Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/October 1 to 7, 2017

The Top 25 Report

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (October 1 to 7, 2017)[edit]

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Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga and OZOO

A new month, and things are bleak: a shooting in Las Vegas (#3, #23) had a body count only lower than a genocide (#25), a poll in Catalonia (#2) had a violent response by the Spanish government (#19), Puerto Rico (#11) is still ravaged and neglected by the president, Hollywood isn't having enough scaring us with Stephen King adaptations (#9, #14) and has to reveal one of its moguls is a sex maniac (#13), and famous people are still dying (#6) - aside from last week's holdover Hugh Hefner (#10), there was a high-profile rock n' roll departure with Tom Petty (#1), enough to top our list as he left a great legacy that includes the Traveling Wilburys (#16); and comedian Ralphie May (#15) also left us. No wonder people are seeking escapism, including two sequels, Hollywood's Blade Runner 2049 (#4) - that even brought the original along (#5) - and Bollywood's Judwaa 2 (#20); seeing which football squads are on the way to the 2018 FIFA World Cup (#8, #21); watching TV series about notorious murderers (#18) and exploring the universe (#22); finding out who is getting the Nobel Prize for Literature (#17); and remembering a non-violent leader (#24). The discoveries by people at Reddit close out the list (#7, #20).

For the week of October 1 to 7, 2017, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Views	Notes
1	Tom Petty	5,495,706	If there was someone who knew How to Be a Heartbreaker, that would be their frontman Tom Petty, multiinstrumentalist and author of classics such as "Free Fallin'" and "American Girl". He died at the age of 66, leading to him becoming the second musician to get more than 5 million views in a week this year.
2	Catalonia	1,706,490	The Spanish region spearheaded by capital Barcelona tried to become more than an autonomous region again - and as our #19 shows, it got ugly.
3	2017 Las Vegas shooting	1,357,265	If the world was fair, the biggest news in Las Vegas last week would be the debut of their first major league team, NHL's Vegas Golden Knights. Instead, a nutcase in a hotel opened fire against a crowd watching a country festival - leading to 58 deaths and more than 500 injured - before killing himself. Along with all the commotion such a tragedy inspires, again there is a debate on strengthening the gun control laws.
4	Blade Runner 2049	1,042,272	For the third time, Harrison Ford returns to an iconic role after a long time. Blade Runner 2049 has a Replicant hunter played by Ryan Gosling (pictured along with Ford) going on an investigation that eventually makes him uncover Rick Deckard, the "original generation" android hunter played by Ford, from the place he had been hiding for 30 years. Director Denis Villeneuve proves last year's Arrival wasn't his only sci-fi success, being lauded by critics for making a worthy follow-up. While the film has topped the box office, the numbers have been sluggish - nothing new, as the next entry shows.
5	Blade Runner	1,015,004	The sequel that emerged after 35 year obviously brings attention to the original. Ridley Scott's sci-fi noir is so acclaimed nowadays it's hard to remember it was actually a box office flop that earned mixed reviews.
6	Deaths in 2017	782,920	Ten months straight of the recently departed on the list (which includes three entries, #1, #10, and #15). "Death greets me warm, now I will just say goodbye".
7	Reichstag dome	691,994	Reddit celebrated in a way the German reunification in October 3 by discussing the glass dome above the Parliament in Berlin, which was built to celebrate Germany being back in one piece.
8	2018 FIFA World Cup qualification	604,643	More qualifying games for football's greatest event, and until October 7, the date at the end of this report, five more teams got their places in Russia: from Europe, three past World Cup winners, defending champions Germany, plus the victors in 1966 (England) and 2010 (Spain); Nigeria scored the first African spot (by attending the tournament for the sixth time, the "Super Eagles" are second overall of Africa); and 2014's surprise story Costa Rica punched their tickets in the North\Central America qualifiers. Many more will be listed in their entry next week.
9	It (2017 film)	595,828	After four weeks in the top 5, It drops down four more places after three weeks at number one. It has now made over $555 million worldwide and has broken The Exorcist's 44-year record as the top grossing horror movie of all time (not adjusted for inflation). The sequel covering the second half of the original book is set for release on September 6, 2019.
10	Hugh Hefner	579,935	Hugh Hefner, the American businessman, magazine publisher, and / or pornographer, died on September 27 at the age of 91. He is best – well, almost exclusively – known as the editor-in-chief of men's "lifestyle and entertainment" magazine, Playboy. He has reportedly requested his ashes be interred in the same crypt as actress Marilyn Monroe, whose early pictures were used in the first issue of Playboy. Monroe's possible thoughts on being interred with Hefner are not recorded.
