The Top 25 Report

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (July 24 to 30, 2016)

← Last week's report – Next week's report →

Summary: The Democratic National Convention or DNC (not to be confused with the Democratic National Committee, or DNC) was held this week, and culminated in Hillary Clinton receiving her coronation as the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States; the first woman to be so named by a major political party in the US, though that string of qualifiers is a reminder of just how behind the rest of the world the US is in this regard. Unlike last week's Republican Convention, which saw a flood of interest in all things Trumpian, the DNC hasn't generated much traffic; numbers are down across the board, and Hillary got less than half the views her rival did. This weak showing allowed the traditional concern of the northern summer season, movies, to get a strong look-in, particularly toward the bottom of the list.

As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of July 24 to 30, 2016, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Notes
1	Hillary Clinton		1,331,698	One puzzling feature of this list over the last year is how little Hillary Clinton has appeared on it, despite the constant media hum of the 2016 election and the near omnipresence of her competitor. Some might argue that they already know everything they need to about her; after all, she's been a global figure for longer than many of our readers have been alive. But the same could also be said of Donald Trump, and interest in him has obviously not wained. At this point it is pretty much inarguable that people just aren't that keen on her. On paper, she is one of the most qualified people ever to run for President of the US; a former Senator and Secretary of State, as well as a politically active First Lady before then, first of Arkansas, then of the country. And yet, polls place her, at best, neck and neck with Donald Trump, a man with no political qualifications and no coherent policy goals who just this week told a dictator to commit espionage against his own country. Even now, in what should be her moment in the sun, crowned as her party's candidate, endorsed wittily by a beloved (by Democrats) President, and even supported by her onetime arch rival Bernie Sanders, she can't generate even half the views Trump got during his nomination, and he lost the top spot to his wife.
2	Kabali (film)		1,118,570	This Indian film (not Bollywood- it's in Tamil; Bollywood films are strictly Hindi) starring Rajinikanth (pictured) has, despite mixed reviews, smashed records in its first week of release, earning ₹3.2 billion ($48 million) worldwide and already placing itself as the second (or third, depending on the source) highest-grossing Tamil film ever.
3	Stranger Things (TV series)		1,110,852	This Netflix science-fiction series (basically an 8-hour homage to early 80s kid-centric flicks like E.T., The Goonies and Explorers) was released in its entirety on July 15 to positive reviews.
4	Donald Trump		1,022,010	To be fair, he was probably going to be on this list anyway; the timeframe includes the comedown from his convention spike. But there's no denying the sudden boost he got on 28/29 July, when he suggested on air that the Russians should hack Hillary Clinton's email server, making him arguably the first ever US presidential candidate to invite a foreign power to attack his own country.
5	Tim Kaine		1,018,201	Kaine, a current United States Senator, and former Governor from Virginia, was named as Hillary Clinton's vice-presidential candidate on July 22. I must say Kaine was not high on my radar because he does not showboat online, though the Wall Street Journal put him on Hillary's shortlist last month. Virginia is also a swing state, probably one Trump would have to win to have any chance of being elected.
6	Suicide Squad (film)		854,350	DC Comics' ramshackle crew of pressganged supervillains, forced to do the will of a shadowy organization or let their heads explode, are the stars of one of the most anticipated films in the nascent DC Cinematic Universe, due for release on 5 August.
7	Bill Clinton		849,257	The former President widely regarded as one of the most persuasive speakers in modern American politics drew on all his talents to support his wife's candidacy for his former position. Whether it worked or not is unclear; many were nonplussed by his oration, which, having begun with the phrase, "In the spring of 1971, I met a girl..", drew unintentional attention to his infidelities.
8	Chelsea Clinton		857,452	The woman who very well could become the first offspring of two US Presidents gave a warmly received speech in support of her mother's candidacy at the DNC.
9	Pokémon Go		806,097	The curiousest thing about Pokemon Go, at least for me, is how it has dissolved the barrier between video games and reality. Video games are the most popular entertainment medium in the world, but they have always been confined to certain spaces- that kid shouting abuse through his headset in his mother's basement; the harried mother catching some alone time on the bus; the family pulling out the console on Christmas Day. All easy to ignore. But now, the game has not only entered the outside world, but it has become the outside world- to the point where people who have never even contemplated playing a video game have found themselves pulled into this one, as their houses and places of business were transformed into gyms and Pokestops.
10	Star Trek Beyond		681,239	The latest in the Star Trek reboot film series has been holding steady for a second week. The film stars Chris Pine (pictured) as Captain Kirk, and was released on July 22 to positive reviews. It grossed over $117 million in its opening weekend, but has seen some pretty steep drops since then.
11	Battleground (2016)	N/A	614,849	WWE's latest pay-per-view pantomime was held on July 24, 2016 at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. (pictured).
12	Deaths in 2016		605,725	The views for the annual list of deaths are remarkably consistent on a day-to-day basis. It is consistently higher in the first half of 2016 with a string of highly notable deaths, but things seem to be calming down a bit.
