Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 10–16, 2013)[edit]

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Summary: Due to a number of coincidences, Christianity dominated this week, with favorite topics including the beginning of Lent and St Valentine's Day, and the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, which of course spiked interest in the 16th century Prophecy of the Popes, according to which we only have one more Pope to go before the End of the World. Other themes include the 2013 Grammy Awards, held on February 10, and asteroid impacts, sparked by our near miss by the small asteroid 2012 DA14 and by the 2013 Russian meteor event, both, ominously, on February 15. Other than Abraham Lincoln (aided by an acclaimed film and his birthday on February 12) and George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. (who rode a Google Doodle to the top) the only popular people not linked to above topics were murder suspects; Oscar Pistorius and Christopher Dorner.

For the week of February 10–16, 2013 the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:

Rank	Last	Weeks	Article	Views	Notes
1	17	2	Valentine's Day	3,097,508	This love-themed holiday is celebrated throughout the Western world, and falls on February 14
2	–	–	Harlem shake	1,845,630	This page was only created on February 12, and is actually only a brief disambiguation page to help people find Harlem Shake (meme), the latest internet meme craze.
3	-	-	George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr.	1,417,461	George was born on February 14, 1859, and is mostly known for creating the original Ferris Wheel for the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. A Google doodle celebrating his 154th birthday made it the third most popular article of the week
4	-	-	Pope Benedict XVI	1,041,815	On 11 February 2013, Pope Benedict, world leader of the Catholic Church, announced his pending resignation.
5	-	-	Oscar Pistorius	868,523	On 14 February 2013, the famed double below knee amputee and Olympic athlete was charged with murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp earlier that day.
6	-	-	Ash Wednesday	863,872	The first day of Lent (#13 below) fell on February 13 this year.
7	-	-	Prophecy of the Popes	844,303	The impending resignation of #4 above led to a flurry of interest in this prophecy, which posits that whoever the Conclave elects as the next Pope will be the last to hold the office before the Apocalypse.
8	-	-	The Walking Dead (TV series)	771,938	The American television series, currently airing in third season, is enjoying increasing popularity. The Walking Dead (season 3) is #16 this week below.
9	18	6	G-force	669,731	The continuing popularity of this article is a bit mystifying, possibly could be influenced by non-human views. Its popularity increased in June 2012 and has stayed that way.
10	-	-	Christopher Jordan Dorner	666,408	The former police officer and U.S. Navy reservist, after committing a number of shootings, and located was killed in the mountains in California on February 12.
11	8	2	Chinese New Year	650,326	This most important of the traditional Chinese holidays fell on February 10 this year. Down from 845,799 views last week.
12	14	6	Facebook	633,428	Down from 706,371 views last week, a perennially favorite article.
13	-	-	Lent	624,482	See #6 above.
14	-	-	Fun (band)	616,995	On February 10, 2013, this American indie pop band won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist and won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for "We Are Young".
15	-	-	2013 Grammy Awards	572,481	The 55th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 10, 2013, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. See also #14 above and #17 below.
16	-	-	The Walking Dead (season 3)	567,443	See #8 above.
17	-	-	Frank Ocean	541,090	The American singer-songwriter had a number of nominations for the 2013 Grammy Awards, and won two. He also performed at the show.
18	-	-	Shrove Tuesday	538,496	The day before #6 fell on February 12 this year.
19	-	-	Tunguska event	517,878	This famous 1908 explosion in Russia caused by a meteoroid or comet fragment was popular after the 2013 Russian meteor event occurred on February 15.
20	-	-	Google	503,448	A perennially popular article.
21	21	2	House of Cards (U.S. TV series)	489,116	A new political drama series starring Kevin Spacey, all 13 episodes of the first season were released on February 1.
22	-	-	Saint Valentine	488,529	His day (see #1) fell on February 14.
23	-	-	2012 DA14	482,114	This near-Earth asteroid passed close to the Earth on February 15
24	-	-	Abraham Lincoln	476,644	The subject of a major recent movie (Lincoln (2012 film)), has been in and out of the Top 25 so far this year. Also, his birthday falls on February 12.
25	-	-	Pope	464,599	See #4 above

This list is derived from the WP:5000 report. It excludes the Wikipedia main page (and "wiki"), non-article pages, and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Notable removals this week: List of Third Watch episodes (852,917 views) (On 10 Feb, the episode list for this 1999-2006 American television series had an unexplained spike of 738,000 views); Explained variation (761,131 views) (Unexplained massive spike in views on 10-11 Feb); Cat anatomy (522,763 views, explanation still unknown for its continuing high view counts);
The revision of WP:5000 containing the data used to create list: [1]