Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 2 to 8, 2014)

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Summary: Ah, sports! I am sure that I share with most Wikipedians a fairly good opinion of the roundness of my own knowledge, at least in certain areas. It is a bold mind indeed that embarks on a longterm Wikipedia career without first winning a few rounds of Trivial Pursuit. However, the one topic about which I can safely declare myself utterly clueless is competitive physical activity, as evidenced by the fact that most of my free time in front of a computer screen. So when two great sporting events, the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, collide in one week, transforming the top 25 into a festival of flying feet, a carnival of colliding caraniums and a bacchanal of bouncing balls, I find myself at the foothill of a rather large amount of research. So if the commentary seems a bit less colourful than usual, that's why.

For the week of February 2 to 8, 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	-	-	Philip Seymour Hoffman		4,755,765	The sudden, unexpected death of this intensely talented, Oscar-winning actor at age 46 sent ripples throughout the pop-culturesphere. Although the coroner has yet to confirm the cause of death, evidence found at the scene suggests that he relapsed into heroin use after a long abstinence.
2	-	-	Bruno Mars		1,190,624	Despite having only been on the scene for three years, this singer has already sold over 100 million records, and he shot into public consciousness this week not only by winning Best Pop Vocal Album at the Grammys, but by presiding over a widely praised Super Bowl halftime show.
3	-	2	2014 Winter Olympics		1,060,738	The 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony fell on February 7. Thanks to Russia's vicious anti-gay laws and roundly condemned political imprisonments, this has become, whether it wanted to or not, a lightning rod for modern civil rights protest.
4	-	-	Satya Nadella		800,101	The new CEO of Microsoft has a lot to deal with. Not only must he assume the mantle of a charismatic and universally known predecessor whose shadow will likely fall on all who follow him, he must re-orient a company designed for the PC market in a world now dominated by tablets and mobile devices. It's somewhat surprising to see him so high on this list, but again, the India effect doubtless played a role.
5	-	-	Russell Wilson		723,018	The defeat, or rout, if you prefer, by the Seattle Seahawks of the Denver Broncos that comprised this year's Super Bowl was distilled in the media to a battle between the two opposing quarterbacks- one a veteran approaching the end of his career, and this one, a neophyte who led his team to their first Super Bowl win ever.
6	-	-	Sochi		721,216	The sub-tropical resort that Vladimir Putin for some reason chose as the ideal location to host the Winter Olympics has become something of a talking point, given that it is one of the few places the entire country that doesn't get snow in the winter, leading to the slightly ridiculous scenario of a country that regularly sees double-digits below zero temperatures having to spray artificial snow.
7	-	2	Super Bowl XLVIII		672,744	And so the great American event enters the top 10 for obvious reasons.
8	-	-	Peyton Manning		610,853	5-time MVP who played for the Indianapolis Colts for 14 seasons who led the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl was framed in the media as the protagonist in mano a mano battle with opposing quarterback Russell Wilson (see above)
9	-	2	Woody Allen		606,319	The pioneer of narciscinema responded to an open letter from his onetime adopted daughter this week, dismissing accusations that he had sexually abused her, and reigniting smouldering debates about his behaviour.
10	7	57	Facebook		587,794	A perennially popular article
11	-	2	List of Super Bowl champions	List	528,870	Super Bowl XLVIII drew viewers' attention to winners past.
12	-	-	Super Bowl		503,868	Interest in the NFL's annual final confrontation was high this week, again for fairly obvious reasons.
13	15	66	Deaths in 2014	List	438,403	The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article.
14	-	-	Seattle Seahawks		427,258	The third-youngest team in the NFL won their first Super Bowl this week, thus bringing a touch of tough to the town of Microsoft, Frasier and Starbucks.
15	-	-	Mia Farrow		421,389	The waifish, doe-eyed actress, 60s style icon and UN ambassador came back into the public eye after accusations by her adopted daughter brought up never-quite-buried controversies about her ex-husband Woody Allen (see above)
16	-	-	Patrick Roy		401,704	The four-time Stanley Cup winner and current coach of the Colorado Avalanche hockey team got a rather suspicious oneday spike on 7 February, but it did occur the day after a rant of his about one of his team being sent off was caught on tape, so it might be to do with that.
17	6	6	Jordan Belfort		396,579	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".
18	-	-	Winter Olympic Games		381,611	It's a Good Article, but in truth most people searching for it are probably looking for this year's version.
19	-	-	Red Hot Chili Peppers		378,452	The funk band known for their vaguely homoerotic videos had a bit part in Bruno Mars's Super Bowl half time show (see above)
20	20	20	United States		346,251	The 8th most popular article of 2013 and the 3rd most popular Wikipedia article between 2010 and 2012. Even when not on the list, this article is 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.
21	22	26	IPv6		334,659	This was one of the most-viewed articles of 2013, and there remains a certain suspicion that, like many articles on technical subjects, it may be over-inflated. However, it is important enough to be given the benefit of the doubt. It is something of a crisis, though not one that is necessarily apparent. It may come as a surprise to some, but the Internet is, for lack of a better word, full. Every computer online is assigned a specific address, made up of a sequence of numbers, that allows other computers to contact it over the Internet. The original number sequence, known as IPv4, is currently the norm for ~99% of online computers. It allows for a maximum of about 4.3 billion addresses; a number that maxed out in January 2011. The long-term plan is to migrate over to IPv6, which allows for 3x10³⁸ addresses; however, since this would require a massive software and even hardware upgrade, many companies are reluctant to undertake it. Until now we've been stalling for time by harvesting abandoned addresses and re-allocating them, a decidedly short-term measure.
22	11	7	The Wolf of Wall Street (2013 film)		331,128	Martin Scorsese's acclaimed account of one person's contribution to our general economic misery opened to a respectable $34 million on Christmas Day, and has now made over $225 million worldwide.
23	-	-	Savannah (cat)		328,666	The serval/domestic cat crossbreed, which has been likened to a dog in both size and behaviour, became a topic of interest on Reddit this week.
24	19	9	Frozen (2013 film)		326,038	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 quasi-predecessor-but-one both domestically and worldwide, with a total of over $900 million. It won a Golden Globe for Animated Feature and seems a shoo-in for the Oscar. I must say I'm looking forward to the phenomenon fading, as it means I won't constantly hear that Madonna song in my head every time I do this.
25	-	-	Jay Leno		295,372	The avuncular host of The Tonight Show retired this week after 17 years, handing the reins to Jimmy Fallon.

Number of views needed to reach Top 25 this week: 295,372. Last week: 308,947.

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

Almosts: Bill Gates (291,067 views); Olympic Charter (287,161 views); Jackie Coogan (286,280 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.
- Pornography: It could be Wikipedia users returning to their old ways, but I'd rather nip this in the bud before it becomes the next Climatic Research Unit email controversy.
- 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.
Specific exclusions this week:
- Marcin Ignaczak: Ah the revenge of the Polish redlinks. Here's hoping it does not augur for a return to the bad days.