One click after another

Traffic report

One click after another

By Igordebraga, Shuipzv3, CAWylie, and Rahcmander

This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, Shuipzv3, CAWylie (September and October); and Rahcmander (October 5 to 11).

And now your life drains on that floor (September 21 to 27)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Charlie Kirk	2,321,632	A massive memorial service was held for the controversial conservative activist in the same stadium where the Arizona Cardinals play, attracting so many people that 20,000 had to watch in the nearby indoor arena. One of the speeches was delivered by his widow, who said she forgave the man accused of the murder.
2	Erika Kirk	1,583,276
3	2025 Ballon d'Or	1,076,964	France Football unveiled their picks for the best players of the 2024–25 season. The top awards went on the male side to Ousmane Dembélé, helped Paris Saint-Germain win an elusive UEFA Champions League and also end as runners-up on the expanded 2025 FIFA Club World Cup and get two national championship; and the female side to Aitana Bonmatí, who won Spanish club tournaments with FC Barcelona and ended as runner-up on both the Women's Champions and the Women's Euro (although she didn't play the latter due to illness).
4	Zubeen Garg	1,053,519	The "Heartthrob of Assam", who could play 12 instruments and sing in over 40 languages, died at age 52 while swimming in Singapore on September 19. His body lay in state for a public memorial until cremation on September 23, when he received full honors and a twenty-one-gun salute.
5	Deaths in 2025	1,032,026	I tell myself I've got, say, 30 years. At 75 this place will suit me fine. I've never feared the grave but what I fear's that great worked-out black hollow under mine.
6	ChatGPT	1,017,651	The overuse of this LLM leads to news of all flavors, like a woman who won the lottery following its number suggestions, and a lawyer fined for using fake AI-generated quotes in court.
7	One Battle After Another	1,010,616	Two years after his last movie, Leonardo DiCaprio returns under the direction of Paul Thomas Anderson as a retired revolutionary who must rescue his daughter from a corrupt military official. Fast-paced, well-acted and combining both thrilling set pieces and a few funny moments, One Battle After Another was praised by critics and opened as the #1 movie with a $22.1 million weekend, although whether it will be an exception on most of Anderson's movies underperforming at the box office is yet to be seen.
8	D4vd	858,796	The only news to arise from the disappearance and death of a teenager, whose decomposed body was found on September 8 in the trunk of this singer's car, is that her body was released to her family for a funeral and that she was not pregnant at the time of her death. Her cause of death has been listed as "deferred", pending the release of the autopsy report.
9	They Call Him OG	824,573	No, this isn't about the "original gangster" and American rapper/actor Ice-T. This is the latest Indian crime thriller released on September 25. Filming began in 2023, with Pawan Kalyan (pictured) cast as OG, a retired gangster returning after 10 years to take on a new crime lord. Filming had some delays, since Kalyan was made deputy chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in 2024.
10	Assassination of Charlie Kirk	823,412	#1 was fatally shot in the neck while addressing an audience on the campus of Utah Valley University. A 22-year-old student from Utah was arrested for it, and showing how weird the world has gotten, the cartridges allegedly used by him had Internet memes inscribed in them: the spent one read "Notices bulges OwO what's this?", and three others had "Hey fascist! Catch! ↑→↓↓↓" (the input to summon a bomb in Helldivers 2), "Oh bella ciao bella ciao bella ciao ciao ciao", and "If you read this, you are gay LMAO".

Don't cry to me oh baby (September 28 to October 4)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Ed Gein	4,392,885	"The Butcher of Plainfield" was arrested in 1957 for the murder of a hardware store owner, and investigation discovered both that Gein killed another woman and kept a disturbing collection of human remains mostly taken from graveyards, with particular focus of making things out of skin. Gein's trial had him diagnosed with schizophrenia and found legally insane, so instead of prison he was sent to a mental institution where he died in 1984. The latest retelling of his story — that had been adapted into a few movies, including a musical, and inspired fictional serial killers such as Norman Bates, Leatherface and Buffalo Bill — is the recently released Netflix show Monster: The Ed Gein Story, where Gein is played by Charlie Hunnam.
2	Jane Goodall	2,188,646	This English primatologist and anthropologist died on October 1 at age 91, while on a speaking tour in the US. She spent over six decades of her life in field research of the Kasakela chimpanzee community in Tanzania. Her mission was to prove that chimpanzees were not too different than humans (or that human behavior wasn't too complex). She was a UN Messenger of Peace and was bestowed numerous honors throughout her life, the last being the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. On October 3, Netflix aired an episode of its series, Famous Last Words, featuring her reflecting on her life's work and her own mortality.
3	One Battle After Another	1,383,024	Paul Thomas Anderson has made another incredible movie in this action thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a former revolutionary and Sean Penn as an corrupt general who antagonizes him, including by kidnapping his daughter. It is also his biggest box office hit having passed $100 million worldwide, although it still has to recover the high budget of at least $130 million, and after topping one weekend fell to second place behind Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl.
4	Mae Martin	1,324,434	This Canadian actor/comedian created the Netflix show Wayward, where they play a cop that helps two teenagers uncover mysteries regarding their town.
5	Kantara: Chapter 1	1,301,728	Sandalwood released a prequel to 2022's Kantara, still centered around Rishab Shetty and spiritual possession rituals. It has already made more money than the original while becoming one of the highest-grossing Indian films of the year.
6	Government shutdowns in the United States	1,280,587	On October 1, the US federal government shut down for a third time (11th overall) during President Trump's terms in office, curtailing most governmental services. Politicians had disagreements over federal spending levels, foreign aid rescissions, and health insurance subsidies. The public attributed their blame evenly among the Republicans, the Democrats, and Trump himself.
7	Bad Bunny	1,080,705	This Puerto Rican rapper was announced as the halftime show performer of Super Bowl LX, returning after being a guest the last time Latins held the honors, the 2020 concert by Shakira and Jennifer Lopez. He also ended the week hosting the season opener Saturday Night Live, where in his monologue he mocked some press complaints about bringing in a guy who sings Spanish: "If you didn't understand what I just said, you have four months to learn."
8	Deaths in 2025	1,022,312	As #2 once said, "I'm absolutely sure, myself, that death isn't the end, but heaven knows what happens afterwards. There's either nothing, or there's something. Can you think of a greater adventure than finding out what that is?"
9	Pete Hegseth	1,022,194	On September 30 at Quantico, the soi-disant United States Secretary of War (né Defense) made a unorthodox gathering of around 800 top military officials, to whom he announced that the US military would start focusing more on offense, lethality and violent effect, beyond defense, legality and political correctness. He criticized the "decades of decay" and "fat generals" at the Pentagon; Trump addressed the crowd as well.
10	ChatGPT	943,152	People still use the thing, and read its page.

