Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/August 27 to September 2, 2017

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (August 27 to September 2, 2017)

Prepared with commentary by OZOO

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Let's Get Ready To Read Some Wikipedia Articles!!!!

The Big Ol' Bout To Knock The Other Guy Out makes its presence felt on this list, with the two protagonists, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor taking the top two spots, the fight itself in fifth, and both Dwayne The Rock Johnson (#19) and Mike Tyson (#25) get fight-assisted boosts into the lower reaches of the list. The fight does the unexpected - dethrone the ending seventh season of Game of Thrones; the season and the show take spots three and four respectively, with the list of episodes in twelfth and star actors Emilia Clarke (#15) and Kit Harington (#18) also here.

The devastating impact of Hurricane Harvey (#8), which struck Houston this week, reminded people of 2005's Hurricane Katrina (#16), brought attention to televangelist Joel Osteen (#14); and may also have lifted List of United States cities by population (#23) into the list. Coverage of the hurricane is also connected to controversial ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio (#17), whose pardon was timed by President Trump to reach the attention of as many news viewers as possible.

Elsewhere, we find two much discussed women adjacent to each other – Diana, Princess of Wales in ninth for the twentieth anniversary of her death; and Taylor Swift in tenth following the release of her new single. Following the musical theme, in 20th is the musician Logic, whose performance of his song "1-800-273-8255" led to a rise in calls to the American National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Blue Whale (#7) is still in the list, unfortunately.

Cinematographer James Wong Howe (#13) is your Google Doodle of the week, with two other films in the list, the disappointing Death Note (#21) and the perhaps not-so-disappointing It (#24). The sentencing of Indian guru Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh (#6) keeps him in the list. Last, but by no means least, Eid al-Adha (#22) was on September 1 this year.

