Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/June 14 to 20, 2015

Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (June 14 to 20, 2015)

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Summary: Media once again dominated this week, as multiple IPs brought heavy presence to the list, but none were able to dominate. Unsurprisingly, the biggest opening weekend of all time led Jurassic World to the top slot, but with only four slots in the top 25 its presence was weaker than expected. Television was the true battlefield, as the season finale of Game of Thrones, coincided (though arguably not coincidentally) with the season première of Orange is the New Black. The latter show's heavy focus on gay relationships and casting of gay and transgender characters had resonance with current events, while the list's focus on the book series shows that Game of Thrones viewers are beginning to wonder where the show is headed without George R R Martin's still-unfinished next novel to guide it. Sport was also represented by the victory of the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, and in the remarkable progress of the England and American teams in the women's soccer World Cup. The 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta brought a rare dose of actual encyclopaedic content to the list, while the apparently serious attempt by Donald Trump to run for the Presidency got him some notice, though probably less than he wanted.

As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of June 14 to 20, 2015, 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 Jurassic World   2,575,845
 
In this era of duelling gargantuas, when Hollywood risks $200 million budgets on a whim and triple-digit opening weekends are a seasonal event, the financial achievements of the first Jurassic Park seem somewhat pallid. And yet, it was for a time the most successful film ever made, and more importantly, formed the prototype for the modern blockbuster; massive, frontloaded opening weekend, brushfire earnings and supercharged ancillaries. And now, after Furious 7 and Avengers: Age of Ultron made substantial dents in the US GDP, Jurassic World has arrived to show that its ageing franchise is perfectly capable of holding its own in today's hostile environment. Its $208 million opening weekend was the biggest of all time, though at just $1 million above the previous record set by Marvel's The Avengers back in 2012, it wasn't exactly a killing blow. Still, it managed to also claim the highest second weekend gross of all time as well, showing that it may well be on the way to repeating the performance of its ancestor. Today, the Jurassic franchise is just one monster among many, but it has shown that it still has the right to reign.
2 Ruby Rose   1,792,138
 
The Australian model and actress has been in the media thanks to her role in the new series of Orange is the New Black and her public challenging of traditional gender roles. She came out as a lesbian at the age of 12 and identifies as genderfluid. Her androgynous appearance has led many straight women to declare an attraction to her, which has angered some gay activists, who argue that homosexuality is not a choice.
3 Stephen Curry   1,402,288
 
On June 16, this record-breaking basketball wunderkind finally led the Golden State Warriors to their first NBA championship title in four decades after beating LeBron James's Cleveland Cavaliers. Unsurprisingly, he was named MVP as a reward.
4 Orange Is the New Black   1,201,173
 
The third season of the women-in-prison TV series premièred in its entirety on Netflix on June 11.
5 Magna Carta   1,169,153
 
800 years ago this week, at Runnymede in south-eastern England, the feckless King John was humbled by his barons into ceding to them a fraction of his power. The document he signed, the Great Charter of the Liberties, has been recognized ever since as one of the first steps towards the establishment of the rule of law. In recent years its precedents, in particular clauses 36, which prefigured habeas corpus law, 38, which declared that no one could be placed on trial without witnesses, and 39, which outlawed seizure and detention without trial by jury, have been cited against government policies enacted during the War on Terror.
6 Game of Thrones   1,087,720
 
The finale of this highly polarising season aired on June 14. The show must now navigate uncharted territory, as George R. R. Martin's text cannot guide them. Maybe he will actually manage to publish his next book this year. Yeah, and maybe Jon Snow is really dead.
7 2015 Copa América   991,613
 
South America's quadrennial international soccer competition got underway on June 11. This week saw the suspension of Brazil's top player, Neymar. And while I am not actually supposed to know this yet, that may have had something to do with Brazil crashing out of the tournament to Paraguay.
8 Game of Thrones (season 5)   951,012
 
