The Signpost

Traffic report

A rather ordinary week

The traffic report is nothing unusual this week, with a Google Doodle for astronaut Sally Ride topping the list, the accidental death of famous mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. at #2, and the normal fare of recent popular American movies and television, though Eurovision's finale, where Australia (?!) took 5th, made it to #9. And FIFA "President for Life" Sepp Blatter (#7) won re-election to a fifth term, though he subsequently announced he intends to resign, at some point in the future.

For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see [1]. (The most edited article was Elimination Chamber (2015).)

For the week of May 24 to 30, 2015, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Sally Ride C-class 2,007,493
As with Inge Lehmann two weeks ago, a Google Doogle, celebrating what would have been the 64th birthday of the first American female astronaut in space, tops the chart this week. Ride is also the youngest American to have gone to space, at age 32.
2 John Forbes Nash, Jr. C-class 1,065,181
A winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in non-cooperative game theory, creator of the Nash equilibrium, and the inspiration for the book and film A Beautiful Mind which explored his life and history of mental illness, Nash and his wife died on May 23 in New Jersey in a taxicab accident.
3 Mad Max: Fury Road C-class 1,015,622
Down from #1 and 1.5 million views last week. This action film starring Tom Hardy debuted on Australia on May 14 and in the United States the next day. As of May 31, the film has grossed $283 million worldwide.
4 Stephen Curry B-Class 636,375
Up from #8 and 636,375 views last week. On May 23, during a Western Conference Finals game against the Houston Rockets, the basketball player for the Golden State Warriors broke the record for the most three-point shots in a playoffs, in just 13 games. His team will play in the NBA finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers starting on June 4.
5 Memorial Day C-Class 902,107
The last Monday in May (which was May 25 this year), the day that the United States chose to honour its war dead, is perhaps better known as the traditional beginning of US summer vacation, and is thus eagerly anticipated by millions of people too young to serve but old enough to stand in line for action movies. Hopefully those who looked up this article learned more about its true intent.
6 Game of Thrones (season 5) C-class 820,076
Numbers for this popular television program are up again this week, by about 100,000 views.
7 Sepp Blatter C-Class 786,824
Americans learned that FIFA has a virtual president-for-life this week, as Blatter was elected to a fifth term as president on May 29, despite the pending FIFA corruption case arising out of a recent FBI investigation. On June 2, Blatter announced he would resign after a successor was elected.
8 Chris Kyle B-class 738,896
The titular American Sniper is back on the list for a second week after a near-three month hiatus. The film was released on DVD on May 19.
9 Eurovision Song Contest 2015 C-class 618,779
Views are down from 752,700 last week, but still good enough for the Top 10. The song "Heroes" by Swedish pop singer Måns Zelmerlöw (pictured), a perfectly bland pop song right at home in 2015, won. And what's this about Australia being a part of Eurovision this year? I looked up their entry "Tonight Again" on YouTube sung by Guy Sebastian, and the comments there inform me in no uncertain terms that Australia is not in Europe. But they came in fifth, so it was a shrewd marketing move, no doubt.
10 Avengers: Age of Ultron C-Class 581,327
The latest instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe crossed the banner $1 billion worldwide mark last week. Down from 717,191 views last week.

















Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-06-03/Traffic_report