The only thing that matters in the world

Traffic report

The only thing that matters in the world

By Igordebraga, Rebestalic, Serendipodous, and Soulbust

This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Igordebraga (March 1 to 7); Serendipodous, Soulbust and Igordebraga (March 8 to 14); Rebestalic and Igordebraga (March 15 to 21); and Igordebraga (February 23 to 29).

This traffic report is brought to you by the letters "COVID", and the number 19. (Special thanks to both the WMF Tools and User:Jtmorgan for helping us compile the data while the regular tool is down)

Please note that news on COVID-19 has been rapidly developing. The descriptions of the historical articles given here may be out of date.

You Gotta Keep 'Em Separated (March 15 to 21)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (March 15 to 21, 2020)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	2019–20 coronavirus pandemic	7,645,103	Early 2020 bears the burden of a multinational pandemic caused by the Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The page for the pandemic in particular is receiving so many views that WMFLabs' ever-useful Pageviews Anaylsis tool shows that all through this month there was never a day below 400k visitors... oh dear.
2	Coronavirus	2,749,576	The term 'Coronavirus' is a surprisingly broad one — it simply means any virus in a family which causes problems in mammals and birds. The Coronavirus family ranges from near-harmless common cold causers, to the one you see in the news — Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 — to the hulking (not literally), spree-slaying Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus, which, in its 2012 outbreak, presented victims with a ~35% chance of dying. The Coronaviruses are so named because of their peculiar spikes, called peplomers, which create an illusion of a stellar corona when viewed under an electron microscope.
3	Spanish flu	2,648,537	The Spanish flu was a flu pandemic that occurred from 1918 to 1920. One of the deadliest epidemics in recorded human history, the Spanish flu took place during a time when information was possibly being censored because of the war effort at the time. As for afterward, I don't know. All this censoring (which, by the way, was meant to keep morale up) left neutral country Spain as basically the only hard-hit country that took pains to accurately report infections – and so the pandemic was named after Spain (because countries thought Spain was the epicentre of the outbreak).
4	Coronavirus disease 2019	2,455,634	The illness caused by the Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
5	2020 coronavirus pandemic in Italy	2,087,780	Attention drawn by the Coronavirus pandemic is also concentrated on specific countries (as well as the general pandemic). Italy, considering deaths from infections, is the hardest-hit country in the world; doctors there have had to triage patients – who can be treated, who can't be. It's that hard. India's high standing here is probably due to its massive English-speaking population base. Same for the United States; in addition, the US currently has the very unfortunate position as the fastest-growing country in the world in terms of new infections.
6	2020 coronavirus pandemic in India	1,923,144
7	2020 coronavirus pandemic in the United States	1,752,639
8	Kenny Rogers	1,497,434	Kenny Rogers is one of the best-selling musicians of all time, with a cool 100 million records sold during his lifetime; he was welcomed into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. The Texan's 60-year career was punctuated with hits such as The Gambler and his cover of Islands in the Stream. Rogers passed away of natural causes at his home on the 20th of March this year.
9	2019–20 coronavirus pandemic by country and territory	1,450,648	Another Coronavirus article; this time, dealing with the actual impact of the pandemic. Take a look at the map to the left—red all around. It's not looking good...
10	2009 flu pandemic	1,261,204	This pandemic was caused by the same type of influenza that caused the Spanish Flu (H1N1; swine flu). Estimates of total infections from this pandemic range to 1.4 billion (see the infobox in that article). That's huge.

You built walls to protect you, so no one will infect you (March 8 to 14)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (March 8 to 14, 2020)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	2019–20 coronavirus outbreak / pandemic	6,408,766 ^[a]	It seems the only thing that matters in the world is not getting infected with the strong, heavily contagious virus that since its outbreak in China last year has now reached pandemic status. All the movies that could've brought us to the theater were postponed, just about every sport (American and association football, basketball, hockey) stopped being played, and everywhere you see the words "social distancing" and "quarantine".
2	Coronavirus	2,883,888
3	Coronavirus disease 2019	1,762,421
4	Spanish flu	1,582,872	In the last 100 years, humanity has had to confront two great plagues: one was AIDS, the other was this monster, which struck a weakened world still broken by the horror of World War I, and was almost certainly speeded by it. The death toll is still debated today, and may have been as high as 100 million, though was more likely comparable to AIDS's 30 million.
5	Pandemic	1,517,718	The precise definition of this loaded word is vague, and even the World Health Organization is cautious in applying it. Even so, they declared the COVID-19 disease a pandemic this week.
6	2019–20 coronavirus outbreak / pandemic by country and territory	1,480,438 ^[a]	This epidemic is global, but its effects are local, and everyone will confront their own story, largely dependent on their country's response.
7	2009 flu pandemic	1,272,019	This pandemic was essentially an encore for the 1918 flu. It was the same type, though a different strain, and infected about the same percentage of the world's population, but thankfully was far less virulent. Still many people were left with permanent damage to their lungs.
8	2020 coronavirus outbreak / pandemic in Italy	1,262,160‬ ^[a]	Italy has been hit the worst of any country by this pandemic, with nearly 50,000 cases in a population of barely 60 million. Recently its death toll has crossed that of China, though some have suggested the data may be inflated. This may be due to Italy's greater percentage of elderly.
9	2020 coronavirus outbreak / pandemic in the United States	1,164,003 ^[a]	To translate how many people are feeling about the arrival and spread of the disease, let's borrow from Billy Joel by way of Patton Oswalt: We didn't stop the virus Could have been prevented But our leader’s demented...
10	2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries	900,406	And now for something not related to diseases, but just as unhealthy (though more for the mind): politics!

