The Signpost

Traffic report

200 miles in 200 years

Summary: The top 10 encapsulates the history of human aviation; at #1, a Google Doodle celebrating the 216th anniversary of the first parachute jump; at #10, the enduringly popular scifi film Gravity, a paean to human spaceflight. It's odd to think it's taken us 200 years to travel about that many miles up.

For the full top 25 report, including analysis and exclusions, see: WP:TOP25.

For the week of October 20 - 26, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Parachute C-class 892,746
An interactive Google Doodle on the 216th anniversary of the first parachute jump led to interest both in the item itself and in its first user, André-Jacques Garnerin.
2 Halloween B-Class 613,331
'Tis the night before Hallows, and all through the house, not a creature is stirring... that you can see.
3 Facebook B-class 543,309
A perennially popular article
4 World War II Good Article 391,047
Another perennially popular article. (The 16th most popular article from 2010 to 2012, in fact, see Table 2 here.)
5 Deaths in 2013 List 359,473
The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article.
6 Breaking Bad B-class 347,729
Despite ending for good two weeks ago, this 5-year televisual exploration of one man's descent into evil continues to drum up interest.
7 United States B-Class 346,748
A rarity in the top 10, but the 3rd most popular Wikipedia article from 2010 to 2012, and a perpetual bubble-under-er. Not really surprising that the country with by far the most English speakers would be the most popular on the English Wikipedia.
8 List of Bollywood films of 2013 List 341,165
An established staple of the top 10.
9 André-Jacques Garnerin Start-Class 331,768
The man who conducted the first ever parachute jump (in a basket!) in 1797 got some internet attention thanks to a Google Doodle (see #1 above).
10 Gravity (film) C-class 324,136 Alfonso Cuarón's spaceborne action/art film is now the critical/commercial blockbuster of the year, combining a nearly $370 million, 24-day worldwide box office take with a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

















Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-10-30/Traffic_report