Kings and queens and VIPs

Traffic report

Kings and queens and VIPs

By Igordebraga, YttriumShrew, Kingsif, ElijahPepe

This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by YttriumShrew (August 28 to September 24), ElijahPepe (August 28 to September 10), Igordebraga, Kingsif (September 4 to 17), and SSSB (September 11 to 24).

ElijahPepe created an useful tool to make gathering the data for these mostly automated again. And right in the second week with that, the expected surge of British royalty views that would come in November arrived early thanks to London Bridge falling down.

So I'm packing my bags for the Misty Mountains (August 28 to September 3, 2022)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power	1,564,791	The prequel to J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit, premiered this week in the form of a television series. Although the first two episodes have received generally positive reviews, the series has received less critical acclaim than Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Amazon's marketing for the series has even extended to video games.
2	Serena Williams	1,542,068	After a truly stellar career in tennis, Serena Williams's career ended at the US Open after a loss to Australian player Ajla Tomljanović. She retires as the greatest woman tennis player of her generation.
3	Mikhail Gorbachev	1,481,729	The last leader of the Soviet Union died this week from complications related to a long illness according to Russian media at the age of 91. Gorbachev, widely known for his paradigms of glasnost and perestroika, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and as the subject of "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!", was widely praised in the West, although his reception in Russia and the Balkan states is less positive. A funeral for Gorbachev was held later this week, and although he received elements of a state funeral such as a guard of honor, Gorbachev was not granted a state funeral. Many were there, but current Russian president Vladimir Putin was notably not in attendance.
4	House of the Dragon	1,425,144	The prequel to the hit HBO show Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon's second episode "The Rogue Prince" aired this week with—if Rotten Tomatoes numbers are anything to go by—a slightly less positive critic response than last week's episode.
5	Nanjing Massacre	1,250,999	In 1937 the Japanese Army committed brutal atrocities in the Chinese capital of Nanking after capturing it, which ultimately amounted to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the rape of tens of thousands. We think it's here because a pawn shop owner from Minnesota found a bunch of photos of the event and it became major news. Hopefully he'll upload them to Commons.
6	2022 Asia Cup	939,057	After a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this biennial cricket tournament continued this week. I've always found it funny how the tournament is meant to be for all of Asia but is usually just India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This year, though, something weird happened: Afghanistan beat both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh! Most of the viewers here are probably Indian though, so it likely doesn't bother them as much.
7	Deaths in 2022	926,588	Just a few more weary days and then I'll fly away To a land where joy shall never end I'll fly away
8	Asia Cup	828,554	It's always annoying when two similar articles get split by one other article and we have to do separate comments. It's especially annoying when it's an article we don't even do proper writeups for. I couldn't find a photo of much to do with it, so here's... an Asian Cup! Get it?
9	Liger (film)	816,750	This MMA Bollywood film released last week to an overwhelmingly negative box office performance and critical reception.
10	Manti Te'o	812,067	The release of Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist, the sixth part in the nine-part Untold series, renewed interest in this linebacker and his clandestine relationship to a fictitious woman.

