Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-09-11/Traffic report

Traffic report

Syria, celebrities, and association football

Summary: While the Syrian Civil War crept its slow way into the minds of the public, with a new fourth related entry in the top 25, the top 10 remained dominated by celebrity, mainly sports and music. Two megabucks transfers stimulated public interest in football/soccer ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, while Lil Wayne's public apology ahead of his latest album release sent him to the top.

For the full top 25 plus exclusions, see WP:TOP25

For the week of September 1 - 7, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Lil Wayne B-class 662,661
After apologising to his fans on Twitter, Lil Wayne has gone from not receiving any BET Award or MTV Video Music Award nominations to coming tops in Wikipedia views.
2 Rosh Hashanah B-class 590,908
That's the Jewish New Year to the rest of us. Jews the world over ushered in the year 5774 on September 4.
3 Facebook B-class 580,025
A perennially popular article
4 Mesut Özil C-class 532,862
The German footballer was recently transferred to Arsenal FC for $67 million, which, for a presumed 5-year contract works out at roughly $1500 an hour.
5 Breaking Bad B-class 507,227
The final season of this acclaimed chemistry teacher-turned-Scarface TV series began on August 11.
6 Twerking Start-class 502,811 The new term for girls waggling their bottoms onstage continues to be a point of interest.
7 Syria C-class 468,913
The next Middle Eastern country in which the United States might become embroiled has continued to be a topic of interest this week.
8 John Wisden C-class 398,834
The star cricketer and creator of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack got a boost thanks to a Google Doodle on his 187th birthday on September 5.
9 Charlie Hunnam C-class 393,246
The English actor and Sons of Anarchy star saw his popularity soar after being cast in the title role of the film adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey.
10 Gareth Bale C-class 392,593
The Welsh footballer was just signed by Real Madrid for a reported 100 million euros ($133 million), an even more astronomical sum than that for the above Mesut Özil.