11	Puerto Rico	553,158	Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States; and was recently badly affected by Hurricane Maria. The hurricane has devastated the island, completely destroying the power grid – leaving all 3.4 million residents without electricity – and knocking out ninety-five percent of the island's cell phone networks. The US government has been criticised for its initial failure to waive the Jones Act, which prevented Puerto Rico from receiving any aid and supplies from non-U.S.-flagged vessels; and San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz has ended up in a war of words with Donald, 71, a president from Washington, over his administration's response. In Donald's defence, though, there is a big blue wet thing in the way with no known way to cross it.
12	Deborah Servitto	533,335	Reddit strikes again! This time with a judge assigned to one of the lawsuits against Eminem, that given such a good opportunity, decided to showcase her flow by rapping the verdict.
13	Harvey Weinstein	505,185	In the 1990s, Weinstein - helped by brother Bob - was so powerful he lobbied movies to Oscar contention (e.g. Chocolat) or even wins (e.g. Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture). Now Harvey has fallen from grace heavily, being fired from The Weinstein Company after being accused of sexual misconduct by over a dozen women (with one of those even saying he masturbated in front of her!).
14	Gerald's Game	458,143	Stephen King (pictured) dominating theaters with It (#8) wasn't enough, and now this novel of his (not to be confused with the Pixar short Geri's Game) has been adapted into a Netflix original movie.
15	Ralphie May	457,297	May, a "loud and large" comedian (“My audience has accepted me for a long time as, you know, not a fat comedian but a comedian who happens to be fat.”) with a very sharp wit ("I live in a very dangerous part of Los Angeles.. it's called Los Angeles.") died at the age of 45. Part of his humor lives on with the way he named his children: August James May and April June May.
16	Traveling Wilburys	450,372	The death of Tom Petty (#1) also brought back interest in this supergroup he was a part of. Sadly, with his departure only two members are still alive, Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne.
17	Kazuo Ishiguro	448,603	2017's Nobel Prize in Literature went to the Japanese-born British writer Kazuo Ishiguro, author of among others The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go.
18	Lyle and Erik Menendez	440,303	Brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted in 1994 for the 1989 murders of their parents, entertainment executive José and his wife, Mary ("Kitty"). During the trial, the brothers claimed that the murders stemmed from years of sexual and psychological abuse that they had suffered at the hands of their parents; the jury rejected these claims and the two brothers were sentenced to life without parole. The murders are the subjects of the first season of the new true crime anthology series Law & Order True Crime, a spin off from the Law & Order franchise, the first episode of which was broadcast on September 26, 2017 on NBC.
19	Catalan independence referendum, 2017	399,260	Catalonia (#2) again tried to see if its people wanted to be an independent country instead of just part of Spain. Even if like the last time this was asked the Spanish government could just veto the results of any vote deeming them unconstitutional, this time they took it to aggressive levels, with the police attacking polling locations. The brutality that led to hundreds injured was criticized worldwide and eventually protested in Catalonia with a general strike attended by hundreds of thousands, including the players of FC Barcelona.
20	Judwaa 2	393,993	#4 and #9 in this list are reminders that Hollywood likes to revive old properties. Well, this one is a case of Bollywood doing so. The 1997 comedy about twins Judwaa was brought back by the same director, David Dhawan, and this time starring his son Varun Dhawan (pictured) in the dual role.
21	2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)	389,547	Along with the general qualifiers for Russia 2018 (#8), there is also an interest for the regional ones in the "Old continent", who has the most allocated teams with 13 (not counting the hosts). Germany, Russia and England joined the already qualified Belgium, and many others tried to either get a direct spot (which eventually brought to the fold 1998 Cup winner France, current continental champions Portugal, way-past-their-heyday Serbia and Poland... and a surprising rising force, Iceland!) or finish second in their groups to contest for the remaining four spots.
22	Star Trek: Discovery	366,702	Presenting the 7th exciting series about a group of travellers Star Trekkin' across the universe. The first new Star Trek series to be broadcast since 2005 debuted on CBS on September 24. Stars of the series include Sonequa Martin-Green (pictured) as the protagonist Michael Burnham, Doug Jones as alien Saru; and hello to Jason Isaacs, popping up as USS Discovery captain Gabriel Lorca.
23	Bump fire	360,933	The Vegas shooting (#3) was done with rifles equipped with stocks that allowed for the use of this shooting technique, that makes semi-automatics fire as fast as a fully automatics. Given how many innocent people were wounded and killed as a result, even the National Rifle Association is asking for such stock to be subject to additional regulations.
24	Mahatma Gandhi	352,762	Gandhi famously didn't fight for Indian independence, advocating for non-violent disobedience. And it worked, and thus his birthday, October 2, is a national holiday in India, and celebrated worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence.
25	Wounded Knee Massacre	344,071	Following the tragedy of Vegas (#3), some claimed it was the deadliest shootout in U.S. history, even if there was still a much higher body count in this infamous genocide of Native Americans that happened in 1890 (the lesser estimates put the number of victims at 150).