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Traffic report

Who died? Who won? Who lost?

This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, Max BuddyRoo and TheJoebro64.

All sorts of delays and schedule slips kept this off the last edition, but here are the most viewed articles for half of February and March alike.

Termination, expiration, cancellation, human race (February 19 to 25)

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 The Last of Us (TV series) 1,650,001 The HBO show based on an acclaimed video game returns to #1 for the first time since its premiere, and this week there were 2 new episodes, including a commune and lesbians.
2 Jimmy Carter 1,433,368 The 39th president made the list this week for unfortunate circumstances, going in hospice care to spend more time with his family, instead of additional medical intervention.
3 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania 1,416,896 Reception has been all over the place for the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie of the year and Phase 5, where the families of Ant-Man and the Wasp are brought into the microscopic war waged by Kang the Conqueror. A big indicator was Quantumania having the biggest second weekend drop of the franchise (while not leaving first place), albeit it will probably still have made much money by the time the next movie arrives in May.
4 Mac McClung 1,328,516 During the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, the Slam Dunk Contest was won by this guy who showed some impressive moves even if he's still relegated to the developmental G League (in fact, McClung's only played 4 NBA games so far, none for the Philadelphia 76ers to whom he's currently signed).
5 Richard Belzer 1,199,030 The actor who played the role of John Munch died this week, with his last words being, "Fuck you, motherfucker!".
6 ChatGPT 1,123,325 The chatbot continues to make the list, becoming a frequent contender these past few weeks, with people hoping that robots won't turn out like how we feared they would.
7 Pathaan (film) 1,091,387 The Indian film is on the list yet again, becoming the 7th highest grossing film worldwide of 2023 (although that's not saying much since we're in February) and the 5th highest grossing Indian film of all time.
8 Deaths in 2023 1,041,565 All the years I've tried with more to go
Will the memories die, I'm waiting?
Will I find you, can I find you?
We're falling down, I'm falling
9 Murdaugh family 880,976 A Netflix show about these family of attorneys came out this week, and with no article about the show, people came to the article about the family - and wouldn't you guess, it's another crime story, because one of the Murdaughs is on trial since last month, accused of having killed his wife and son, hence the show's title is Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal.
10 Cocaine Bear 778,324 This movie came out this week about a bear on cocaine (based on the real life Pablo Eskobear), and released to great reviews and being only behind #3 at the box office, on top of many memes on TikTok about it, which probably pushed it into the top 10.

There was a friend of mine on murder, and the judge's gavel fell (February 26 to March 4)

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 Murdaugh family 1,880,917 True crime Netflix show brings its subject to the this list, and to the top, no less. Some things don't change. Namely, the family of South Carolina attorneys chronicled in Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, who have been the subject of multiple investigations involving wrongful death, murder, corruption, and other alleged crimes, and the show gives most focus to one Murdaugh causing the death of a woman in a boating accident and his eventual murder, along with his mother, for which his father was found guilty.
2 Tom Sizemore 1,448,687 This actor with many roles as soldier (Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down), policeman (Point Break, Hawaii Five-0) and criminal (Heat, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City), while also having a well-chronicled fight with drug addiction, suffered an aneurysm on February 18, and after nearly two weeks in intensive care died on March 3 at the age of 61.
3 The Last of Us (TV series) 1,355,138 Wonder how many tune into this hyped HBO series and give up when it turns out to have zombies.
4 ChatGPT 1,156,469 A chatbot that can even give his attempts at a knock-knock joke - "Who's there?" "ChatGPT" "ChatGPT who?" "ChatGPT careful, you might not know how it works!"
5 Tommy Fury 1,201,461 Professional boxer and lover (plus brother of champion Tyson Fury) boxed #9 at the beginning of this week in Saudi Arabia and won by split decision.
6 Deaths in 2023 1,021,697 And we were never holding back or worried that
Time would come to an end...
7 Cocaine Bear 891,244 Elizabeth Banks directed this lurid comedy-horror where a bear eats nose candy and goes on rampage, inspired by the true story of Pablo Eskobear.
8 Pedro Pascal 753,506 Most of the attention might be because he's Joel in #3, but let's not forget that this week Pascal returned to the armor of The Mandalorian, trying to redeem himself before his race with the help of his adorable adopted child, while having a scene straight out of The Terminator during the attempt at reviving TaikaWaititiBot.
9 Jake Paul 752,957 Professional YouTuber known for too much to count boxed #5 and lost.
10 Trial of Alex Murdaugh 684,165 In June, this member of #1 called the police warning his wife and son were found dead. All the investigations pointed to him being the culprit, and on Thursday he was found guilty of murder, receiving two life sentences.

