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Summary: The top 10 encapsulates the history of human aviation; at #1, a Google Doodle celebrating the 216th anniversary of the first parachute jump; at #10, the enduringly popular scifi film Gravity, a paean to human spaceflight. It's odd to think it's taken us 200 years to travel about that many miles up.
For the week of October 20 - 26, 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 | - | - | Parachute | ![]() |
892,746 | ![]() |
An interactive Google Doodle on the 216th anniversary of the first parachute jump led to interest both in the item itself and in its first user, André-Jacques Garnerin. |
2 | 15 | 3 | Halloween | ![]() |
613,331 | ![]() |
'Tis the night before Hallows, and all through the house, not a creature is stirring... that you can see. |
3 | 1 | 42 | ![]() |
543,309 | A perennially popular article | ||
4 | 14 | 45 | World War II | ![]() |
391,047 | ![]() |
Another perennially popular article. (The 16th most popular article from 2010–12, in fact, see Table 2 here.) |
5 | 13 | 52 | Deaths in 2013 | List | 359,473 | ![]() |
The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article. |
6 | 4 | 12 | Breaking Bad | ![]() |
347,729 | ![]() |
Despite ending for good two weeks ago, this 5-year televisual exploration of one man's descent into evil continues to drum up interest. |
7 | 17 | 5 | United States | ![]() |
346,748 | ![]() |
A rarity in the top 25, but the 3rd most popular Wikipedia article between 2010–2012, and a perpetual bubble-under-er. Not really surprising that the country with by far the most English speakers would be the most popular on the English Wikipedia. |
8 | 9 | 23 | List of Bollywood films of 2013 | List | 341,165 | ![]() |
An established staple of the top 25. |
9 | - | - | André-Jacques Garnerin | ![]() |
331,768 | ![]() |
The man who conducted the first ever parachute jump (in a basket!) in 1797 got some internet attention thanks to a Google Doodle (see #1 above). |
10 | 3 | 4 | Gravity (film) | ![]() |
324,136 | Alfonso Cuaron's spacebourne action/art film is now the critical/commercial blockbuster of the year, combining a nearly $370 million, 24-day worldwide box office take with a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. | |
11 | 2 | 17 | The Walking Dead (TV series) | ![]() |
321,657 | ![]() |
The fourth season of the popular TV series premiered on October 13. |
12 | 11 | 5 | Lorde | ![]() |
312,281 | The not-quite 17-year-old singer-songwriter from New Zealand released her modestly titled debut album, Pure Heroine, on 27 September. | |
13 | 23 | 8 | Arrow (TV series) | ![]() |
301,455 | The second season of this superhero TV series began on 9 October | |
14 | - | - | June and Jennifer Gibbons | ![]() |
295,508 | The "silent twins" who retreated so far from reality that they communicated in their own private language, and were eventually committed to Broadmoor Hospital for the criminally insane, became a hot topic on Reddit. | |
15 | - | - | List of How I Met Your Mother episodes | List | 294,870 | ![]() |
The latest episode of this popular sitcom's final season of aired on 28 October. |
16 | - | - | Cheddar cheese | ![]() |
268,582 | ![]() |
The cheese that hails from the caves of Cheddar Gorge, England, is not usually dyed orange in its homeland; however, it is in America, and its natural whiteness proved quite a shock to American Reddit users. |
17 | - | 41 | ![]() |
267,546 | ![]() |
A perennially popular article. | |
18 | - | - | Celia Cruz | ![]() |
263,465 | ![]() |
The salsa singer got a Google Doodle for her 88th birthday |
19 | - | - | UFC 166 | ![]() |
259,201 | The UFC Heavyweight Championship bout between current champion Cain Velasquez Junior dos Santos took place at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas on 19 October. | |
20 | 6 | 2 | Oarfish | ![]() |
252,097 | ![]() |
The rarely seen giant deepwater fish, inspiration for many tales of the sea serpent, hit the news when two dead specimens were found in a week off the coast of California. |
21 | - | - | Jamie Dornan | ![]() |
245,305 | ![]() |
The Irish actor/model became a talking point when he won (?) the male lead in the film of Fifty Shades of Grey |
22 | - | 4 | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | ![]() |
244,421 | Joss Whedon's extension of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into television has been met with mixed reviews slowly decreasing ratings. | |
23 | - | 8 | IPv6 | ![]() |
239,588 | ![]() |
This issue has reappeared in the top 25, after hovering below it for some time. It is something of a crisis, though not one that is necessarily apparent. It may come as a surprise to some, but the Internet is, for lack of a better word, full. Every computer online is assigned a specific address, made up of a sequence of numbers, that allows other computers to contact it over the Internet. The original number sequence, known as IPv4, is currently the norm for ~99% of online computers. It allows for a maximum of about 4.3 billion addresses; a number that maxed out in January 2011. The long-term plan is to migrate over to IPv6, which allows for 3x1038 addresses; however, since this would require a massive software and even hardware upgrade, many companies are reluctant to undertake it. Until now we've been stalling for time by harvesting abandoned addresses and re-allocating them, a decidedly short-term measure. |
24 | - | 2 | India | ![]() |
239,486 | ![]() |
The second-largest English-speaking population on Earth also made it into the top 25 this week. |
25 | 24 | 2 | Boss (2013 Hindi film) | ![]() |
229,521 | This Bollywood action film opened on the 16th of October and made Rs 240 million ($3.9 million) in its first three days of release. |