Your future's in an oblong box (October 5 to 11)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Ed Gein	12,250,001	So, we get another serial killer in the top 10 biggest weeks, and of course a Netflix show is to blame (#3). After losing his mother, Ed Gein got into crime and disturbing behavior, including deciding to build a "woman suit" out of body parts (something that was incorporated into the fictional Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs), mostly taken out of graveyards aside from two women he killed. His trial had Gein diagnosed with schizophrenia, and sent to a mental institution where he died in 1984.
2	Diane Keaton	3,478,511	An acclaimed actress who died at the age of 79, who broke out playing Michael Corleone's wife Kay in The Godfather trilogy and in spite of two Academy Award nods in Reds and Marvin's Room had her defining works be comedies, such as her collaborations with Woody Allen that gave her an Oscar for Annie Hall (playing the title character – who also has Keaton's birth surname!), box office hits like Father of the Bride and Something's Gotta Give, and her ultimately final movie in last year's Summer Camp.
3	Monster: The Ed Gein Story	2,166,358	#1 is the subject of the third season of the show about murderers, created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan (though only the latter, pictured to the left, is present this time around). The other two centered around Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers already got mixed reviews, and this one also had negative responses regarding lurid violence, playing fast and loose with historical accuracy, and being meandering and full of subplots, including a discussion on how Gein influenced serial killers both real and fictional.
4	Kantara: Chapter 1	2,120,948	Writer/director/actor Rishab Shetty shows the origins of the conflict shown in 2022's Kantara with plenty of action, folklore and spiritual rituals in pre-colonial coastal Karnataka. A big success piling up crores of rupees, it's the second highest-grossing film of both 2025 Indian cinema (behind Chhaava) and Sandalwood as a whole (behind KGF: Chapter 2), so the sequel hook will certainly pay off – and the title is Kantara: Chapter 2, so that would make the original the third movie when it's done?
5	Ilse Koch	1,600,241	Two reprehensible human beings featured in #3. Koch was the wife of the commandant at Buchenwald concentration camp who allegedly ordered the skins from tattooed prisoners to be turned into fashion lampshades and other items, and #1 learning this through his interest in Nazi atrocities (something shown in the show with Gein having visions of Koch, played by Vicky Krieps) certainly inspired his endeavors building things out of corpses. Speck killed eight student nurses (five are in the picture to the left) and appears in the show, played in Tobias Jelinek, showing how from prison he sent letters to Gein.
6	Richard Speck	1,194,879
7	Anthony Perkins	1,086,261	During #3, some of #1's cultural influence is shown, including Norman Bates, who was famously played by this actor, who in the Netflix show is portrayed by Joey Pollari. And as an aside, his son Oz Perkins is keeping the family in the horror business, having made in the past two years Longlegs, The Monkey and the upcoming Keeper.
8	Deaths in 2025	1,030,761	Goin' down, goin' down Don't look for me now, I'm not around All day long, I'm underground...
9	Ian Watkins (Lostprophets singer)	989,506	Welsh alternative rock band Lostprophets had a good run with a few gold and platinum albums, but once frontman Ian Watkins was arrested in 2012 for sexual offenses, mostly regarding children, their music has been brushed aside (including by the other members, who distanced themselves forming a new group, No Devotion). 11 years into a 29-year sentence, he was stabbed to death at HM Prison Wakefield, at the age of 48.
10	ChatGPT	959,749	ChatGPT has, since the start of 2025, shown up in the Top 25 Report in 32 of 40 weeks. That might seem like a lot, but compared to Facebook, which was on the list for all but one week during all of 2013–2014, it doesn't come close.

