Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-05-07/Traffic report

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By Serendipodous

For all the claims of Wikipedia bringing the world's knowledge to all who want it, it seems that the human race most wants a tabloid newspaper; a quick source for TV listings, pop culture facts, celebrity gossip and, above all, scandal—with some nice juicy racism thrown in too.

For the full top 25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation for any exclusions.

For the week of 27 April to 3 May, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages, were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Donald Sterling C-class 2,155,108 What's more likely to generate watercooler conversation than a racist outburst by a privileged aged white guy? A nonsensical racist outburst. If one does not wish to "associate with black people", as he put it, owning a basketball team is probably not the way to go. And if he doesn't want black people "brought to his games," one wonders how he deals with his team's roster, which currently consists of 12 black individuals and two Caucasians. He's been banned from the NBA, though that is unlikely to affect his revenue stream.
2 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 C-Class 618,326
For a sequel to a reboot no one asked for, this movie is proving very popular with the public; after finally opening in its home territory, it scored $35 million on its first day, on top of $155 million it has already earned overseas. It's not surprising that this was released in foreign markets before its home territory; the original Spider-Man made $822 million worldwide, with the domestic and international grosses split roughly 50/50. The rebooted Amazing Spider-Man (this film's predecessor) made $752 million worldwide, but with international grosses now comprising 2/3 the total. This radical shift in Hollywood's biosphere has taken place in just a decade, and it is already altering hunting strategies, for good or ill.
3 Bob Hoskins Start-class 593,143
Much loved and respected actor who passed away on 29 April. Although he played the quintessential well'ard Cockney in films like The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa, Hoskins was perhaps ironically best known for playing the American PI pastiche Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
4 Amazon.com B-Class 538,283
This article has been veering wildly (and suspiciously) around the view graph for several weeks, but at least now its presence on the list has a reason: Amazon Fire TV; a digital streaming device to watch online content on a HDTV. How it distinguishes itself from the three or four other such devices currently on the market is a matter of some dispute.
5 May Day B-Class 499,206
Before it was International Workers' Day, May Day, aka May 1, was a fount of odd and esoteric traditions.
6 Game of Thrones B-class 492,768
New seasons of this immensely popular show always draw people to Wikipedia.
7 Deaths in 2014 List 422,311
The list of deaths in the current year is always a popular article.
8 Man-Thing C-Class 407,317 Marvel Comics' monster-man, to whom DC's Swamp Thing, debuting 18 months later, would bear an uncanny resemblance, got some press after it was revealed he would appear in an upcoming episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
9 Shakira B-Class 372,839
The Colombian singer with the famously swiveling hips had a number of encounters with the media this week; between being the subject of a popular Reddit thread, being upstaged by Ariana Grande at the iHeartRadio Music Awards (see below), and posting a photo of her adorable toddler Milan on her Twitter feed, she's certainly made a splash amongst the cyber-chatterati, whether she intended to or not.
10 Game of Thrones (season 4) Start-Class 371,364
This is the page with the plot synopses for each episode.
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Now, now, this isn't tabloidish. I'm sure that more weighty articles about space travel, Ukrainian politics, hurricanes or Jane Austen get more views if measured over a longer span of time, like a year. I doubt many readers will check out Sterling's article two months from now. These are just intense bursts of interest so, of course, they will be, in large part, headline news and recent movie releases. But do you think many people will be reading about Spiderman 2 in July? Liz Read! Talk! 21:15, 9 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Well no; but I guess our relationship with readers plays out on a number of temporal levels, from day-to-day to longer-term patterns. Both aspects seem important. Tony (talk) 23:36, 9 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Last year's aggregate was pretty tabloid heavy. Be interesting to see if the pattern holds true this year. Serendipodous 23:43, 9 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Are these views per day, or per week? All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 18:07, 10 May 2014 (UTC).
Per week. Serendipodous 18:17, 10 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Me, too. I might work on policy pages, categories or articles while editing but if I want to read a TV show episode recap, I come to WP first and if there is nothing here, Wikia or other sites. Liz Read! Talk! 21:00, 12 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
My problem with this is that Wikipedia isn't designed to work as a TV listings guide; the main page isn't likely to remind readers when to catch the season finale of Game of Thrones. Perhaps this is something that should be created, designed with TV watchers, rather than college students in mind. Serendipodous 18:42, 13 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Recaps exist elsewhere, in abundance. That's the problem, fan sites going over-the-top with detail. Synopsis of TV shows on Wikipedia are between 1 and 4 sentences, usually. Just the main facts. I'm not arguing that they should or should not be in an encyclopedia, the fact is that they are here and so people check them out. Liz Read! Talk! 20:44, 13 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
It's a reference to TMZ. Serendipodous 15:54, 14 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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