The Hours are Ours: We now can get a far more accurate picture of which short surges in popularity are likely natural and which are not.
Thanks to Atlasowa, we now have a tool that enables us to see traffic at far higher resolution; not just day by day, but hour by hour. This means we can get a far more accurate picture of which short surges in popularity are likely natural and which are not, and frankly, it couldn't have come at a better time, since there were a lot of anomalous entries this week, most stacked helpfully near the top of the list. A side effect of this new perspective is that I will have to start including articles that fit the natural profile, even if I have no idea why they're there. So say hello to the new, less decisive, more inclusive Traffic Report.
For the full top 25 report, including exclusions, see WP:TOP25
For the week of 5–11 January, the 10 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 | Jordan Belfort | 
|
526,424 | Onetime stockbroker who spent 22 months in prison for running a penny stock boiler room, he went on to write the books that the film The Wolf of Wall Street is based on. Yes, he did actually call himself "The Wolf of Wall Street". | |
| 2 | Zora Neale Hurston | 
|
493,678 |  |
The famed early 20th century chronicler of black American folklore (including Hoodoo and the stories that inspired Uncle Remus) got a Google Doodle on her would-have-been 113th birthday on January 7 |
| 3 | Polar vortex | 
|
477,713 |  |
Despite being known about for years, the polar vortex became a buzzword overnight when it gallumphed onto the lower 48 this week, bringing its home clime to places less appreciative of its charms. |
| 4 | Sherlock (TV series) | 
|
473,438 |  |
The contemporary-set revamp of the Sherlock Holmes mythos has become a surprise global hit (and turned its star, Benedict Cumberbatch into an international sex symbol) and is now watched in 200 countries and territories (out of 254), so it's not surprising that its much ballyhooed return from a two-year hiatus was met with feverish anticipation. |
| 5 | Alliance (Firefly) |
|
456,430 | Why this Sino-American union of space opera overlords from the cult series Firefly suddenly gained nearly half a million views in just 16 hours I have yet to determine, but it does appear to have happened without robotic aid. | |
| 6 | Simone de Beauvoir |
|
447,882 | The French foundational feminist and existentialist got a Google Doodle on her would-have-been 95th birthday | |
| 7 |
|
434,746 | .JPG) |
A perennially popular article | |
| 8 | The Wolf of Wall Street (2013 film) |
|
419,781 | Martin Scorsese's acclaimed account of one person's contribution to our general economic misery opened to a respectable $34 million on Christmas Day, and has gone on to gross nearly $100 million. | |
| 9 | List of Doctor Who serials | List | 386,922 | With the Christmas special over, people are looking forward to the new season next autumn. | |
| 10 | Dennis Rodman |
|
363,203 | If there's one thing this five-time NBA Champion and two-time NBA All-Star knows other than basketball, it's how to draw attention to himself. Whether he's marrying himself, crotch-kicking cameramen, or stepping out on the Chicago Bulls midway the NBA Finals to go wrestling with Hulk Hogan, this guy is living proof that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Until now, perhaps. In 2013, he began making trips to North Korea, entertaining its basketball-mad dictator, Kim Jong-Un. After saying publicly that he would speak to him on behalf of jailed US citizen Kenneth Bae, Rodman backed down, and said that Bae was responsible for his incarceration. Upon returning to the US this week, he apologised for the comment, claiming he had been drunk. |
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