Football, football, football! Wikipedia Football Club!

Traffic report

Football, football, football! Wikipedia Football Club!

By Igordebraga, ElijahPepe, SSSB, Soulbust

This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, ElijahPepe, SSSB and Soulbust.

Ball in the post doesn't change the score
Ball in the box with no one going for
Ball in the net makes a goal...

The cup of life! Ale, ale, ale! (November 27 to December 3)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	2022 FIFA World Cup	11,004,144	The World Cup continues this week, met by upsets and close wins. The group stage ended with several upsets - namely, the elimination of 2014 champions Germany (who also failed to progress to the knockouts in 2018) and world number 2, Belgium. The knockout stages have begun with Netherlands knocking out USA, and having Argentina disposing of Australia in the games played so far. This coming week (Sunday-Saturday) will see the remaining 6 round of 16 matches and the quarters being completed. So the next time you hear from us, we will know our 4 semi-finalists. Enjoy the football!
2	FIFA World Cup	3,032,398
3	Jenna Ortega	2,797,886	They're creepy and they're kooky Mysterious and spooky They're altogether ooky The Addams Family. This Netflix TV series centered on the eldest daughter of the Addams, played by Jenna Ortega (who had previously starred in other Netflix projects You and Yes Day), was released last week to moderate reception.
4	Wednesday (TV series)	2,374,187
5	Christine McVie	2,007,559	This English musician and songwriter died this week at 79. Most of her recognition comes from her work with Fleetwood Mac, one of the most acclaimed bands of the 1970s and 1980s, as well as one of the most turbulent, given their best-selling album Rumours is basically the members writing songs on how their relationships were going downhill, such as McVie's own "Don't Stop".
6	2026 FIFA World Cup	1,457,917	The results of #1 have made some curious—and potentially hopeful—for the next World Cup. Others, not so much. But 4 years is a long time, as shown by the fact the World Cup retention rate is 10% (2/20), and only happened twice, Brazil in 1958-1962 and Italy in 1934-1938.
7	Cristiano Ronaldo	1,259,895	In spite of qualifying for round 2 of #1, this Portuguese footballer left Manchester United last week, and is in more controversy this week.
8	Lionel Messi	1,247,602	Unlike #7, this Argentine footballer is enjoying the spotlight with his 1,000th career game, securing a win for Argentina against Australia in #1.
9	2018 FIFA World Cup	1,184,865	Some are looking back to the previous World Cup, held in Russia, where France was able to defeat Croatia. Croatia are yet to perform at the level they did in Russia, but France have shown themselves to be serious contenders.
10	Nick Fuentes	1,156,982	This white supremacist met with Donald Trump and Kanye West, a grim omen for the future of American politics.

Tsamina mina eh eh, Waka Waka eh eh (December 4 to 10)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	2022 FIFA World Cup	4,565,186	Football fans continue delighting themselves with the tournament in Qatar. Following two rounds of the knockout tournament, the finalists are two out of a team defeated by Tunisia, a team defeated by Saudi Arabia, and two countries with less appearances in the World Cup (6) than appearances in the final by Brazil (7) and Germany (8).
2	Kirstie Alley	3,968,686	This actress died at 71 of cancer, finishing a career that included Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Cheers, Look Who's Talking, Veronica's Closet, and most recently, The Masked Singer.
3	FIFA World Cup	2,726,859	Brazil have won the most (5), yet haven't beaten a European team in the knockout stages since the 2002 final. And if losing to the overhyped Belgium in 2018 wasn't bad enough, now they fell to Croatia, stupidly conceding a tie in the final minutes of extra time before displaying some incompetence in the penalty shootouts (why not send the team's best kicker for the first, or anticipate him from fifth to fourth when elimination is on the line?!). Tite can't leave this team soon enough, even if there's no idea on who will coach the team next! (can you tell this writer is upset?)
4	Viktor Bout	2,287,352	A Russian weapons dealer arrested in 2008 and serving time in an American prison since 2012, until he was involved in a quite lopsided prisoner exchange with #10 - one side's crimes are conspiring to kill Americans, acquiring and export anti-aircraft missiles, providing material support to a terrorist organization, the other picking the wrong cartridges for her vape.
5	Jenna Ortega	2,280,539	The star of #8, who has been having a spooky 2022, being murdered in the opening scene of the Foo Fighters horror movie, being almost murdered in the opening scene of Ghostface's latest killing spree, and also appearing in a slasher film that disrupts a porn shoot.
6	Kylian Mbappé	1,649,558	Two footballers in different times of their careers: a 23 year old Frenchman who in #1 is seeking his second title in two appearances, having just won the quarterfinal over England and being the tournament's current top scorer; and a 37 year old Portuguese who finished off a five Cup run by losing the quarterfinal to Morocco, and in a demonstrative of not being the same powerhouse, started both elimination games in the bench.
7	Cristiano Ronaldo	1,599,406
8	Wednesday (TV series)	1,585,156	Tim Burton had already revived a spooky family in Dark Shadows, and now he went for the biggest one in the Addams Family in this Netflix show.
9	Paul Whelan (security director)	1,468,456	Joe Biden tried to exchange #4 for two Americans made prisoners by the Russians, Marine Paul Whelan, arrested in 2018 accused of espionage, and basketballer Brittney Griner, arrested in February (just one week before Russia's worst act of the year) for carrying vaporizer cartridges with hash oil from medicinal cannabis, which is illegal in Russia. The Kremlin refused to release Whelan, and thus only Griner was freed in the prisoner exchange on December 8.
10	Brittney Griner	1,422,254

