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It's not cricket

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By Milowent

If not for Kanye West's dubious repeat at #1 due to people's glee at seeing "loser.com" redirect to his Wikipedia page, the 2015 Cricket World Cup (#2) would have made the top spot, albeit in a generally slow news week. And news was slow enough that a barrage of light news coverage of Pi Day even brought Pi to #9. The most notable death of the week was popular British author Terry Pratchett at #3.

For the full top 25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions.

For the week of March 8 to 14, 2015, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Kanye West Good Article 1,519,364
A big drop from 4.2 million views last week, and though views were on a downward trend the entire week, he still got enough to stay on top of the chart for a second week. Kanye West is, it is fair to say, a polarising figure. His most persistent recent gaffe has been his ill-judged tirade against Beck, winner of this year's Grammy for album of the year, which has apparently earned him the undying enmity of Beck fans. This enmity has manifested itself in many ways, and the web address "loser.com", which just happens to share a name with Beck's best known single, was recently redirected to his Wikipedia page. This redirect has led, naturally, to a spike in views to said page. Loser.com still redirects to his Wikipedia article as of now.
2 2015 Cricket World Cup C-class 923,501
Up from #16 and 465K views last week, as the group stage reached its conclusion. Eight teams have now advanced to the knockout stage. In Pool A, the four advancing teams were New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, while England, Afghanistan, and Scotland were eliminated. From Pool B, India, South Africa, Pakistan, and West Indies advanced, leaving Ireland, Zimbabwe, and United Arab Emirates behind.
3 Terry Pratchett Good Article 864,966
The second most-read living British author after J.K. Rowling, Pratchett died on March 12 at age 66 from Alzheimer's disease. He was best known for his Discworld series of 40 volumes. His daughter Rhianna Pratchett announced his death with a series of tweets, starting with "AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER," using block capitals as a reference to how the character of Death speaks in Pratchett's works.
4 International Women's Day C-class 610,668
This celebration falls on March 8 each year, and Google celebrated it once again with a Google Doodle. The UN theme for International Women's Day 2015 is "Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it!". Governments and activists around the world commemorated the 20th anniversary year of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, an historic roadmap that sets the agenda for realizing women's rights.
5 Stephen Hawking B-Class 606,680
The former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, black hole theorist and latter-day science icon makes his 19th straight appearance in the Top 25 this week. So, considering this longstanding run by Hawking, you might ask where other outstanding physicists fall on our charts. Well, Albert Einstein was #118 on the raw WP:5000 this week (218K views), and Marie Curie was #1139 (63,449 views). Max Planck doesn't even make the top 5000, and neither does Erwin Schrödinger, though the internet being what it is, his cat is #3197 (35,626 views).
6 Daylight saving time Featured Article 554,687
Not unlike clockwork (or just like clockwork?) this article last seen on the Top 25 in November 2014 returns. Views peaked on March 9, when the United States, Canada, and a few smaller nations made their time switch.
7 John Cena Good Article 552,553
The popular American professional wrestler is engaged in a "feud" with Alexander Rusev, who holds the current WWE United States Championship. The two will next spar at WrestleMania 31 (#20) on March 29.
8 Deaths in 2015 List 505,910
The viewing figures for this article have been remarkably constant; fluctuating week to week between 450 and 550,000, apparently heedless of who actually died. Deaths this week included Sam Simon, co-creator of The Simpsons (#26) (March 8); actor Windell Middlebrooks (#24) (March 9); Pulitzer-winning reporter Claude Sitton (March 10); American businesswoman Dell Williams, known for founding the first feminist sex-toy business in the United States in 1974 (March 11); Oleksandr Peklushenko, former governor of Zaporizhia Oblast (2011-14) in Ukraine, found shot dead (March 12); Romanian Olympic fencer Maria Vicol (March 13); and Argentine actress Ana María Giunta (March 14). None of the latter five made the WP:5000.
9 Pi Good Article 489,655
Pi Day (#56 raw) falls on March 14, which make sense in countries using the month-day date format like the United States, i.e., 3/14. This year, Pi Day got extra coverage due to both a lack of other news stories, and the fact that 3/14/15 at 9:26:53 a.m. (and also at p.m. in applicable countries) represented the first 10 digits of π. It is all rather silly but good-natured (and full of corny jokes like "Never talk to pi. He'll go on forever"). But anything that encourages people to enjoy math (or at least not fear it) must raise the collective intelligence of the world in a positive way. And maybe a few people will even read A History of Pi by Petr Beckmann, a delightfully quirky volume that not only provides math history and formulas, but also bashes Aristotle and the Romans.
10 Fifty Shades of Grey B-Class 485,465
The release of the film adaptation of this onetime Twilight fanfic continues to draw fans. A big drop from 736,594 views last week, but still enough to make the Top 10 in a slow news week.
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18 March 2015 (all comments)
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    which make sense in countries using the month-day date format like the United States, i.e., 3/14.. A question: Apart from the USA and Belize, are there any other countries that use this date format? Manning (talk) 00:43, 23 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    The Philippines? Some Canadian newspapers? I'm not sure, but I've seen more than I expected in non-U.S. sources over the years.--Milowent • hasspoken 03:27, 27 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Concerning physicists, perhaps worth noting that Isaac Newton is in the top thousand in the list linked above, and Galileo Galilei the next. Although Max Planck didn’t make the top 5k, h did; likewise the joule is there to memorialize the absent James Prescott. (@Manning Bartlett: maybe try WP:Reference desk/Language.)—Odysseus1479 03:04, 23 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    @Bamyers99: if you set User:DataflowBot/output/Top 20 enwiki articles by edits and editors in past 7 days (id-1) to update on Thursday, I bet they would be more inclined to include it. Also, could you please take the underscores in titles back out? EllenCT (talk) 03:21, 23 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    @EllenCT: Will do on both items. --Bamyers99 (talk) 14:37, 23 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
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