Summer of Pokémon, Trump, and Hillary

Summer of Pokémon, Trump, and Hillary

Your traffic reports for the weeks of July 10–16, July 17–23, and July 24–30.

For the full top-25 lists (and our archives back to January 2013), see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles every week, see WP:MOSTEDITED. For the most popular articles that ORES models predict are low quality, see WP:POPULARLOWQUALITY.

July 10–16, 2016

Let it Pokemon Go: Pokémon Go led the chart for a second week, with a substantial 4.7 million views. This is a flashback to people's complaints about Wikipedia circa 2005—that the site was dominated with Pokemon articles. Well, the world finally caught up to our advance research. Aside from the esport, politics and regular sports dominate the chart. Sports entries are split among Ultimate Fighting Championship articles; football, with the conclusion of UEFA Euro 2016; and tennis, due to Wimbledon. The lack of any Google Doodle or Reddit "Today I Learned" threads anywhere in the Top 25 this week seems unusual.

For the week of July 10 to 16, 2016, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 were:

Rank	Article	Views	Notes
1	Pokémon Go	4,778,652	Way up from 1.37 million views last week to lead the chart for a second week. Many non-players simply enjoy reading the stories of the ridiculous things happening due to it, such as people wandering into places not really appropriate for gaming such as cemeteries, neighbor's yards, and so on. Oh, and accidents. Until and unless someone dies, it is mostly harmless fun, right?
2	Theresa May	1,738,109	The new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. May had previously been the British Home Secretary since 2010, but the shockwaves of Brexit have been to May's benefit. That's the way history goes for individual people, mostly unpredictable except in hindsight.
3	Mike Pence	1,651,153	Don't tell Donald Trump (#23), but his newly announced vice-presidential candidate got far more views this week. Trump's media skills generated a great deal of interest in his VP pick, though there was some suggestion that he almost tried to back out of the Pence pick at the last minute. Though more conservative than Trump on social issues, the Governor of Indiana is generally considered a safe and stable selection by the Republican party, more so than the other reported finalists for the VP slot, Newt Gingrich and Chris Christie.
4	Sultan (2016 film)	1,220,923	Second week on the chart, with about 70,000 more views than last week. One big difference between Hollywood and Bollywood is that in Bollywood, stars still matter. And Salman Khan (pictured) rules the roost right now. His last big film, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, dominated Eid al-Fitr weekend and went on to make nearly $100 million. Now he's done it again: his latest, a wrestling drama, was also released on Eid and took in nearly ₹1.96 billion ($29 million) in its first six days.
5	UFC 200	1,139,080	Second week on the chart, as is typical of these UFC Saturday events. The latest in the mixed martial arts tournament series was held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (pictured) on 9 July. Headliner Amanda Nunes defeated Miesha Tate in the first round.
6	Bastille Day	977,775	The French national holiday has never made it on the Top 25 before, so sadly, its appearance is most likely due to the 2016 Nice attack.
7	Cristiano Ronaldo	946,953	Up from #21 last week. Playing for the Portugal national football team (#24), the man sometimes called the world's most famous athlete led his team to victory in the final of UEFA Euro 2016 (#10) over France, and earned the Silver Boot award.
8	Andy Murray	831,169	The men's singles winner at Wimbledon over Milos Raonic (#12) occurred on July 10.
8	Brock Lesnar	750,002	Lesnar defeated Mark Hunt in the heavyweight match at UFC 200 (#5).
10	UEFA Euro 2016	744,132	Numbers are down again this week, but its been a long run in the charts for this football tournament. Portugal won for the first time, on July 10.

July 17–23, 2016

Trumpapalooza: Last week's American news was dominated by the Republican National Convention, which could have been named the Trump Convention, because Trump family members were highlighted among the speakers every night. FIVE of the top ten slots this week are Trumps, even including Donald Trump's first wife, Ivana Trump (#8), who wasn't even at the convention. I cannot recall any prior instance of a single family dominating the chart like this. And outside the Top 10, two more Trump offspring made the list, plus Trump's second wife, Marla Maples, was #11.

For the week of July 17 to 23, 2016, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 were:

Rank	Article	Views	Notes
1	Melania Trump	2,990,596	How is The Donald not #1 this week? Well, his third wife gave a speech on Monday night at the Republican National Convention. This type of speech is usually non-controversial and helps humanize the candidate. This one kicked off a negative three day news cycle because the speech lifted some passages from Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. This fact was initially denied by the campaign (which to date is notorious for not being coordinated in its public statements), but finally admitted to on Wednesday, though blamed on one of Trump's employees, Meredith McIver, who has been the ghostwriter for a number of Donald's books.
2	Donald Trump	2,796,617	Trump is now officially the Republican nominee for President of the United States, and accepted the nomination in a lengthy speech on July 21.
3	Pokémon Go	2,029,089	Down from 4.7 million views last week, but still going strong. How long is the shelf life of this thing? I was out to dinner the other night and half the people I saw walking around were teenagers looking at their phones playing Pokémon Go. I shook my fist at the sky like a cranky old man and felt better. The article has improved from Start Class to B-Class in the last week, now with a staggering 184 references.
4	Ivanka Trump	1,775,380	Probably the most liked Trump outside core Trump-fandom, Trump's daughter Ivanka gave a speech introducing her father at the Republican National Convention, though she touted some policy positions that sounded like she was introducing a Democratic candidate.
5	Tim Kaine	1,513,047	Kaine, a current United States Senator, and former Governor from Virginia, was named as Hillary Clinton's vice-presidential running mate on July 22. I must say Kaine was not high on my radar because he does not showboat online, though the Wall Street Journal put him on Hillary's shortlist last month. Virginia is also a swing state, probably a must-win for either candidate to be elected.
6	Kabali (film)	1,351,718	This Tamil language film starring Rajinikanth (#27) (pictured) debuted on July 22 to mixed reviews, but broke box office records, earning around ₹211.75 (US$31 million) worldwide during its opening weekend.
7	Stranger Things (TV series)	1,165,953	This Netflix science-fiction series was released on July 15 to positive reviews.
8	Ivana Trump	1,032,111	Donald Trump's (#2) first wife, mother of Ivanka (#4), as well as Donald Jr. (#20) and Eric (#13). She was not in Cleveland last week, but instead in St. Tropez "with her dog and Italian lover" as the Daily Mail tells us. I would guess some of these views include people trying to get to Ivanka's article.
9	Tiffany Trump	1,019,203	Donald Trump's (#2) only child with Marla Maples (#11) (his second wife), who also spoke at the convention last week.
10	Mike Pence	940,781	Donald Trump's (#2) Vice-Presidential candidate, down from 1.65 million views last week.