Oooh eeeh aaah (December 11 to 17)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	2022 FIFA World Cup	2,943,571	During the week there were the semifinals, where dark horses Croatia and Morocco couldn't stop the more traditional Argentina and France. Given that the final happened as this Report was being written, let's say right away that Argentina won in a game of much suffering, opening 2-0, conceding the tie, opening 3-2 on extra time and conceding again, and finally coming through in the penalties.
2	Avatar: The Way of Water	2,612,572	James Cameron is such a damn perfectionist it took 13 years for him to finally release the sequel to the highest-grossing movie of all time, where the humans return to Pandora wanting to hunt Jake Sully, who is forced to run along with his Na'vi family and take refuge in a distant archipelago. Just about the whole cast returns, with Sigourney Weaver now playing the Na'vi daughter of her character (meaning it's a 73 year old as a teenager!), and Stephen Lang's villain having been revived in one of those Avatar bodies. The Way of Water delivers more of the same spectacle, with a world that looks impressively real, lots of underwater scenes, and another extensive battle as the third act climax. But just like the movie could have taken less than 13 years to be released, it certainly did not need to be three hours long (many articles already came out discussing when it's better to have a bathroom break, and Cameron hopes people watch it a second time to see what they missed relieving themselves). Hope the next movies are back to the 2+1⁄2 , if not less - and that if The Way of Water ends up making all the money possible, that Disney throws Cameron a bone and allows him to make the Alita: Battle Angel sequel.
3	Stephen "tWitch" Boss	2,209,493	A dancer who broke out in So You Think You Can Dance, remained on the media in among other things The Ellen DeGeneres Show and the Step Up movies, and took his own life at the age of 40.
4	FIFA World Cup	2,139,989	On his fifth attempt at football's greatest stage, Leo Messi managed to reach the final for a second time, and unlike in 2014 he was scoring Argentina's goals in the knockout rounds, including two in the final. Now he's certainly as big as Diego Maradona for having carried La albiceleste to the title.
5	Lionel Messi	1,937,840
6	Jenna Ortega	1,693,728	#10 brings this actress to the illustrious company of among others Lisa Loring, Christina Ricci (who also appears in Ortega's show), Krysta Rodriguez and Chloë Grace Moretz in having portrayed Wednesday Addams.
7	Kylian Mbappé	1,494,579	One went all the way to the finals of #1, and even if he lost (though he already has the 2018 gold medal) ended as the top scorer, 8 goals, including all three of France in the final. The other left in the quarterfinals, a game he started in the bench, and to make matters worse saw his rival #5 come through with the title he couldn't win for Portugal.
8	Cristiano Ronaldo	1,485,185
9	The White Lotus	1,237,422	The second season of this HBO anthology set in a resort chain (last season was in Hawaii, this one in Sicily) released its final episode, while having rising audience numbers every week.
10	Wednesday (TV series)	1,219,711	This here writer has yet to finish this show, but already gives it points given who it beat to become Netflix's second most popular series behind Stranger Things.

Mi Buenos Aires Querido (December 18 to 24)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Lionel Messi	7,000,827	Scoring two goals and assisting on another in the 2022 FIFA World Cup final (#17), Messi helped La Albiceleste (#9) lift their third FIFA World Cup trophy on Sunday. For many fans, this put the finishing touches on his case to be football's GOAT 🐐.
2	Kylian Mbappé	4,688,225	The French phenom tried his damnedest to get the French national team their second consecutive World Cup trophy. While his three goals were not enough for the win, they did help him secure his spot as the tournament's top goalscorer. His opponents in the 2026 FIFA World Cup should be on the lookout for an even hungrier Mbappé.
3	Avatar: The Way of Water	3,699,324	Preventing a top 10 sweep by the World Cup, James Cameron (pictured) has once again cashed in at the box office as his latest film opened at #1. However, his Way of Water will have to settle for third on this list.
4	2022 FIFA World Cup	2,837,301	Marred in all sorts of controversy off the pitch, the actual games of the World Cup's latest edition proved to be some of the most exciting in recent memory.
5	FIFA World Cup	2,798,526	As viewers were glued to the screen throughout the 2022 tournament, many readers were also curious about the competition in general.
6	List of most-liked Instagram posts	2,498,373	The GOAT of football also happens to be the GOAT of Instagram. After hoisting the World Cup Trophy, Messi posted an image of him doing just that. It surpassed the Instagram egg to become the most-liked in the history of the platform and in fact, half of the top 10 are Messi's posts.
7	List of FIFA World Cup finals	1,836,904	2022 really delivered quite possibly the best game on this list: a back-and-forth 3–3 draw decided in penalties. Lots of Argentina fans happy to see the team log its third victory in six appearances on this list. The opposing French were of course the previous winners (Ousmane Dembélé pictured with the WC trophy back in 2018).
8	Cristiano Ronaldo	1,718,988	Even though his team was knocked out in the quarter-finals, Ronaldo proved to be popular among Wikipedia readers. His rivalry with Messi probably surged his pageviews, as even the most ardent Ronaldo fans realized Messi likely ended the debate for most fans.
9	Argentina national football team	1,585,787	CAMPEONES DEL MUNDO
10	Emiliano Martínez	1,526,712	Emi Martínez showed a lot of gamesmanship throughout the cup, and while Mbappé's brilliance couldn't be denied, Dibu was able to make what might go down as the most iconic and important save in World Cup history en route to a Golden Glove.

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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