In the US, Memorial Day marks the unofficial beginning of summer, and summer is definitely on people's minds this week, with summer films Godzilla and X-Men: Days of Future Past, the apparently designated summer song "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea, and summer TV show, Game of Thrones. The Indian general election is only fading slowly, understandably as its effects have yet to be fully felt.
For the full top 25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation for any exclusions.
For the week of May 18 to 24, 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 | Mary Anning | 
|
1,750,729 |  |
She sells seashells by the seashore. She was Mary Anning, who not only found and sold fossil seashells but also identified the first ichthyosaur (at age 12!) and the first plesiosaur. A victim of the gender and class prejudice of her time, she didn't get the recognition she deserved until after her death; an oversight Wikipedia viewers have gone some way to correcting thanks to a birthday Google Doodle on 21 May. |
| 2 | Godzilla (2014 film) | 
|
797,814 |  |
It seems that Hollywood's trust in Gareth Edwards, director of the microbudget scifi flick Monsters, was well placed, as his take on the Godzilla mythos has emulated its eponymous hero, stomping the box office to dust with $93 million in three days. Critics seem to like the movie too; it's RT rating is currently 73%. Personally, I had issues with it, but then, what do I know? |
| 3 | Rubik's Cube |
|
766,499 |  |
Nothing is more likely to generate Wikipedia views than an interactive Google Doodle, and to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the ingenious puzzle, Google effectively rendered it irrelevant by constructing a fully solvable virtual version and releasing it online for everyone to try. |
| 4 | Steve Wozniak |
|
733,241 |  |
The co-founder of Apple Computer got a massive one-day spike on 18 May, the same day he published an open letter to the FCC demanding they retain net neutrality in the US. I'm usually suspicious of 1-day spikes with no tail-off, but this instance is at least explicable. |
| 5 | Amazon.com |
|
656,462 |  |
This article suddenly reappeared in the top 25 after a long absence, but at least it has a reason: Amazon Fire TV; a digital streaming device to watch online content on a HDTV. How it distinguishes itself from the three or four other such devices currently on the market is a matter of some dispute. |
| 6 | Narendra Modi |
|
544,033 |  |
Thanks to an effective ad campaign and a sound economic record as Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat, Modi led his Hindu nationalist BJP to victory with a stomping 282 (52%) seats. A Hindu nationalist and a member of the RSS, Modi is considered a controversial politician and debate still surrounds the extent of his role in the 2002 Gujarat riots during his tenure as Chief Minister. The Indian National Congress, the party that has mostly led India since its independence, came in second with 44 seats, its worst showing in any election in India's history. |
| 7 | Game of Thrones |
|
507,708 |  |
New seasons of this immensely popular show always draw people to Wikipedia. |
| 8 | Memorial Day | 
|
456,537 |  |
The last Sunday in May (that's May 26 this year), the day that the United States chose to honour its war dead, is perhaps better known as the traditional beginning of US summer vacation, and is thus eagerly anticipated by millions of people too young to serve but old enough to stand in line for action movies. |
| 9 | Game of Thrones (season 4) |
|
455,733 | |
This is the page with the plot synopses for each episode. |
| 10 | Iggy Azalea |
|
432,512 | The Australian/American rapper released her debut album, The New Classic on 21 April, but probably re-entered the top list due to an earpiece malfunction during a performance of her single "Fancy" on Dancing With The Stars |
Discuss this story
Why is item #9 (Game of Thrones, season 4) shown as "start" class, when the its talk page shows it as "C" class? (The talk page hasn't been edited for over a month.) -- John Broughton (♫♫) 14:19, 1 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Good, no start-class articles with lots of traffic this week.--Seonookim (What I've done so far) (I'm busy here) (Talk with me) 16:29, 2 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]