Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (December 29, 2013 to January 4, 2014)

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Summary: A high number of human faces this week, as viewers were inspired to see the individuals behind current pop-culture. Niki Lauda stepped out from his portrayal in Rush to speak for his comatose friend, Michael Schumacher, whose condition has become a beacon of international concern. The sudden death of actor James Avery led to a flood of sympathy and remembrance, while the return of Sherlock led to renewed interest in its rising star, Benedict Cumberbatch. A number of faces returned to the list: Jennifer Lawrence looks to be as much of a presence in 2014 as she was in 2013, while Anderson Silva's second defeat to Chris Weidman led fans to flock to his page.

For the week of December 29 to January 4, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages* were:

Rank	Last	Wks	Article	Class	Views	Notes
1	-	-	James Avery (actor)		624,917	The much loved actor who played Will Smith's uncle Philip Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (and voiced the Shredder in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series) died unexpectedly on New Year's Eve, sparking an outpouring of affection.
2	-	-	Michael Schumacher		624,452	The man whom many regard as the greatest Formula One driver of all time is now in a critical condition and a medically induced coma after an off-piste skiing accident. As of this writing, his condition is described as stable, though naturally fans are desperate for updates.
3	-	-	Sherlock (TV series)		607,049	The contemporary-set revamp of the Sherlock Holmes mythos has become a surprise global hit (and turned its star, Benedict Cumberbatch into an international sex symbol) and is now watched in 200 countries and territories (out of 254), so it's not surprising that its much ballyhooed return from a two-year hiatus was met with feverish anticipation.
4	5	2	Jordan Belfort		514,459	Onetime stockbroker who spent 22 months in prison for running a penny stock boiler room, he went on to write the books that the film The Wolf of Wall Street is based on. Yes, he did actually call himself "The Wolf of Wall Street".
5	4	52	Facebook		410,816	A perennially popular article
6	23	15	Breaking Bad		401,159	People just can't let this show go. The most Wikipedia'd show of the year ended for good two months ago; even so, with its appearance on countless "best of the year" lists, and an unexpected endorsement from US President Barack Obama, it's still drumming interest from the public. On December 27, AMC began a four-day marathon, showing all 62 episodes.
7	10	2	The Wolf of Wall Street (2013 film)		308,837	Martin Scorsese's acclaimed account of one person's contribution to our general economic misery opened to a respectable $34 million on Christmas Day.
8	17	2	American Hustle (2013 film)		286,132	David O. Russell's star-studded 70s art-forgery caper is getting strong reviews and decent box office, having grossed $90 million domestic in its first 24 days.
9	-	-	UFC 168	Unassessed	355,541	The rematch between Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman, who took the UFC Middleweight Championship title when he knocked Silva out last July, again went to Weidman, to much general dismay it seems, as it was Silva everyone looked up.
10	18	4	Frozen (2013 film)		321,251	Disney's de facto sequel to Tangled has become something of a sensation. It reclaimed the top spot in the US charts on its sixth weekend (a feat only matched by Avatar and Titanic) and has already outgrossed its erstwhile predecessor, having grossed nearly $650 million worldwide.
11	11	4	Dhoom 3		327,060	No, not Doom 3, the surprisingly scary demonic blow-em-up video game, but the third installment of the Dhoom series, a hugely successful Bollywood buddy cop movie franchise involving hi-tech crime. Like many recent Bollywood films, it has broken box-office records, and is currently the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time worldwide, taking in a staggering $78 million in just 16 days. To put that in perspective, the former world box office record holder, Chennai Express, made $60 million in its entire run.
12	8	33	List of Bollywood films of 2013	List	325,131	An established staple of the top 25.
13	-	-	"Auld Lang Syne"		315,126	Users this week rushed to the article on Robbie Burns's ode to long-forgotten friendships, either to learn its history or, equally likely, to finally learn all the lyrics in time for New Years.
14	22	15	United States		291,803	The 3rd most popular Wikipedia article between 2010 and 2012, and even when not on the list, a perpetual bubble-under-er. Not really surprising that the country with by far the most English speakers would be the most popular on the English Wikipedia.
15	-	2	Anderson Silva		280,492	Wikipedia apparently loves a loser; Silva's second defeat to Chris Weidman also led to his second appearance in the top 25.
16	21	7	Jennifer Lawrence		271,419	Wikipedia's favourite actress needs little excuse to reenter the top 25, though she has many this week, with two films in the weekend box office top ten (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and American Hustle).
17	-	-	List of Sherlock episodes	List	264,607	Fans of Sherlock are eager to keep up with the show.
18	15	3	Arvind Kejriwal		294,274	India faces a general election this year, and the choices are not pleasant. The economy is slowing while unemployment is rising. The ruling Congress Party is widely regarded as ineffectual and nepotistic. The populist opposition leader, Narendra Modi, has an excellent economic record as governor of the state of Gujarat but is also a staunch Hindu nationalist who stood back when a pogrom against Muslims in his state claimed over 1000 lives in 2002. Cue Arvind Kejriwal, a former member of the Indian Revenue Service whose newly-formed Aam Aadmi Party won 28 seats in last month's Delhi Legislative Assembly election. The party is running on a populist, anti-corruption platform, but it remains to be seen whether it will have any traction outside of Delhi.
19	-	-	Quenelle (gesture)		255,629	To some French people, this new gesture (essentially equivalent to "the finger") is a provocative symbol of anti-establishment defiance; to others, it's a half-baked Nazi salute in a country where performing the real thing is illegal. While the debate has been raging for months, it gained particular venom on December 30, when a photo emerged of a man making the gesture outside a school in Toulouse at which three Jews were murdered.
20	-	2	Niki Lauda		254,622	Having already appeared in the top 25 last year thanks to his portrayal in Ron Howard's Rush, he appeared again after speaking on behalf of his injured friend, Michael Schumacher (see above).
21	-	-	Benedict Cumberbatch		245,618	The eponymous star of Sherlock (see above) isn't usually mentioned in the same breath as Tom Cruise, but perhaps it's time he was; Star Trek Into Darkness was sold on his value alone, and, reportedly, he is his own unwitting subgenre of Chinese erotic fiction.
22	-	9	India		242,832	The second-largest English-speaking population on Earth is a regular visitor to the top 25.
23	-	8	List of Breaking Bad episodes	List	238,816	People are likely turning to this page to keep up with the marathon.
24	6	61	Deaths in 2014	List	234,971	The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article.
25	-	2	James Hunt		234,129	Interest in Niki Lauda probably spilled onto his rival.

