The Top 25 Report
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (August 14 to 20, 2016) edit
← Last week's report – Next week's report →
From Phelps to Bolt: The Olympics reigned again this week, shifting from swimming to track as the games came near their end. Seven of the Top 10 slots are Olympic-related, as are 15 of the Top 25. But somehow the incomprehensible internet meme Killing of Harambe still creeped in at #25.
In technical news in follow-up from earlier this month, we are happy to report that this report is now using data from a revamped WP:5000 report which uses WMF's newer data feeds, thanks to Chief Traffic Data Guru West.andrew.g (not an official title). All WP:5000 reports have been re-run for 2016 and are available in that page's history. So far we don't expect the changes to have a significant effect on our charts, though it may help us exclude some spider/bot traffic, and may include Wikipedia Zero traffic not captured before. Unfortunately, however, the new WMF data does not keep records of red link hits, so the WP:TOPRED report has been retired.
As prepared by Milowent, for the week of August 14 to 20, 2016, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the newly-revamped WP:5000 report were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Usain Bolt 
3,103,335 
The rhythm of the Summer Olympics went according to prediction. As swimming and Michael Phelps (#3) finished up, track took over, and Bolt took center stage, winning gold in both the 100m and 200m, for the third straight time. And he also won his third straight gold in the 4 × 100 m relay. Being regularly called the "greatest sprinter of all time" is not hyperbole at this point. An impressive 3.1 million views to lead the chart, though well shy of the astounding 5.4 million views Phelps got last week. 2 2016 Summer Olympics 
2,125,265 
Holding steady at #2 for a second week, a drop of about 150,000 views. 3 Michael Phelps
1,946,890 
Down from #1 last week. 4 P. V. Sindhu
1,858,843 
Last week we noted that although India at the 2016 Summer Olympics was at #23 (#16 this week), the country had won no medals yet. Sindu became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal, in badminton. (And to tell you how lame American television coverage is, I had no idea badminton was a sport in the Olympics.) Sindhu was one of only two medalist from India, the second being a bronze won by female wrestler Sakshi Malik. Of course India's lack of medal haul regularly produces articles asking why. They are just SPORTS people. Let's celebrate those who compete and shine. 5 Suicide Squad (film)
1,254,079 
DC Comics' ramshackle crew of press-ganged 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, which was released on August 5 to generally negative reviews. Nonetheless, it grossed $267 worldwide in its opening weekend. 6 Simone Biles
935,583 
The 19-year-old Olympic first-timer from America completed her medal haul with four golds (including the team competition) and one bronze. 7 Stranger Things (TV series)
920,502 
This Netflix science-fiction series is basically an 8-hour homage to early 80s kid-centric flicks like E.T., The Goonies and Explorers, though aimed mostly at adults. It has been a smash hit for Netflix, evidenced by its continuing appearance on this chart -- five straight weeks. The Internet has seized on even the most mundane facets of the show, such as turning minor character "Barb" into a celebrity. 8 2012 Summer Olympics medal table 
874,861 
With over 250,000 more views than 2016 Summer Olympics medal table (#18). Everyone likes to do their statistical comparison it seems. 9 Decathlon
850,348 
The competition in this traditional Olympic event was won by American Ashton Eaton (#12). Women compete in the seven-event heptathlon. Both events derive from the five-event pentathlon of the Ancient Olympic Games. 10 Rustom (film) 
780,159 
This Indian crime thriller featuring Akshay Kumar (pictured) was released 12 August 2016. 11 Justin Gatlin
769,553 
The American sprinter took second to Bolt in the 100m. But in the 4 × 100 m relay a botched hand-off to Gatlin in the second leg caused the U.S. to be disqualified. And for those watching on American television, it infuriatingly came after a ridiculous touchy-feely video of the team members decrying their prior screwups, when it was obvious that Jamaica was going to win the whole time, screwups or not. 12 Ashton Eaton 
766,113 
The American winner of #9 at #2. 13 Ryan Lochte
764,960 
The best swimmer in the world who isn't Michael Phelps won the gold in the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay. Sadly he's on this list because he also makes some ridiculously silly decisions in life, and claiming he was robbed in Rio is the latest of those decisions. 14 Olympic Games 
721,409 People were probably looking for the latest Olympic Games. 15 Whale fall
706,630 
Just the odd article name tells you its Reddit. 16 India at the 2016 Summer Olympics
674,308 
Up from 414K views last week. See #4. 17 Drew Barrymore
651,078 
Reddit and nudity. 18 2016 Summer Olympics medal table
616,856 The U.S. got the most. 19 Deaths in 2016
616,041 
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. 20 All-time Olympic Games medal table
736,339 
"Guess which country's on top. No really, you'll never guess. Afghanistan! Because the list is alphabetical." Seren used that line last week and it cracked me up. 21 Sausage Party
592,742 
It is the first CGI-animated film to be rated R (for Restricted) in the United States. This project first got press coverage in 2010, and people were skeptical about whether it was a hoax, as a "sausage party" is a euphemism for a party predominated by males. Yet, on a budget of $19 million, its already grossed $77 million. It has even gotten positive reviews. 22 2020 Summer Olympics
580,233 
The next summer Olympics will be in Tokyo in 2020. Interestingly, this article has existed since 2005, when it survived a deleted discussion. Eleven years later, the article is completely different, and continues to document the approach toward the next summer games. 23 Mohenjo Daro (film)
573,402 
The lead sentence of this article says it is a "2016 Indian epic adventure-romance film written and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker." I love seeing how movies get described in their first sentence, and this one seems extra special, doesn't it? It was released on August 12, and despite being an epic adventure romance film, it received generally negative reviews. 24 Mohenjo daro
564,866 
Presumably due to #23. 25 Killing of Harambe
560,906 
Oh please internet. I am tired of the Olympics, but I would have rather seen #26, Carolina Marín, who defeated #4 for badminton gold, appear here instead.
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Exclusions edit
- 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.