This was very much a week dominated by holidays and pop culture over current events, with new film Interstellar taking the top spot followed by holidays Day of the Dead (#2), Guy Fawkes and his Night (#4 and #5), and Halloween (#8, and its third week on the list). And a foursome of television shows, all return visitors, appear to setting up residence on the greater Top 25: The Walking Dead (#11), American Horror Story: Freak Show (#14), Gotham (#16), and The Flash (#18).
For the full top 25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions.
For the week of 2-8 November, 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 | Interstellar (film) | 
|
1,513,535 |  |
Up from #20 and 406,735 views last week, this science fiction film directed by Christopher Nolan was widely released on 7 November. It earned $52.1 million in its opening weekend in North America, but was edged out by Disney's animated Big Hero 6 (which comes in on the Top 25 at #24). |
| 2 | Day of the Dead | 
|
851,429 |  |
Up from #13 and 465,760 views last week. With its joyful juxtaposition of the merry and the macabre, the Mexican Halloween is becoming ever more popular in its northern neighbour (the land that turned Halloween into a global phenomenon) no doubt aided by the increasing Latino presence there. (Last year the holiday topped out at #4). |
| 3 |
|
690,133 | .JPG) |
A perennially popular article, as it is the second most popular website in the world, after Google. | |
| 4 | Guy Fawkes | 
|
677,205 |  |
In the week of his eponymous night, which came in at #5, interest usually also spikes in the man himself. Whereupon our readers can learn that the only reason he's been vilified as a master criminal for the last 400 years is because he was the only one of his terror cell who was stupid enough to get caught. |
| 5 | Guy Fawkes Night |
|
650,755 |  |
Falls annually on 5 November, see also #4. |
| 6 | Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare | 
|
600,523 |  |
This video game, primarily developed by Sledgehammer Games, was released on 4 November. It has received generally positive reviews from critics. The highest charting video game since Destiny hit #4 in September. |
| 7 | Wayne Static |
|
588,353 |  |
48-year-old American musician Wayne Richard Wells, known as Wayne Static, was the lead vocalist for metal band Static-X as well as a solo performer. He died on 1 November. This was originally reported to be caused by a drug overdose, though his family later issued a statement that his death was not drug related and happened during sleep. He is survived by his wife Tera Wray. |
| 8 | Halloween |
|
519,940 |  |
Down from #1 last week, Halloween completes its annual visitation to our list. |
| 9 | Deaths in 2014 | 
|
511,489 |  |
The list of deaths in the current year is always a popular article. Deaths this week included British clarinetist Acker Bilk (November 2); American radio personality Tom Magliozzi (November 3); American ceramics inventor S. Donald Stookey (November 4); French flamenco guitarist Manitas de Plata, pictured at left (November 5); Nepali film director Alok Nembang (November 6); Telugu writer Dwivedula Visalakshi (November 7); and Mexican sports commentator Hugo Sánchez Portugal (November 8). |
| 10 | Happy New Year (2014 film) |
|
490,472 |  |
Third week in the top 25. A Bollywood film starring Shahrukh Khan (pictured). |
Notes:
Discuss this story