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Combining page views for these two articles due to coronavirus-related articles being moved to more accurate main space titles in the middle of the week (on March 11) to reflect the World Health Organization's announcement of the former outbreak becoming a pandemic.

I've Got a Disease (March 1 to 7)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (March 1 to 7, 2020

Rank	Article	Views	About
1	2019–20 coronavirus outbreak	3.465.955	The article is now 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, showing how widespread the disease has gotten since it originated in China.
2	2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries	2.331.572	The Republicans just went for a possible Trump re-election, so the Democrats instead are having a tight race, that after Super Tuesday (#4), has only three candidates left: #5, #7, and Tulsi Gabbard.
3	Coronavirus	2.106.989	The specific strain of this type of virus currently causing panic worldwide (#1) was known as 2019-nCoV and is now Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), but people just seek the general term.
4	Super Tuesday	1.356.307	11 states held their primaries (#2) on March 3, most of which were won by Joe Biden, Barack Obama's vice president who previously served as Senator for Delaware.
5	Joe Biden	1.086.375
6	2019–20 coronavirus outbreak by country and territory	1.071.108	#1 started in China, and has gone onto over 100 countries (including the Vatican – see #10 as for why). The list also includes a cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, which had 696 cases (7 of them fatal) and is currently quarantined following an evacuation in the coast of Japan.
7	Bernie Sanders	985.977	After losing the Democratic presidential spot to Hillary Clinton in 2016, the Vermont Senator is currently trying again against #5.
8	The Invisible Man (2020 film)	964.377	Without the classic look seen to the left (that certainly would help avoid getting infected in times of our #1!) or previously attached star Johnny Depp, The Invisible Man was brought back in a cheaply made and highly effective thriller that got glowing reviews and already made over $100 million worldwide.
9	Spanish flu	773.875	Over a hundred years ago, another virus (the H1N1, which struck again in 2009) wiped out huge portions of the world population, and reportedly started in Europe – though not in Spain, that got the name because unlike other countries they didn't care if reporting on the deaths would be bad for morale. The current pandemic (#1) had its first major outbreak out of Asia in Italy, which is currently only behind disease source China.
10	2020 coronavirus outbreak in Italy	754.327

This could be The Last Time (February 23 to 29)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 23 to 29, 2020

Rank	Article	Views	About
1	2019–20 coronavirus outbreak	2.505.351	While the disease has had most cases where it originated, Asia, it is now slowly spreading to other countries which received tourists from China. The global economy has been affected, and even James Bond is afraid of the virus.
2	Tyson Fury	2.420.792	This awesomely named boxer finally had a rematch for a 2018 fight that ended in a controversial split draw, and this time had a technical knockout on adversary Deontay Wilder (#6).
3	Coronavirus	1.954.483	The specific strain of this type of virus currently causing panic worldwide (#1) was known as 2019-nCoV and is now Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), but people just seek the general term. But showing how things have gotten worse, now readers also want specifics on how and where the coronavirus is spreading.
4	2019–20 coronavirus outbreak by country and territory	1.096.182
5	Donald Trump	1.064.391	The Tweeter-in-chief visited India (and its Prime Minister who he likes a lot), and the combination of an attention-hungry person with an information-seeking nation just had to bring him views on Wikipedia.
6	Deontay Wilder	1.018.424	The previously undefeated World Boxing Council heavyweight champion lost his belt to our #2 when the two boxers finally met again.
7	The Invisible Man (2020 film)	997.915	Once the idea of starting a cinematic universe with The Mummy failed miserably, Universal Studios gave up on making a related big budget Invisible Man starring Johnny Depp and instead gave the project to Leigh Whannell and Blumhouse Productions, who reworked the project to have Elisabeth Moss being stalked by her ex who found out a way to never be seen. It worked, with heaps of critical praise about how in spite of the low $7 million budget The Invisible Man is scarier and often better made than much more expensive thrillers, and it opened atop the box office.
8	Bernie Sanders	973.889	After losing the Democratic presidential spot to Hillary Clinton in 2016, the Vermont Senator is currently leading the race for the 2020 run.
9	Harvey Weinstein	880.650	Justice is starting to be served to the film producer who harrassed, abused and even raped women in his heyday, as Weinstein was found guilty of two of five felonies in New York, which could send him to jail for up to 25 years.
10	Super ShowDown (2020)	824.654	WWE again went to Saudi Arabia, with the main card featuring "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt (pictured) losing to Bill Goldberg.

