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Summary: Doctor Who won this week by a hair, boosted by the unveiling of the new Doctor and the rising anticipation for the 50th anniversary in November. Some cultural diversity was added by two new Bollywood movies and the end of Ramadan. to the list as well. Numbers were slightly up on last week's bottom-scrape, but Wikipedia still appears to be in the summer doldrums. Incidentally, this week featured a large number of "questionables"; articles for whose popularity we (read: I) couldn't find a reason, and so had to leave off the list. The full list of exclusions is below. If any wise reader believes an excluded article's popularity to be legitimate, could s/he please let us know on the talk page, and it can be reinstated in the main list.
For the week of August 4 - 10, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:
Rank | Last | Wks | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | - | - | Peter Capaldi | ![]() |
811,664 | ![]() |
The 55-year-old actor, seemingly permanently tied to his character Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It, now has the ultimate path out of typecasting; get typecast in an even bigger role- in this case, The Doctor. Given that the Doctor's last two incarnations have been successively younger heartthrobs, his status as the oldest actor to play the role since the first one has triggered some comment. |
2 | 1 | 31 | ![]() |
706,516 | A perennially popular article | ||
3 | - | - | Chennai Express | ![]() |
529,179 | This Bollywood action-romance has broken records at the Indian box office, becoming the first film to make ₹1 billion ($16.3 million) in four days. | |
4 | 13 | 2 | Breaking Bad | ![]() |
478,407 | ![]() |
The final season of this acclaimed chemistry teacher-turned-Scarface TV series began on August 11. |
5 | 9 | 12 | List of Bollywood films of 2013 | List | 393,982 | ![]() |
An established staple of the top 25. |
6 | 7 | 41 | Deaths in 2013 | List | 392,082 | ![]() |
The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article. |
7 | 8 | 29 | ![]() |
373,400 | ![]() |
A perennially popular article. | |
8 | - | - | Iron pillar of Delhi | ![]() |
357,315 | This mysterious monument, which has proven resoundingly rust-resistant despite standing in the humid Delhi climate since at least the 4th century AD, was the subject of a Reddit thread on August 9. | |
9 | - | - | Doctor Who | ![]() |
355,116 | The longest-running science fiction television series in history celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and also just announced its latest incarnation (see #1 above) | |
10 | 12 | 4 | The Conjuring (film) | ![]() |
354,925 | James Wan's latest ghost story (reportedly based on true events, take that as you will) stormed the US, taking $70 million in its first week. | |
11 | - | - | Eid Mubarak | Unassessed | 352,912 | ![]() |
The traditional greeting to celebrate the end of Ramadan actually got ahead of the holiday it celebrates, but then, who doesn't appreciate a little seasonal goodwill? |
12 | - | - | Eid al-Fitr | ![]() |
347,228 | ![]() |
The "Sugar Feast" to celebrate the end of the Ramadan fast fell on August 8 this year, as Muslims the world over gorged on sweet dishes after a month of self-denial. |
13 | 5 | 2 | Robin Thicke | ![]() |
346,968 | ![]() |
The Blue-eyed soul singer and son of Alan Thicke (!) released his latest album, Blurred Lines, in the US on July 30. |
14 | - | - | Megalodon | ![]() |
340,514 | ![]() |
The extinct monster shark with teeth the size of axe-blades became an unexpected topic of contention when the Discovery Channel decided to open Shark Week with a fake "documentary" that claimed it was still alive. The next day, Discovery's Twitter feed essentially wrote its death certificate as a provider of factual programming. |
15 | - | - | Karen Black | ![]() |
320,046 | ![]() |
The star of 70s classics like Nashville and Five Easy Pieces got a send-off from Wikipedians when she died on August 8. |
16 | 6 | 4 | Orange Is the New Black | ![]() |
312,158 | ![]() |
The women-in-prison TV series premiered in its entirety on Netflix on 11 July. |
17 | - | - | Linda Lovelace | ![]() |
302,505 | ![]() |
The former porn star who would later renounce the industry and declare it a pit of prostitution and borderline slavery got into the news this week with the release of a biopic of her life starring Amanda Seyfried. |
18 | 19 | 7 | Attack on Titan | ![]() |
285,727 | This anime series has attained cult status in the Nerdisphere. Interest may have recently been spiked by a series of badly-translated death threats against the show's creator, supposedly for basing a character on the series on a General in the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII. | |
19 | 24 | 38 | YouTube | ![]() |
271,587 | ![]() |
Another perennially popular article |
20 | - | - | Elysium (film) | ![]() |
269,513 | Neill Blomkamp's followup to District 9 won the weekend by taking nearly $30 million, despite its heavier-than-usual allegorical undertones. | |
21 | 3 | 3 | The Wolverine (film) | ![]() |
268,144 | The second attempt to give X-Men fan-favourite Wolverine his own franchise appears to be doing far better than the first, taking $21 million in its first day. | |
22 | - | - | Ed and Lorraine Warren | ![]() |
263,404 | ![]() |
Self-proclaimed psychic demonologists whose work is the basis for the film The Conjuring (see #9 above) |
23 | - | - | Franck Ribéry | ![]() |
262,922 | The French winger for the German team Bayern Munich was nominated for UEFA Best Player in Europe on August 7, two days after a 5-0 thrashing of BSV Schwarz-Weiß Rehden | |
24 | - | - | Krrish 3 | ![]() |
254,165 | Upcoming Bollywood scifi superhero sequel. | |
25 | - | - | 2013 FIBA Asia Championship | ![]() |
242,565 | ![]() |
The Asian World Cup basketball qualifying tournament was held in Manila from August 1 to August 11. |