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 September 6 – October 6 period, per this database report.

Title	Revisions	Notes
Killing of Charlie Kirk	5,121^[1]	Once a conservative activist was shot while addressing an audience on the campus of Utah Valley University, the shock spread everywhere, leading to all those updates (another notable thing regarding Wikipedia is how Kirk's page became the first to ever get ten million views in one day).
Charlie Kirk	2,606
Deaths in 2025	2,182	Aside from the ones listed in the two tables above, and two people who appeared in the last Traffic Report in Robert Redford and Ricky Hatton, the period had the departures of Claudia Cardinale, Patricia Routledge, and Assata Shakur.
Bridge	1,741	"Noleander, should I take 'em to the bridge? (GA ahead!) Hit me now!"
2025 Pacific typhoon season	1,538	The yearly formation of tropical cyclones in the Western Pacific, the strongest being Typhoon Ragasa, a super typhoon that flooded Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
New Hollywood	1,338	Two editors are improving the article on the wave of authorial films made between the late 1960s and the early 1980s (summed up by a book on the subject as "How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'n Roll Generation Saved Hollywood"), generating classics like Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, The Godfather and Raging Bull.
Die glückliche Hand	1,162	One editor — the indefatigable MONTENSEM — is working on the article about this 1909 opera by Arnold Schoenberg.
Suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!	1,122	FCC chairman Brendan Carr complained about late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's comments on air following the death of Charlie Kirk — and the show's production was suspended by its corporate owner. This led to an intense backlash — including people cancelling their Hulu/Disney+ subscriptions in protest — and one week later it returned, to record viewership numbers. Kimmel said in his monologue that Trump "tried, did his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show."
Gaza genocide	1,067	It's been two years since Hamas launched the October 7 attacks, and the situation is a humanitarian disaster of galling proportions. This article, in particular, has been squarely at the nexus of great rancor — not only on Wikipedia, but in wider press coverage of Wikipedia. See this issue's In the media for more coverage.
2025 Nepalese Gen Z protests	961	For most of September, protests began in Nepal following a nationwide ban on numerous social media platforms. However, frustration with political corruption and the display of wealth by government officials and their families, as well as allegations of mismanagement of public funds, were the origins of the protests. Violent escalations and vandalism prompted numerous politicians, including three-time prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, to step down.
List of awards and nominations received by Katy Perry	897	Even if this has been a Featured List for nine years, it seems that extensive cleanup has become necessary.
Global Sumud Flotilla	841	In another demonstration of Israel making life worse for Gaza, they intercepted this initiative of over 40 vessels with 500 participants from more than 44 countries that tried to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid.
The Life of a Showgirl	823	Conceived during and inspired by the record-breaking Eras Tour, which saw unprecedented media coverage of her career and relationship with her now-fiancé Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift's twelve studio album was released on October 3. Swift reunited with the Swedish hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback for the album, in a departure from long-time collaborators like Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, and the result is a compact collection of twelve pop and soft rocks songs. Sabrina Carpenter, who opened for the tour, is featured on the title track. Critical reception has so far been polarized, with some critics praising its new direction and upbeat production, while others took issue with its lyricism. The album's lead single, "The Fate of Ophelia", became Spotify's most-streamed song in a single day (30.9 million streams), while Billboard reported the album sold 2.7 million copies in the United States on its first day of release, instantly becoming the best-selling album of the year, and with a chance to surpass the record of 3.378 million copies sold in the first week by Adele's 25.
Peter Wyngarde	793	One user, Moonraker, is doing some heavy lifting on this article.
Timeline of the Gaza war (20 August 2025 – 2 October 2025)	776	The title changed from "– present" to a date in October, when both Israel and Hamas accepted the Gaza war peace plan, a ceasefire went into effect on October 10, and both the return of hostages and withdrawal of troops is expected to finish two years of awful things in the Holy Land.

^ 1082 as "Shooting of Charlie Kirk", 3084 as "Killing of Charlie Kirk", 955 under the current title

← Previous "Traffic report"

In this issue

20 October 2025 (all comments)

Discuss this story

These comments are automatically transcluded from this article's talk page. To follow comments, add the page to your watchlist. If your comment has not appeared here, you can try purging the cache.

Your future's in an oblong box is one of the headings. Last Traffic Report, it referenced Cyanide (song). The oblong box thing is a reference to The Misfits' best song, Die, Die My Darling, which was ALSO covered by Metallica. Hats off to whoever has impeccible taste. Babysharkb☩ss2 I am Thou, Thou art I 12:49, 21 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Babysharkboss2: Thanks - and all three headers are actually lines from "Die Die My Darling"! (I put my fair share of Metallica lyrics in Traffic Report titles, makes things easier) igordebraga ≠ 17:13, 21 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Bridge is a GA as of October 19, 2025. -- Recon rabbit 14:17, 21 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Updated to reflect it. Get it together right on, right on! igordebraga ≠ 17:13, 21 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Get the latest headlines on your user page – just add {{Signpost-subscription}}.

Home

About