Exclusions

These lists exclude the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the Top 25 Report talk page if you wish.

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Why is the February report the last? -Gouleg (Talk • Contribs) 20:12, 29 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It's only maybe the last time. I don't know. Natureium (talk) 20:29, 29 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Oh no, oh no. -- GreenC 02:19, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

We switched to reverse chronological order, thinking that readers would be most interested in the latest report. ☆ Bri (talk) 20:43, 29 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It's a chance to fix mistakes. One more for the last time. Natureium (talk) 22:32, 29 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Bri:: Well I wanted to see the development of interest for the coronavirus pandemic overtime as March went by, as it overshadowed other important events of the month such as the 2020 Democratic primaries -Gouleg (Talk • Contribs) 15:47, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Gouleg, you can compare pageviews of two or more articles using the tool. E.g. 2020 primaries vs COVID in US [1]. But as far as I know we don't have something pre-prepared to show exactly what you're interested in. I'd encourage you to develop it and share it with us. Maybe we can even incorporate it in the next Signpost. I'm sure that we'll still be talking a lot about both topics. ☆ Bri (talk) 15:54, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

A thought on format: Could be interesting to see this portrayed as a "weeks on chart" sort of thing like NYT bestsellers or top Billboard hits, or alternatively, a kind of map with connected nodes, such as in the one above where there is cross-referential treatment between many of the list's items. A week is an arbitrary time period—I imagine most of these spikes are single days—I'd also be curious in a layered visualization that shows sustained traffic to COVID against daily spikes here or there for other topics. Like it's fun to read as-is, but I always wonder about the story behind the data: why is a topic rising or falling week over week, what does that say about influence, whence is their traffic spiking, etc. (Just ideas—not meant as any kind of criticism. Really appreciate this work!) czar 01:43, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Sort of like the hatnote top 100? I like their presentation a lot not to plug a "competitor" but credit where credit it due. ☆ Bri (talk) 00:57, 31 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Edited to add: I thought about the trends as interesting in themselves when I saw where 2020 coronavirus pandemic in India is relative to U.S. now – much higher. ☆ Bri (talk) 00:59, 31 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The hatnote top 100's sparklines are pretty nice czar 01:54, 31 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

"Rogers passed away of natural causes at his home on the 20th of March this year." - no doubt intended to convey he did not die of the virus. But virus deaths are from "natural causes" too. Johnbod (talk) 15:35, 31 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
And it was later revealed he did in fact die from COVID-19, according to his article. Being hyper-literal, isn't any death "natural"? "Natural causes" is a term of art that means "an anticipated death due to age or other factors like chronic conditions where it wasn't felt necessary to pin down an exact cause". --47.146.63.87 (talk) 22:20, 4 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Experienced Wikipedia editors sometimes play the role of teachers who have to explain to the public and other WP "editors" about impartiality, the dangers of bias and POV, promotion, autobiography, and so on. That persistent problem is made more difficult by the people who write the Signpost and who bill it as the house newspaper. Imagine the response of all the people who see the Signpost breaking POV all the time and airing their opinions and agendas. Taking sides is something we're not supposed to do as editors. I don't know if Signpost writers have any experience in journalism. They ought to try to be impartial and to present facts without commentary, analysis, and editorializing. There are plenty of places for opinions in Interworld and the real world. There certainly are a lot of them. Read a Wikipedia debate sometime. Maximum verbosity for maximum "expertise". Watch TV, read a newspaper or a web site. And you know the old adage about the value of opinions. There's nothing special about them. If you want to be special, if you want to be rebellious outsider, part of a tiny minority of radicals, then be a thinker, a calm, rational, person who is impartial, slow to judge, giving people the benefit of the doubt. Go against the grain of TV, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. The first four letters of Twitter spell "twit". Many people are OK with that. I'm not. Demand more of yourself.
Vmavanti (talk) 15:36, 19 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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