Just a man and his will to survive (March 5 to 11)

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 The Last of Us (TV series) 1,600,712 For the third time, HBO's adaptation of the acclaimed game, leaving out the frustrating parts, tops this list with its penultimate episode. It will be hard for it to lead the Report next week in spite of the season finale, given the Academy Awards.
2 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 1,375,422 In 2014, this plane vanished in the middle of its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing trip. The still unsolved mystery was chronicled on Netflix by documentary miniseries MH370: The Plane That Disappeared.
3 ChatGPT 1,314,137 The chatbot makes the list yet again, with the new version, GPT-4, coming out in a week, along with South Park making an episode about it, with Stan using it to respond to texts from his girlfriend, and it backfiring.
4 Satish Kaushik 1,247,301 The famous Indian actor and director died this week at 66 from a heart attack in Gurugram.
5 Jon Jones 1,064,400 The professional mixed martial artist made the list this week for becoming #1 in the in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings..
6 International Women's Day 1,054,352 The holiday celebrating women (all women) is on the list this week for happening this week, with some debate over who can be considered a woman.
7 Deaths in 2023 987,315 Here I am, not quite dying
My body left to rot in a hollow tree...
8 Chris Rock 954,707 In the lead-up to the Academy Awards, one of the people in last year's most infamous moment decided to discuss that in a comedy special on Netflix, Chris Rock: Selective Outrage, including the line “I love Will Smith, my whole life. I have rooted for Will Smith my whole life … now I watch Emancipation just to see him get whupped.” Other subjects are also touched by the special, with the title noting cancel culture is not the same for everyone ("You know what I’m talking about… people who play Michael Jackson songs but won’t play R. Kelly. Same crime, one of them just has better songs.”).
9 Pedro Pascal 876,097 A survivalist with a girl in #1, along with a mercenary with a 50-year old baby in The Mandalorian.
10 Scream VI 769,636 For the second time a movie called Scream gets a sequel right in the following year, with the return of the most meta slasher franchise (and the numbers in the title after the last one ditched them!). Unlike Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Ghostface actually went to New York rather than spend most of the screentime on a boat - although again what is supposedly the Big Apple was mostly filmed in Canada. The cast includes the return of the four survivors of the last movie, Hayden Panettiere revealing she wasn't killed in the fourth movie, and Courteney Cox as the only one aside from Ghostface's voice to appear in all six installments (because last time around one got his character killed and the other felt the producers weren't paying her enough). In any case, Scream VI got positive reviews and had the franchise's best opening, already recouping its relatively cheap $35 million budget in a single weekend.

After winter, must come spring, Everything Is Everything (March 12 to 18)