Bonus: Just missing the WP:TOP25 for July 17–23:

July 24–30, 2016

Hillary Summer: The Democratic National Convention (not to be confused with the Democratic National Committee, both abbreviated DNC) was held this week, and culminated in Hillary Clinton receiving her coronation as the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States; the first woman to be so named by a major political party in the US, though that string of qualifiers is a reminder of just how behind the rest of the world the US is in this regard. Unlike last week's Republican Convention, which saw a flood of interest in all things Trumpian, the DNC hasn't generated as much traffic; numbers are down across the board, and Hillary got less than half the views of her rival. This weaker showing allowed the traditional concern of the American summer season, movies, to get a strong look-in, particularly toward the bottom of the list.

For the week of July 24 to 30, 2016, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 were:

Rank	Article	Views	Notes
1	Hillary Clinton	1,331,698	One puzzling feature of this list over the last year is how seldom Hillary Clinton has appeared on it, despite the constant media hum of the 2016 election and the near omnipresence of her competitor. Some might argue that they already know everything they need to about Hillary; after all, she's been a global figure for longer than many of our readers have been alive. But the same could also be said of Donald Trump, and interest in him has obviously not waned. At this point it is clear that people just aren't as excited about her. On paper, she is one of the most qualified people ever to run for President of the US, and yet, ignoring post-convention "bumps" after each party's convention, polls place her neck and neck with Donald Trump, a man with no political qualifications and no coherent policy goals who just this week told a dictator to commit espionage against the United States. In what should be her moment in the sun, nominated as her party's candidate, endorsed wittily by a sitting President, and even supported by her onetime arch-rival Bernie Sanders, her article didn't generate even half the views Trump got during his nomination week, and he lost the top spot to his wife.
2	Kabali (film)	1,118,570	This Indian film (not Bollywood- it's in Tamil; Bollywood films are strictly Hindi) starring Rajinikanth (pictured) has, despite mixed reviews, smashed records in its first week of release, earning ₹3.2 billion ($48 million) worldwide and already placing itself as the second (or third, depending on the source) highest-grossing Tamil film ever.
3	Stranger Things (TV series)	1,110,852	This Netflix science-fiction series (basically an 8-hour homage to early 80s kid-centric flicks like E.T., The Goonies and Explorers) was released in its entirety on July 15 to positive reviews.
4	Donald Trump	1,022,010	To be fair, he was probably going to be on this list anyway; the timeframe includes the comedown from his convention spike. But there's no denying the sudden boost he got on 28/29 July, when he suggested on-air that the Russians should hack Hillary Clinton's (#1) email server, making him arguably the first ever US presidential candidate to invite a foreign power to attack his own country.
5	Tim Kaine	1,018,201	Kaine, a current United States Senator, and former Governor from Virginia, was named as Hillary Clinton's vice-presidential candidate on July 22. I must say Kaine was not high on my radar because he does not showboat online, though the Wall Street Journal put him on Hillary's shortlist last month. Virginia is also a swing state, probably one Trump would have to win to have any chance of being elected.
6	Suicide Squad (film)	854,350	DC Comics' ramshackle crew of pressganged supervillains, forced to do the will of a shadowy organization or let their heads explode, are the stars of one of the most anticipated films in the nascent DC Cinematic Universe, due for release on 5 August.
7	Bill Clinton	849,257	The former President widely regarded as one of the most persuasive speakers in modern American politics drew on all his talents to support his wife's candidacy for his former position. Whether it worked or not is unclear; many were nonplussed by his oration, which, having begun with the phrase, "In the spring of 1971, I met a girl..", drew unintentional attention to his infidelities.
8	Chelsea Clinton	857,452	The woman who very well could become the first offspring of two US Presidents gave a warmly received speech in support of her mother's candidacy at the DNC.
9	Pokémon Go	806,097	The curiousest thing about Pokemon Go, at least for me, is how it has dissolved the barrier between video games and reality. Video games are the most popular entertainment medium in the world, but they have always been confined to certain spaces- that kid shouting abuse through his headset in his mother's basement; the harried mother catching some alone time on the bus; the family pulling out the console on Christmas Day. All easy to ignore. But now, the game has not only entered the outside world, but it has become the outside world- to the point where people who have never even contemplated playing a video game have found themselves pulled into this one, as their houses and places of business were transformed into gyms and Pokestops.
10	Star Trek Beyond	681,239	The latest in the Star Trek reboot film series has been holding steady for a second week. The film stars Chris Pine (pictured) as Captain Kirk, and was released on July 22 to positive reviews. It grossed over $117 million in its opening weekend, but has seen some pretty steep drops since then.