For the week of August 27 to September 2, 2017, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	Notes
1	Floyd Mayweather Jr.		2,576,869		In the wake of his victory over Conor McGregor (#2) at the back end of last week, the newly-crowned, record-breaking, history-making, fifty-time consecutive professional boxing fight winner returns to the top of this list for the first time since May 2015, where he was in the wake of a victory over Manny Pacquiao. So, bit of advice if he wants the world's greatest honor – a number one ranking on this list – again: fight more people.
2	Conor McGregor		2,068,862		In choosing to make his professional boxing debut against then 49-time consecutive fight winner Floyd Mayweather Jr. (#1), McGregor forgot the number-one super special technique for winning boxing matches: make sure you only challenge people significantly worse than you at boxing.
3	Game of Thrones (season 7)		1,633,579		The seventh series of Game of Thrones ended on August 27; meaning that it is once again safe to go on the Internet on Mondays and have no fear of accidentally seeing either spoilers, or someone complaining about spoilers.
4	Game of Thrones		1,306,948		Should probably begin slip-sliding off the list now that the seventh season is over. But if anything can defy negative expectations, popularity wise, it's Game of Thrones
5	Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor		1,181,688		On August 26, 2017, at T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (#1) and Conor McGregor (#2) got into a boxing ring and proceeded to punch each other repeatedly, as people do in boxing rings. Mr Mayweather was declared winner of the fight, but it is estimated that regardless of the result, both fighters will have made a lot of money. A lot. Probably enough to hire everyone else on this list to perform their songs/TV shows/alleged criminal activities for them personally; including all the individuals on Deaths in 2017 (#11). They're just that rich.
6	Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh		1,174,179		Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the controversial Indian guru, whose rape conviction on 25 August led to widespread rioting, was sentenced on 28 August to 20 years in prison.
7	Blue Whale (game)		1,131,952		Continued deaths of alleged players of the fatal "game" in India, continued reporting of the deaths as part of the "game", continued attention brought to the "game", continued people playing the "game".
8	Hurricane Harvey		999,247		Hurricane Harvey, the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2005, struck southern Texas beginning August 25, causing catastropic flooding in the Greater Houston metropolitan area, and the confirmed deaths of 65 people in the United States, as well as one from an earlier landfall on the South American nation of Guyana.
9	Diana, Princess of Wales		906,803		Diana, former wife of Charles, Prince of Wales and therefore once in line to be Queen consort of the United Kingdom, died in a car accident on 31 August 1997; with 31 August 2017, naturally being largely given over to tributes and reminiscences. The repercussions of the cult-esque worship of the late royal have the potential to be quite difficult for the British royal family, with recent surveys showing disapproval of the idea of Charles becoming king, presumably from people who don't quite get how monarchy works. Still, if Charles thinks he's got it bad, it's nothing compared to the prospect of the current Princess of Wales, Camilla, even having a sniff of becoming Queen, despite the fact that her and Charles' relationship seems far more "fairytale" than the one he had with Diana, with no signs of infidelity coming from either side.
10	Taylor Swift		758,877		At last some new music from one of the world's greatest singers! Alternatively, oh no, that manipulative, attention-seeking, snake is at it again. (Neutral point of view, remember). The launch campaign for Ms. Swift's sixth studio album, Reputation, has begun with the launch on August 25 of the lead single, "Look What You Made Me Do". The song has topped the charts in eleven countries thus far, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.
11	Deaths in 2017		695,051		While researching the previous entry, I was informed of the sad passing of the "old Taylor". Her death does not yet seem to have made this list.
12	List of Game of Thrones episodes		654,700		Season 7 (#3) is over. Season 8 - the final season - will reportedly not air until 2019. This list will therefore be entering a bit of a lull, I expect.
13	James Wong Howe		638,026		On 28 August, Google dedicated a Doodle to James Wong Howe, who was born 118 years prior, on August 28, 1899. Howe was a Chinese American cinematographer who worked on 130 films. He was a master at the use of shadow and was one of the first to use deep-focus cinematography, in which both foreground and distant planes remain in focus. Howe was nominated for 10 Academy Awards for cinematography, winning for The Rose Tattoo (1955) and Hud. In the picture illustrating this entry, he is on the right, naturally behind the camera during filming on 1924's The Alaskan. Howe died on July 12, 1976, aged 76.
14	Joel Osteen		632,083		Joel Osteen, a televangelist from Houston, Texas, achieved notoriety this week for refusing to open his church, Lakewood Church, as an emergency shelter following Hurricane Harvey (#8). Following the backlash, the church was eventually opened.
15	Emilia Clarke		551,145		As we hit the Game of Thrones (#3) end-of-season excitement, the stars of the show make their presence felt on the list. Clarke, the former Doctors star now portraying Daenerys Targaryen (Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains, Enemy of Spellcheck) in the drama, should not be short of attention during the hiatus, with a keenly anticipated Star Wars spin-off movie based on a young Han Solo having cast her as the female lead. That film is due for release in May 2018.
16	Hurricane Katrina		536,033		Memories of the 2005 storm likely coming back to people in the wake of Hurricane Harvey (#8). Katrina struck America, most notably New Orleans in late August 2005, with at least 1,245 people dying in the hurricane and floods, and an estimated $108 billion in property damages, making it the most costly natural disaster in US history; Harvey is estimated second with ~$90 billion.
17	Joe Arpaio		509,405		Joe Arpaio, the former Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona – he served from 1993 until losing the office to his Democrat opponent in last year's election – was pardoned by President Trump on August 25 of criminal contempt of court, an offence which he had been convicted for a month earlier having failed "to ensure his subordinates' compliance [...] by directing them to continue to detain persons for whom no criminal charges could be filed." Trump declared a few days later that he had timed the pardon to get maximum views during Hurricane Harvey coverage, surprising those who had thought he was perhaps hoping for the opposite effect; that Harvey coverage would overwhelm the controversial decision to pardon a man judged by the United States Department of Justice to have overseen the worse pattern of racial profiling in U.S. history.
18	Kit Harington		495,012		Another one of the stars of Game of Thrones, here, this time actor Kit Harington who plays Jon Snow (King of the North, Bastard of Winterfell, Reader of News) in the series. Amongst Harington's projects in the gap between series will be interesting-sounding series Gunpowder, based on the Gunpowder Plot and starring Harrington as his ancestor Robert Catesby.
19	Dwayne Johnson		477,627		Former wrestler, current actor, and future POTUS Dwayne The Rock Johnson took time out of his schedule to provide the intro voiceover for the much-discussed Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor (#5) fight, last week.
20	Logic (musician)		477,142		Logic, whose birth name is the frankly more awesome Sir Robert Bryson Hall II (the Sir is not a title), performed his song "1-800-273-8255" at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards. The song's name is the number for the American National Suicide Prevention Lifeline; and it has been reported that the song's performance resulted in a 50% surge in the number of calls to the hotline.
21	Death Note (2017 film)		466,000		Do you remember the time when everything Netflix touched turned to gold? I bet Netflix wishes they were back in that time, instead of here, making unpopular adaptations of major Japanese manga. The film, which was released of August 25, has received more negative reviews than otherwise, with critics taking against the numerous changes from the source material; in particular accusations of "whitewashing"; although the direction from Adam Wingard (pictured) and the performances from much of the cast, particularly Willem Dafoe, has been praised.
22	Eid al-Adha		440,810		The holier of the two Muslim holidays celebrated worldwide each year was this year held on September 1 throughout most of the Muslim world, although Pakistan marked it on September 2 due to a delay in sighting the new moon, which marks the end of a lunar month (Eid ad-Adha occurs on the 10th day of the Dhu al-Hijjah lunar month). There is a drop of about 80,000 views compared to last year, which may be down to that being at the start of a reporting week, while this years was at the end.
23	List of United States cities by population		438,415		Hard to say for sure what prompted the boost in this article this week. It might be to do with the fourth-most populated city in the United States, Houston, being in the path of the Hurricane Harvey, with that maybe attracting viewers to find out, perhaps, where their city stood? The number one city is, as you probably knew, New York City, which is pictured.
24	It (2017 film)		413,890		After the failure of last month's The Dark Tower comes another attempt to bring a Stephen King novel to the big screen; although this one, at least, is looking a lot better. Starring Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise, the evil clown previously memorably played by Tim Curry in a 1990 miniseries; the horror film, which is scheduled for release in the US on September 8, has largely been positively received by critics, with some calling it the best King adaptation yet.
25	Mike Tyson		398,631	Tyson in Los Angeles California in June 2019	Former professional boxer Tyson is here, of course, as a result of the furore surrounding the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor (#5) fight, probably mostly as a result of an interview he gave prior to the fight in which he predicted Conor McGregor (#2), would get "killed". If he was right, it again indicates that the editors of Deaths in 2017 (#11) need to pay closer attention, as I cannot find him listed there anywhere.

Exclusions

• 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.