Often times in popular culture, a subject will be quite popular among a distinct niche of people or region of the world, but little-known elsewhere -- like a musical artist that is boasted to be "big in Japan". The Traffic Report provides a bevy of examples this week. The article on deceased singer Aaliyah was quite popular as the result of a new cable television movie about her life. The movie drew 3.2 million viewers, which was considered very successful. Though that figure only represents a very small fraction of the world's population, the attention was enough to make the article the second most popular one on Wikipedia this week. Meanwhile, in India, the marriage of the daughter of actor and screenwriter Salim Khan propelled his article to #9. And in the greater Top25, in the gaming world, a trailer video for Eve Online raised that game's profile to #17, and the new first-person shooter game Far Cry 4 debuted at #23. In Britain, the appearance of retired footballer Jimmy Bullard on a reality show brought him new attention and landed spot #19. And, last but not least, American wrestling fans raised their latest spectacle, Survivor Series (2014), to spot #25.
Competing for attention amidst the niche-driven articles was an assortment of topics of broader popularity, including the film Interstellar (#1), which is topping our list for the third straight week, news that imprisoned killer Charles Manson (#3) is getting married, the death of director Mike Nichols (#5), also husband of Diane Sawyer (#14), and the continuing troubles of comedian Bill Cosby (#6).
For the full top 25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions.
For the week of 16-22 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) | 
|
1,409,615 |  |
This movie remains Wikipedia's most popular article for the third straight week. Since opening on 5 November, it has grossed $120.6 million in North America, and almost $450 million worldwide. |
| 2 | Aaliyah | 
|
1,349,666 | Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B, a biopic about the American singer who died in 2001, debuted on the Lifetime cable network this week. It was quite successful, bringing in over 3.2 million viewers. | |
| 3 | Charles Manson |
|
1,308,091 |  |
On 17 November the world learned that this demented killer, who has been in prison for over 40 years, has recently obtained a marriage license to wed a 26-year old who has been visiting him in prison for over nine years, and who runs websites proclaiming Manson's innocence. |
| 4 | Stephen Hawking |
|
802,353 |  |
The Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, black hole theorist and latter-day science icon got a boost with the release of the biopic, The Theory of Everything, in the United States on 7 November. Up from #16 last week. |
| 5 | Mike Nichols | 
|
788,230 | This highly regarded American film and stage director died of a heart attack in New York City on 19 November. In 1968, Nichols won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate, and he had helmed a host of critically acclaimed movies, his last being 2007's Charlie Wilson's War | |
| 6 | Bill Cosby |
|
756,135 |  |
The American comedian probably had one of the worst weeks in his life, as allegations that he had sexually assaulted as many as 16 women in the past were the subject of renewed and more much high-profile attention, causing a planned new sitcom and comedy special to be sidelined. New allegations included those of former supermodel Janice Dickinson, who publicly alleged for the first time that Cosby drugged and raped her in 1982. It is difficult for many to square these burgeoning sordid tales of private life with the clean father-figure persona which Cosby represented for so many years. |
| 7 | Thanksgiving |
|
663,886 |  |
Down almost a million views from last week, but mobile views are up to 19.9% (from about 5% last week), suggesting that legitimate views are starting to overtake the spammer views which has affected the viewcounts of this article and others such as Online shopping which are connected to the biggest shopping season of the year in the United States. |
| 8 |
|
628,013 | .JPG) |
A perennially popular article, as it is the second most popular website in the world, after Google. | |
| 9 | Salim Khan | 
|
562,555 |  |
An Indian actor and screenwriter, the nuptials of his adopted daughter Arpita Khan (which link redirects to his article and got over 286,000 views itself) occurred this week, and have drawn much attention in India. |
| 10 | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 |
|
536,903 |  |
The third of four planned movies made from The Hunger Games trilogy starring Jennifer Lawrence (left) debuted this week. |
Discuss this story