are Star Wars-related: #26 Harrison Ford; #27 Joy (film), #28 Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, #29 Darth Vader, and #30 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Discuss this story