13	Debbie Wasserman Schultz		544,133	So it turns out the supposedly neutral head of the Democratic National Committee was actually engaged in a clandestine effort to undermine Hillary Clinton's rival, Bernie Sanders. As shock surprises go, that must rank somewhere between "Santa isn't real" and "neither is wrestling". The DNC immediately acted to cauterise this bleed by handing Bernie's supporters her resignation on a platter, though this didn't stop a small contingent booing at inopportune moments. This destabilising bit of info came courtesy of Wikileaks, whose founder, Julian Assange, has a personal grudge against Clinton, likely with the silent collaboration of a Trump-backing Vladimir Putin. This has been a strange election.
14	Victoria Woodhull		537,607	The twice divorced "magnetic healer", stockbroker, alleged prostitute and advocate of free love and eugenics is possibly not who leaps to mind when you imagine the first woman to be nominated for US President, but if you think about it, only someone so idiosyncratic could have even entertained the idea back in 1872. She didn't win any electoral votes, but her run has become a totem for this election, with the first woman to have a realistic shot at the Oval Office securing her nomination. This isn't even Woodhull's first appearance on this list; she first appeared the week Clinton clinched her delegate count.
15	2016 Summer Olympics		518,928	Olympics are never an easy road, but Rio de Janeiro's first attempt at hosting has gone down paths not even seasoned watchers of the notoriously dysfunctional city could have predicted. Not only have the Olympics gone over schedule and over budget (that happens all the time) but they coincided with the impeachment of the President over an oil money scandal, the pumping of raw sewage into the sailing venue, a mass-doping scandal for the Russian team, and the sudden realization that the formerly unassuming Zika virus might actually be dangerous after all. All I can say, as a former resident of the Cidade Maravilhosa myself, is, have faith in the jeitinho, or "little help"; the grease that keeps the city's wheels moving by pretending they aren't there.
16	Blond		500,170	As learned in a Reddit thread this week, the gene for blond(e) hair emerged only 11,000 years ago as a means to enable greater Vitamin D synthesis in the dark climes of Northern Europe.
17	Clathrate gun hypothesis		491,399	A Reddit thread this week brought attention to one of the more terrifying potential feedback loops of global warming; as the oceans warm, frozen methane clathrate will be released into the atmosphere, triggering a massive surge in warming, as methane is an even more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. Thankfully, at least according to the thread responders, at current rates, the oceans are unlikely to warm enough to trigger the clathrate gun in less than a few hundred years.
18	Barack Obama		482,584	The man who, for the next 171 days, remains the President of the United States, much to the relief of many, I am sure, reminded us once again at the DNC why he is one of the best orators alive, as he used his preternatural skills to skewer his longtime rival and birth certificate hound, Donald Trump.
19	List of Steven Universe episodes		480,223	It's not often that kids' cartoons get on this list; My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic hasn't managed it in 5 years. But then, Steven Universe isn't exactly a kids' cartoon. In fact I'm not entirely sure I can explain what it is, but if you can imagine a magical girl anime remade in English with a gender-swapped lead, you can get some idea. The show has in the past been notorious for its patchy release schedule, and, as if in contrition, Cartoon Network are releasing new episodes of the show every day during the so-called "Summer of Steven". This has necessitated much checking of release times, hence the list's appearance here.
20	Jason Bourne (film)		474,263	Matt Damon returns to his signature franchise under his chosen director, Paul Greengrass to middling reviews and a solid $60 million opening.
21	Bourne (film series)		467,563	see above
22	Sultan (2016 film)		466,926	Back in the chart after a one-week hiatus. One big difference between Hollywood and Bollywood is that in Bollywood, stars still matter. And Salman Khan (pictured) rules the roost right now. His last big film, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, dominated Eid al-Fitr weekend and went on to make nearly $100 million. And now he's done it again. His latest, a wrestling drama, was also released on Eid and took in nearly ₹1.96 billion ($29 million) in its first six days.
23	List of highest-grossing Indian films		458,980	Once again, the summer box office in India has produced a string of record breakers, such as Sultan, Sairat and Kabali, so people want to check on their progress.
24	Ghostbusters (2016 film)		433,597	Prior to its release, the fact that a female-fronted reboot of the 1984 film Ghostbusters was being made caused a fair amount of complaining that struck many as absurd and misogynistic. The Internet likes to complain. It's just a fictional comedy movie about catching ghosts, it is not turning Fight Club into a feminist manifesto, and it cannot ruin anyone's childhood unless time travel is possible. With a cast featuring Melissa McCarthy (pictured), the film debuted on July 15 to mixed reviews and mixed returns. Box office is now up to $130.5 million as of July 27 on a budget of $144 million.
25	Justice League (2017 film)		426,043	Oh irony, how you do sweeten the breath of life. The Avengers began life as a blatant attempt by Marvel Comics to copy DC Comics's Justice League, and now, thanks to an ocean of ill-will built up from two Zack Snyder-directed DC Extended Universe films (stop the Butt-Head snigger; that's what we have to call it now) this upcoming film, whose trailer dropped this week, feels like a feeble attempt to copy The Avengers.

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 (~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. Since WP:5000 and WMF Topviews use different exclusion algorithms, articles that appear in one but not the other can also safely be excluded as false. 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.