Number of views needed to reach Top 25 this week: 234,129. Last week: 242,661.

The revision of WP:5000 containing the data used to create this list.

Almosts: Wikipedia (231,383 views); The Hobbit (film series) (227,016 views); List of Doctor Who serials (220,780 views)

Exclusions

This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages, and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Please keep in mind that the explanations given for these articles' popularity are, fundamentally, guesses. Just because I can't find a reason for an article to be included doesn't mean there isn't one; conversely, just because a plausible reason is found for a view spike, that doesn't mean it wasn't due to a bot.

There are a number of articles that reappear frequently in the top 25 for no determined reason, and have been excluded as likely being due to automated views. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish.
- Lycos: the geriatric web portal seems to be back en vogue, for no apparent reason.
- Java: My only guess is a bot searching for the programming language.
- Several articles related to global warming (including global warming) have been removed from this list; their continued high view counts are raising suspicions of artificial inflation. I'll believe that Climategate was #1 during a typhoon, but that it got more hits than Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving? No.
- Alive/Alive!: Links to disambigs with no apparent reason for being.
- HTTP: actually a redirect, which means it's unlikely due to human activity
- Next-generation access: Why this continues to spike, apparently at random, is still uncertain
- Meat/Vegetarian cuisine: another mysterious reappearance, most likely due to bots.

Specific exclusions this week:
- Cher: I love Cher. Everyone loves Cher. And she's always in the news. So figuring out why she spiked at this particular time is not easy And since grok.se was down this week, I couldn't tell her appearance was a one-day spike (suspicious) or a gradual rise (not suspicious). Was it something to do with her upcoming tour, announced in September and starting in March?