The Queen is dead, boys, and it's so lonely on a limb (September 4 to 10)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Elizabeth II	16,073,459	After an extraordinarily long 70 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II died this week at the age of 96. If there's one thing that can be said about her, it's that she was a constant; many had never known another monarch. She was also something of a unifying figure for the United Kingdom and, to a lesser degree, the other countries where she was monarch (even those who became republics). Thus it is natural that her death would inspire a huge reaction around the world and especially in the UK, with endless tributes, large-scale mourning, and wall-to-wall news coverage.
2	Charles III	9,376,455^[a]	#1's eldest son, who spent decades waiting to be king, during which he married twice, to #8, mother of his children (#5, 17), and #9, and unlike his grandfather (#6) chose to keep his first name for his regal one, making him sort of a successor to the Merry Monarch. He'll start in the new job at the ripe age of 73!
3	Liz Truss	3,423,676	The UK got a shiny new prime minister, whose first days in office were soon completely overshadowed by a royal succession and a period of national mourning. Given that, it's probably worth going into some detail. Liz Truss previously served as Foreign Secretary during Boris Johnson's premiership and was also a part of the cabinets of both Theresa May and David Cameron, notably giving an infamous speech regarding pork markets in 2014. She became the PM after defeating former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in the Conservative Party leadership election, held after Johnson was forced out in July. She ran a campaign centred around a right-wing laissez-faire economic pitch and a decent dollop of social conservatism; highlights included her dissing her high school and cosplaying as Margaret Thatcher. Truss has a daunting economic downturn and the seemingly never-ending Ukraine war to deal with, and expectations are pretty low, if polling is anything to go by. Truss has also come under fire for a video that was made during her career as a teenage Liberal Democrat, in which she called for the monarchy to be abolished.
4	Operation London Bridge	3,200,256	London Bridge is falling down. With the Queen's death, many learned about the "secret plan" prepared years ago for these very days. Admittedly it had been an open secret for quite a while, and had been the subject of a lot of media attention, which explains why it had an article in the first place. Yes, that really is London Bridge. It's quite underwhelming, isn't it?
5	William, Prince of Wales	2,994,105^[b]	With Charles now on the throne, William is the new heir apparent, and the new Prince of Wales, as everyone moves one space up the line of succession. Let's hope he doesn't die before his dad, because next after him is a nine-year-old.
6	George VI	2,959,304	#1's father who she succeeded as monarch.
7	Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh	2,739,342	The husband of the late Queen, who died over a year prior in April 2021. The loss of Philip has often been speculated as a major cause of the Queen's declining health before her death.
8	Diana, Princess of Wales	2,630,955	The very famous royal death, the ex-wife of #2. Most of her attention isn't exactly positive for the late monarch, coming in the form of people comparing the outpourings of grief and, in select circles, making memes about how Diana plans to greet Elizabeth II in the afterlife (you can imagine).
9	Camilla, Queen consort of the United Kingdom	2,081,610^[c]	The new Queen (consort).
10	Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva	1,943,982	Narrowly preventing a top-ten monopoly for Britain is the latest big Bollywood film, which looks remarkably similar to many recent Hollywood ventures (big budget, superpowers, world-scale setting and plot, plans for a shared universe, mixed to positive critical reception). Evidently the influence of the MCU is spreading into other film industries. It opened at #1 in India, #3 in the UK and #2 in the US of A (the highest position ever occupied by an Indian film).

^ Includes totals for previous titles Charles, Prince of Wales and Charles, King of the United Kingdom
^ Includes totals for previous titles Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge
^ Includes totals for previous titles Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom; and Camilla, Queen of the United Kingdom

God save the Queen, 'Cause tourists are money (September 11 to 17, 2022)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Elizabeth II	6,224,957	Following her death, the coverage has been turned down some-what, with some normal scheduling returning to British TV, but it's also not over yet. But, before we look to the week ahead, let's take a look back. On September 11, the Queen left Balmoral on the way to Edinburgh, where she stayed for two nights, the first at Holyroodhouse, and the second lying in state and St. Giles Cathedral, where 33,000 people filed past to pay their respect, and the Queen's children (#2, 6, 12 and 15) held a Vigil of the Princes. On September 13, the Queen was flown from Edinburgh to London, which became the most tracked flight in history. Since September 14, the Queen has been lying in state at Westminster Hall (leading to the local phenomenon The Queue), and will remain there until 6:30 BST on Monday, the day of her funeral. While there, both her children and grandchildren have performed the Vigil of the Princes. On the day of the funeral itself, the Queen's coffin will leave Westminster Hall at 10:44 with the funeral service being held at 11:00, a two-minute silence will be held at the end of the funeral, with several major airports even suspending flights during this period. The Queen will then be taken to Windsor, arriving at 15:10, with a second service happening at 16:00 at St. George's Chapel, ending at 16:45. It won't be till 19:45, during a private family service, when the Queen will be buried alongside her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (#7).
2	Charles III	4,139,056	He's had a tough few days. On some good news, he has already exceeded the reign of the (albeit disputed) nine-day Queen.
3	George VI	2,670,912	#1's father and the previous King, born in 1895, and King from 1936 to 1952.
4	Diana, Princess of Wales	2,584,814	#2's first wife. Her funeral, in 1997, holds the viewing figure record within the UK, at 32.1 million people (nearly 55% of the population at the time). The Queen's funeral is widely expected to beat this.
5	Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva	2,502,254	This Bollywood film is again the only thing preventing a top-ten monopoly for the British royals, which I imagine Indian readers will find rather amusing. It is also the only article to appear in this report that is unrelated to the British royal family. Ayan Mukerji's attempt to replicate the MCU in India has gotten off to an okay start, although still faces a daunting task to recoup its massive budget.
6	Anne, Princess Royal	2,151,398	The Queen's second child and only daughter.
7	Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh	1,811,670	Described as the love of her life, Prince Philip was Elizabeth II's husband, the father of the new King, and the longest serving royal consort in history. Philip and Elizabeth were married from their marriage 1947 until Philip's death in 2021, a year prior to Elizabeth's death.
8	William, Prince of Wales	1,800,986	The oldest child of the new King, which makes him the heir-apparent. He also received a promotion to Prince of Wales, a title held by his father until his accession.
9	Edward VIII	1,774,375	The Queen's uncle, who was King for 11 months in 1936. He abdicated his position in order to marry Wallis Simpson, nicknamed the abdication crisis. The Duke of Windsor, as he was known after his abdication, served his life in de facto exile in France until his death in 1972.
10	Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon	1,766,856	The Queen's younger sister, who died in 2002.

