Last week I predicted that the World Cup dominance on the report would be over—but I was wrong. The World Cup Final fell on the 13th of July, which was actually the first day of the week covered by this report, not the last day of the last report. Hence, five of the Top 10 this week are again World Cup related-topics.
However, this week also focuses on much more serious news including the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine and the ongoing fighting in and around the Gaza Strip, which is the cause of increased viewership of a number of related articles in the Top 10 and Top 25. Although Gaza Strip was only #7 this week, in the Top 25 you'll find Israel at #14, Hamas at #17, and Israeli–Palestinian conflict at #25. And the crash in eastern Ukraine not only led to Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 at #2 and Buk missile system at #3, but also caused renewed interest in the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (#19), and the 1988 shoot down of Iran Air Flight 655 at #22. Aside from football and these tragedies, the Top 10 is rounded out by the appearance of Nelson Mandela at #8 (July 18 was Mandela Day and celebrated by a Google doodle), and the recent science fiction film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes at #10, which just beat out "Weird Al" Yankovic for a place in the Top 10.
For the full top 25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation for any exclusions.
For the week of 13 to 19 July 2014, the ten 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 | 2014 FIFA World Cup | 
|
916,405 |  |
Down from 1,179,986 views last week, but still enough to lead the list. And since we've also determined that the views which Amazon.com has recently been getting (and put that article #1 last week) seem to be bot-influenced, it's been taken out of the running. |
| 2 | Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 | NA | 887,329 | .jpg) |
The tragic shooting down of this passenger aircraft over Eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014, killing all 298 aboard, makes it to #2 on the list this week with only three days of views. While Russian-backed media is frantically trying to offer alternative and even absurd explanations for this event, it seems quite likely that Russian-backed insurgents, who had recently downed some Ukrainian planes in the same area, mistook the Boeing 777 for a Ukrainian military plane (though Ukraine would like to call it a "terrorist act" like U.S. President Ronald Reagan did regarding Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in 1983). We can all agree it was a tragedy, however. A full investigation will need to take place, though that is being hampered by the lack of government authority and ongoing fighting in the region. |
| 3 | Buk missile system |
|
840,636 |  |
A missile fired from this Russian-developed surface to air missile system is the suspected cause of the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. View counts of this article spiked very understandably on the 17th, and remain well above normal. Interesting, though the normal daily view counts for this article were in in 200s-300s range in the two months prior to the crash, they did rise to the 600-900 view range in the three days before the crash, likely as a result of reporting that the insurgents in eastern Ukraine had recently obtained and were using this weapon. |
| 4 | FIFA World Cup | 
|
831,347 |  |
The broader article on the history of the World Cup competition continued to be accessed by people looking for World Cup information. |
| 5 | Germany national football team | 
|
641,544 |  |
Germany has now won four World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990, and 2014). |
| 6 | Lionel Messi | 
|
587,197 |  |
The Argentine forward and captain of the national team is a contender for the title of "best footballer on the planet", though he was unable to lead his team to victory in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final on July 13. Somewhat as a consolation, he was controversially given the Golden Ball award for being the best player of the tournament. |
| 7 | Gaza Strip |
|
505,588 |  |
The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas, part of a very long and complicated history of conflict, is no doubt the cause of the popularity of this article this week. The military operation is dubbed Operation Protective Edge by Israel. Hamas probably has a different term, I expect; indeed the Arabic wikipedia version of the Operation Protective Edge article is called "The War on Gaza (2014)". |
| 8 | Nelson Mandela |
|
504,588 | .jpg) |
July 18 was Nelson Mandela International Day, which was also celebrated this year with a Google doodle. |
| 9 | Mario Götze |
|
500,377 |  |
This German footballer with the stylish neckbeard scored the championship-winning goal for the German national team at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final on July 13. This was good enough to make the Top 10 this week. |
| 10 | Dawn of the Planet of the Apes |
|
467,674 | This American science fiction film, the sequel to 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes, was released in Australia on July 9 and the United States on July 11, with largely positive reviews from critics. It is up from #13 last week. |
If you've read this far, here are some additional notes of interest from the raw WP:5000, which is updated every week and is the source data for the Top 10 and Top 25 lists: Though Iran Air Flight 655 (#22) was the only other past air tragedy to make the Top 25 as a result of the crash in Ukraine, many other flight incidents had increased views this week, including Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (#65), Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 (#190), TWA Flight 800 (#238), Pan Am Flight 103 (#1002), Korean Air Lines Flight 902 (#1480), and United Airlines Flight 232 (#3956). For whatever reasons, these appear to be the prior air disasters that readers were most motivated to read up on.
It took 467,674 views to make the Top 10 this week, and 271,026 views to make the Top 25. That's rarefied air among our 4.5 million articles, of course. 193 articles received over 100,000 views this week, with Masters of Sex (#193) the last to do so. Gotham (TV series) (#640) was the last to break 50,000 views; Backstreet Boys (#2277) last to hit 25,000 (no jump in views caused this position, apparently the Backstreet Boys are steadily around the 2277th most important thing in the world these days); and the 2013 film G.I. Joe: Retaliation (#5000) was last to make the WP:5000, with 16,603 views.
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