Summary: Despite a flurry of caucuses this week (most of which were won by Bernie Sanders, who capped the week by becoming the least likely Disney Princess in history), a lack of debates means that interest in politics among our viewers has ebbed. And with next week being a rare fallow period in the primary season, that means that *gasp* we might not have to talk about politics! For a while. Which, given the reactions we've been getting, would be a breather—I can tell you. Of course, we still have to talk about Donald Trump, though whether his presence on this list is actually due to politics is debatable. In other news, numbers are down for Easter this year, which is odd, given the lack of interest in politics. Fittingly, death continues to be a companion of Eastertide, with Garry Shandling and Johan Cruyff both dying this week. The second season of the Netflix/Marvel collaboration Daredevil finally got a decent airing on this list, having been hobbled in views by an awkward release date (the entire season was released at once on March 18, two days before this list's timeframe).
For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of March 20 to 26, 2016, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice | 3,152,933 | Warner Bros might have cause to breathe again for the first time in three years, as their tent-pole gamble and hopes for an entire franchise have, it seems, paid off. Maybe. With $420 million earned worldwide in its first week, the official founding stone for DC's cinematic universe has gone down a storm, with the studio's highest ever domestic opening weekend. But, having cost an estimated $400 million to make and market, this movie will have to make $800 million worldwide just to break even, and after earning an atrocious "B-" Cinemascore from male fans, and a dismal 29% RT score, it's uncertain whether this storm will end up more of a squall. | ||
2 | Donald Trump | 1,480,800 | OK. What did he do this week? Not much, actually. Except insult Ted Cruz's wife Heidi for being unattractive. To be fair, he did this in response to a Cruz-aligned superPAC posting a nude photoshoot that Trump's model wife Melania did for GQ years ago, along with implicit slut-shaming and insinuations she was unfit to be First Lady (they must have never heard of Carla Bruni). Cruz was quick to distance himself from that image, and to defend his wife, calling Trump a "snivelling coward", but it seems Wikipedia viewers aren't listening. Ted and Heidi rank at 61 and 82 on the raw list, respectively, while Melania is at 32. | ||
3 | Garry Shandling | 1,227,744 | The popular comedian, whose groundbreaking sitcom/talk show hybrid The Larry Sanders Show was an early hit for HBO and widely considered one of the best TV comedies of all time, died this week at the age of 66. | ||
4 | Good Friday | 797,456 | The darkest moment of Easter week, this commemorates (despite its name, "celebrates" isn't really the right word) the Passion (torture and crucifixion) of Jesus Christ, as opposed to Easter Sunday which celebrates his resurrection. | ||
5 | Johan Cruyff | 754,660 | This hugely respected Dutch footballer, who spent most of his career at Ajax and Barcelona, both as player and manager, died this week at the age of 68. Considered by many to be one of the best footballers of all time, he presided over the rise of his country from a minnow to a footballing superpower in the 1970s. | ||
6 | Bluetooth | 702,091 | As learned on Reddit this week, the ubiquitous wireless technology was named after Harold Bluetooth, who first unified Denmark in the tenth century. Its logo is the bind rune that forms his initials. Despite the technology having originated with the Swedish company Ericsson, the name was coined by an American employee at Intel. | ||
7 | Punisher | 669,723 | After years in B- and C-movie purgatory, Marvel Comics's most merciless antihero finally got a decent mainstream adaptation, thanks to a primary plot thread on this season of Daredevil and a surprisingly sympathetic portrayal by The Walking Dead's Jon Bernthal. | ||
8 | Deaths in 2016 | 658,762 | The annual list of deaths has always been a fairly consistent visitor to this list, averaging about 500,000 views a week. Since the death of David Bowie, this article's average weekly views have jumped. | ||
9 | Daredevil (season 2) | 601,562 | Numbers are up this week for the Marvel/Netflix series, which suggests that, despite critics' claims of a sophomore slump, interest may be more prolonged than I originally thought. | ||
10 | Elektra (comics) | 593,434 | The impractically underdressed ninja assassin from the Daredevil comics got her introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe last week, played by French/Cambodian actress and karate expert Élodie Yung. |
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