The evil that men do lives on and on (September 17 to 24)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Jeffrey Dahmer	8,365,786	An infamous serial killer who haunted the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin for years, during which time he killed and desecrated seventeen people. I'd go into more detail, but I don't really need to; for one, it's awful; for two, you could just watch the Netflix series about him (or read his Wikipedia article, as eight million people did this week). Neither are for the faint-hearted.
2	Elizabeth II	4,177,027	After 10 days of mourning, the erstwhile Queen was laid to rest in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, marking a definitive end to the second Elizabethan era. I'm not so keen on the services, but the synchronised marching and music was nice to watch (in a respectful way, of course)
3	Charles III	1,992,713	So I guess this is it. Charles is now the King. That's really weird, isn't it?
4	George VI	1,989,940	#2's father and sister.
5	Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon	1,732,233	#2's father and sister.
6	Christopher Scarver	1,684,441	#1 isn't alive anymore, not because he was executed, but because this fellow convicted murderer beat him to death with a metal bar in prison, allegedly motivated by racial grievances.
7	Edward VIII	1,378,696	#2's uncle, daughter and ex-daughter-in-law.
8	Anne, Princess Royal	1,356,536
9	Diana, Princess of Wales	1,306,363
10	House of the Dragon	1,257,174	<checks data> Yeah, it's still here.

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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30 September 2022 (all comments)

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Does anyone know what the record page views for an article in one week is? Hawkeye7 (discuss) 02:42, 1 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I believe it is Elizabeth II, with 16.1 million views in the week in which she died, as noted above. As I recall, the previous record was held by the Michael Jackson article, but it had 12.5 million views in all of June 2009. The pageview function only provides information back to 2015, so it is difficult to verify exactly what happened at that time; it's possible that the Jackson article received more pageviews in the entire week following his death, but I couldn't [quickly] find a source to verify. Risker (talk) 03:34, 1 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'm going to elaborate further. Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022 at 1510 BST (1410 UTC); her death was announced via the media at 1830 BST on the same date. Earlier in the day, there had been reports that the queen was unwell, as well as reports that family members were traveling to be at her bedside. The article received 8.4 million views on September 8, the date of her death, even though the death had only been announced very late in the day. The total number of pageviews from September 8 to September 14 inclusive was 19.9 million views. Risker (talk) 03:55, 1 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Elizabeth is the second most viewed, Kobe Bryant broke 20 million when he died. igordebraga ≠ 04:18, 1 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm. That page only goes back to 2013. Michael Jackson had 5.9 million views in 2009. Makes me wonder what other articles got multi-million views in the interim. Risker (talk) 06:05, 1 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Price of Wales? (11-17th Sept, No. 8)

No, my mothers’ family were Prices, and lived in Wales! Arwel Parry (talk) 08:21, 1 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"For Wales? Why Richard, it profit a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world...but for Wales!" - Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons. ~~Sorry.~~ --Ser Amantio di Nicolao^{Che dicono a Signa?}_{Lo dicono a Signa.} 03:23, 3 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I was going to say up to $140 a kilo but I was thinking of whales. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:16, 3 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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