Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 15 to 21, 2015)[edit]

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Summary: I may be an unworldly person, but I've never met anyone who really observed Lent. Even preachers' children I've met tend to observe it in a "no TV, no video games" kind of way. So it has been for hundreds of years, as Christian authorities have watered it down from a full-on Ramadan-style fast to merely abstaining from beef or fish to, you know, just denying yourself a little bit, for reflection's sake, if that's OK. So it is odd that the massive festivals that supposedly mark our last chance to indulge before 40 days of denial are still held, even if no one will stop you ordering a deep-fried double cheeseburger the next day. Even more odd, to me anyway, is the peculiar obsession Wikipedia viewers have with the holiday, as it floods the Top 25 list reliably once a year. I'd assume Wikipedia readers are a particularly pious lot, if not for the fact that they also celebrated this Calvary of voluntary privation by reading up on a trashy movie about sexual depravity and excess.

As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of February 15 to 21, 2015, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Notes
1	Fifty Shades of Grey		1,921,638	The release of the film adaptation of this onetime Twilight fanfic that introduced 100 million bored housewives to the questionable joys of BDSM has been a study in the inevitable. Inevitably, critics panned it (it has a 25% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is actually higher than I expected), and equally inevitably, women flocked to it anyway, with a 68% female audience handing over $324 million worldwide in its first eight days. Still, early reports from the second weekend suggests the film may have, shall we say, peaked too early, with a reported 74% drop in receipts.
2	Alessandro Volta		1,641,496	The inventor of the electric battery and namesake of the volt unit got a Google Doodle on his 270th birthday on February 18.
3	Fifty Shades of Grey (film)		1,437,315	See #1
4	Chinese New Year		1,404,338	The Year of the Goat (or sheep, or ram) knocked last year off the bridge on February 19.
5	Ash Wednesday		994,181	There was a time, not so long ago really, (say a century or two) when this moveable feast marking the first day of Lent would have been the main topic of discussion among the public. Times have changed. Most people don't even fast for Lent any more, let alone show their devotion by marking their foreheads with ash.
6	Zach LaVine		940,027	This rookie player for the Minnesota Timberwolves won the Slam Dunk Contest at the 2015 NBA All-Star Weekend. At just 19, he was the youngest to do so for eight years.
7	Stephen Hawking		870,838	The former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, black hole theorist and latter-day science icon makes his 16th straight appearance in the Top 25 this week. Interest is only likely to increase after the Oscars, thanks to Eddie Redmayne's Best Actor win for portraying him.
8	Chris Kyle		853,404	If there's one thing America loves, it's a good, old fashioned culture war. Clint Eastwood's latest directorial effort American Sniper may not be wowing the critics (Rotten Tomatoes places it 13th among the films he has directed), nor drawing the crowds overseas (its international box office take is currently less than a third its domestic take) but it has played spectacularly well in America's conservative heartland, leading politicians on the left and right to, well, snipe at each other about what the film and its popularity say about America, its people, and in particular its subject, the now deceased sniper Chris Kyle. While interest seems to be winding down (viewing figures for this article peaked at 5.3 million three weeks ago) the topic still has enough oxygen to keep it in the Top 10.
9	Dakota Johnson		811,185	The daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson played the lead role in Fifty Shades of Grey (film) (see #1)
10	Lunar New Year		805,996	Many cultures have a Lunar New Year, but only a few celebrate it in February, as several curious users found out this week.
11	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant		728,863	The battle-ravaged non-country called the "Islamic State" has proved remarkably persistent, even after the brutal Siege of Kobanî, which purged ISIS from the town at the cost of utterly destroying it. This week, interest spiked when ISIS made its first true incursion into North Africa, after 21 Egyptians were murdered in Libya, only a short boat ride from southern Europe.
12	Jamie Dornan		707,140	The British actor and former model plays the lead male role of Christian Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey (film). While he may have inspired the #NotMyChristian Twitter campaign, that hasn't stopped anyone from seeing the film.
13	Better Call Saul		676,687	A television show spinoff of Breaking Bad (a former chart favorite on Wikipedia) starring Bob Odenkirk (pictured), it debuted on AMC on February 8, 2015.
14	Kingsman: The Secret Service		673,724	It says something about just how female-oriented Fifty Shades of Grey is that a movie with Colin Firth in it could essentially act as counterprogramming.
15	Amber Rose		671,443	Kanye West is on a roll it seems. No sooner had he atoned in public over his ill-judged trash talk against Album of the Year winner Beck, he then turned against his former girlfriend, hip-hop singer and former stripper Amber Rose, claiming that, “If Kim had dated me when I wanted, there would be no Amber Rose,” and that Kim had ordered him to take "30 showers" to wash off the Amber Rose before she'd let him date her. Her rather high-minded response on Twitter has earned her the respect of the Internet gossip press.
16	Facebook		659,464	A perennially popular article.
17	Mardi Gras		644,392	The festival to mark the beginning of Lent is celebrated in many countries around the world, but most people looking this up were probably interested in the New Orleans version.
18	87th Academy Awards		606,400	This year's awards were a bit predictable (Really? Birdman won? I'd never have guessed) and ridiculously long (4.5 hours), both of which may go some way towards explaining why this year's telecast was the lowest-rated in modern times. Of course, that has nothing to do with this list, which doesn't cover the date of the Awards, but it will be interesting to see how it affects the topics next week.
19	Fifty Shades Darker	Unassessed	556,063	The sequel to Fifty Shades of Grey is doubtless on the list because people are anticipating the all-but inevitable film adaptation.
20	Gilda Radner		531,472	There were many tributes paid during Saturday Night Live's 40th anniversary special, but it was Emma Stone's recreation of the sadly-late Gilda Radner's character Roseanne Roseannadanna that caught the interest of Wikipedia viewers.
21	Shrove Tuesday		531,472	The last day before Lent is traditionally celebrated in a number of different ways; from eating pancakes to dancing topless in sequinned parades. One is left to wonder which customs Wikipedia viewers were interested in.
22	2015 Cricket World Cup		526,411	The world's most popular non-soccer, non-Olympics sporting event got underway on Valentine's Day, hosted jointly by Australia and New Zealand.
23	Lent		522,422	The Christian period of abstinence has been a recurring theme on this list this week.
24	Lesley Gore		521,132	The chirpy-voiced singer of such innocent 60s pop hits as "You Don't Own Me" and "It's My Party" died this week at the age of 68.
25	Ariana Grande		519,246	The singer returns to the Top 25 thanks to the release of her latest video for her single "One Last Time".

Exclusions[edit]

This list excludes 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 also exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (2% or less) or almost all mobile views (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 talk page if you wish.

Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.

Specific exclusions this week:

Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: A carryover from last week, with a 3.56% mobile count, but huge spike on February 14 suggests this is bot driven by some broken-hearted folks.
Cold War: an odd 2-day spike and a 2.41% mobile count suggest this is artificial.