See #6.
9 Laverne Cox   770,627
 
Another star of Orange is the New Black who identifies as transgender, she is the first transgender actress to be nominated for an Emmy in that category.
10 Chris Pratt   758,870
 
The former Parks and Recreation star cemented his rise to Hollywood stardom after making a splash with Guardians of the Galaxy by securing a lead role in Jurassic World.
11 List of Game of Thrones episodes   745,469
 
See #6.
12 Jurassic Park (film)   727,642
 
The first in the Jurassic series was lifted by the success of Jurassic World.
13 List of Orange Is the New Black episodes   713,172
 
See #4.
14 Golden State Warriors   677,541
 
The California basketball team were acknowledged for their role in helping Stephen Curry win the NBA Championship.
15 United Passions   651,963
 
For some ineffable reason understood only by the most rarefied of philosophers, Fifa, the governing body of world soccer, decided to release this $29 million orgy of self-funded propaganda in the least soccer-obsessed country on Earth. Not only that, it chose to do so in the same week Sepp Blatter, its chief executive (and star of the film, as played by Tim Roth), resigned under a cloud of suspected corruption. A more perfect storm of box office bombitude could hardly be conceived. Even so, upon its release, the film broke a record that I, personally, did not think was breakable anymore; the lowest opening weekend gross of all time, at just $918. And in defense of the rest of the world, the film also bombed internationally, taking in less than $200,000 in overseas markets. So I suppose it's not just about the soccer then.
16 Donald Trump   626,629
 
The bombastic real estate developer and media personality made his fourth push for the US Presidency this week, and this time he appears to mean it. Given that his public pronouncements have included such lines as "There is no Iraq; I don't have any respect for them", "I will stop charging for [Mexico]'s products, the wall will go up and Mexico will start behaving," and "There is nobody bigger or better at the military than I am", Jon Stewart was ecstatic that Trump's Presidential run would make his last few months hosting The Daily Show so easy.
17 A Song of Ice and Fire   618,536
 
With Game of Thrones's fifth season over, people returned once more to the books that inspired it, perhaps in hope that the next book, The Winds of Winter will appear soon enough not to break the show's continuity. It won't, but that's hope for you.
18 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup   608,687
 
This site caters mainly to the English-speaking world, and despite having invented soccer (and most other major team sports come to that) the Anglosphere hasn't had much to sing about as far as that sport is concerned. Until now. I'm playing crystal ball here a bit, but this marks the first time both the English and American national teams have reached the World Cup semi-finals, something the English men's team hasn't done since 1990 and the US men's side hasn't done since 1930. Here's hoping they inspire their nations enough for them to start taking women's football seriously.
19 Money in the Bank (2015)   557,973
 
The latest WWE pay-per-view pantomime was held on June 14 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio
20 The Winds of Winter   555,079
 
The next volume in George R R Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire series has become a more sought after mythical entity than the White Walkers. Given the author's notoriously slow release schedule, it is unlikely to be released until next year. Or the year after that. Or the year after that. Maybe. This places the makers of the TV show in a bind, as they have no more written material to work from.
21 Andre Iguodala   533,035
 
The man generally acknowledged to have been Stephen Curry's right hand during the final game that clinched the Warriors the NBA title got some well-deserved attention too.
22 Deaths in 2015   515,554
 
The viewing figures for this article have been remarkably constant; fluctuating week to week between 450 and 550,000, apparently heedless of who actually died.
23 Facebook   502,986
 
A perennially popular article.
24 Sense8 Unassessed 448,193
 
The new series, directed by the Wachowskis and co-written by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, premièred in its entirety on Netflix on June 5. The story, which concerns eight random people from around the world who develop psychic links to one another, hasn't wowed the critics, but audiences seem to have taken to it.
25 Bryce Dallas Howard   438,373
 
The actress daughter of director Ron Howard has been off the radar for a few years, but she's back in the limelight this week thanks to her performance in Jurassic World.

Exclusions

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  • 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 also 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. 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.
  • Directoire style: An odd, 5-day spike and a suspiciously low 10% mobile count suggest this is fake.