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 Everything Everywhere All at Once 3,565,337 On March 12, the Oscars (#5) were held, honoring the films of 2022. Leading the pack was this absurdist multiversal comedy-drama film from #20's directorial duo, winning seven awards (including Best Picture) out of eleven nominations. Three of the four acting categories went to Everything Everywhere All at Once actors, represented on this list in slots #3, #4, and #7.
2 Brendan Fraser 2,499,197 We're in the midst of the Brenaissance and I am all for it. Fraser saw his film work slow in the late 2000s and early 2010s following health problems and his accusation that he had been sexually assaulted by the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, but a career revitalization began with a string of well received TV roles, including as Robotman in HBO's Doom Patrol. Now, Fraser has taken home the Academy Award for Best Actor for his starring role in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale. Fittingly for a film of that title, his emotional speech was filled to the brim with nautical references.
3 Ke Huy Quan 2,492,154 In the mid-80s the Vietnamese immigrant then-known as Jonathan Ke Quan was Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in The Goonies, but once he grew up a role with the above in Encino Man was one of the last before he went to college and worked more behind the scenes. Following the success of Crazy Rich Asians, Quan decided to try acting again, and now his role as the husband in #1 earned him the Best Supporting Actor award.
4 Michelle Yeoh 2,473,647 A Malaysian icon of martial arts movies, who even managed to transition to Hollywood and be a Bond Girl, a Marvel character (two, in fact), do voice acting, and act opposite #2 in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Her lauded performance as a housewife brought into a multiversal madness in #1 made Yeoh the first Asian woman to win Best Actress.
5 95th Academy Awards 2,235,142 Disclaimer: this here writer found #1 well-made and creative but nowhere near a worthy Best Picture winner (it's so weird, often just for the sake of being weird, that it turned exhausting and at times drew me away rather than enthrall me). He also thought Elvis and The Fabelmans should've won something, and maybe The Batman too - thankfully Top Gun: Maverick didn't go empty handed with Best Sound. Other winners included All Quiet on the Western Front four times, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio as Best Animated Feature, the script of Women Talking, the costumes of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and the effects of Avatar: The Way of Water. And yes, host Jimmy Kimmel gave reminders of last year's infamous incident, like saying anyone trying to slap the presenter this year would have to go through Adonis Creed, #4, the Mandalorian, Spider-Man, Fabelman, and Guillermo (no, not del Toro, Rodriguez - who certainly fights better than plays basketball).
6 Lance Reddick 2,175,052 Reddick, best known for portraying Cedric Daniels in The Wire and who just starred in this month's John Wick: Chapter 4, died suddenly on March 17.
7 Jamie Lee Curtis 1,894,767 Self-described in the SAG Awards as "a proud nepo baby" (her parents Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis are famous actors), the star of Halloween, Trading Places, True Lies, Freaky Friday and Knives Out, among others, won Best Supporting Actress while uglying herself up in #1. (discussions on whether Curtis earned it more than Stephanie Hsu for the same movie soon broke out)
8 The Last of Us (TV series) 1,545,810 The ninth episode of HBO's adaptation of the acclaimed video game aired on March 12, concluding the first season of what many critics have called one of the best video game adaptations ever. That doesn't mean we're done when it comes to video game adaptations, however—fellow PlayStation franchise Gran Turismo is getting a feature film later this year, while rival Nintendo's The Super Mario Bros. Movie is poised to break box office records within a matter of weeks.
9 Saint Patrick's Day 1,531,150 #5 didn't give anything to the five Irish actors nominated or to The Banshees of Inisherin, but the Emerald Isle still makes itself present through the holiday celebrated on March 17.
10 The Whale (2022 film) 1,486,094 Darren Aronofsky directed this adaptation of a play about a teacher who became a morbidly obese recluse after losing his boyfriend, and is now trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter. #5 recognized the two most lauded aspects of the movie, #2's acting as the protagonist (helped by a good overall cast, including Supporting Actress nominee Hong Chau, and Sadie Sink as the daughter) and the extensive prosthetics awarded with Best Hair and Make-Up.

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.


Most edited articles

For the February 5 – March 6 period, per this this database report.

Title Revisions Commentary
2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake 3,455 The big tragedy of the first months of the year, causing billions in damage and over 50,000 dead.
Deaths in 2023 2,057 Of course this page had to be here! The famous departed including actors Lisa Loring and Taraka Ratna, and one of the victims of the above, Ghanian footballer Christian Atsu.
2023 China balloon incident 1,883 A Chinese "weather balloon" spent several days flying over North America, before being shot down by the United States Air Force on February 4. Why? Simply, the US believes it was a spy balloon. Of course, China denies this, saying that this is an over-reaction. The remains of the balloon are now being analysed by the FBI. Since then, further objects have been shot down over Alaska and the Yukon.
Humanitarian response to the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake 974 The commotion for one of the deadliest and costliest earthquakes of the century even led the United States to temporarily remove the economic sanctions on Syria due to the still not solved civil war so the country could properly receive the humanitarian efforts.
2023 Ohio train derailment 898 A train carrying hazardous materials derailed on East Palestine, Ohio, and people were worried about the Airborne Toxic Event it left behind.
2023 Scottish National Party leadership election 802 Nicola Sturgeon announced her resignation, hence a new article having to be frequently updated.
Cyclone Freddy 796 The longest-lived tropical cyclone on record, that managed to cross the entire Indian Ocean before causing some damage in Madagascar, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Collaboration with the Axis powers 763 A group of users are trying to clean up the page on this World War II topic that they found overlong and undercited.
List of earthquakes in 2023 717 The tragedy in Turkey helped more people try to help here. Thankfully the only event as strong caused no deaths and not as extensive damages.
Cataract surgery 714 One user, Pbsouthwood, has been cleaning up the article on this eye operation.
2022–23 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season 673 The very dedicated crew who documents storms, hurricanes, cyclones, and such was updating this article a lot, with the above mentioned Freddy being a major factor.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania 656 The flawed and divisive first Marvel Cinematic Universe film of the year, considered either another fun installment or a mess that doesn't improve the post-Endgame slate.
2022–23 Australian region cyclone season 618 More storms. Freddy appears again for emerging north of Australia and there's also Cyclone Gabrielle, which hit New Zealand.
2023 Tripura Legislative Assembly election 592 Frequent updates on this Indian election.
Disappearance of Nicola Bulley 580 Now Death of Nicola Bulley, as a British mortgage adviser vanished near St. Michael's on Wyre on January 27, and in spite of an extensive search the body was only found in February 19 by a man walking his dog.
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