Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/May 19 to 25, 2024

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (May 19 to 25, 2024)

Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, CAWylie, Boyinaroom and Vestrian24Bio.

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After a week with low view counts, this week turns up with three 1M+ viewed articles.

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Ebrahim Raisi	2,165,931	#8 ended the life of the President of Iran, a controversial figure even before taking office, as in the 1980s he was part of a commission that ordered the execution of political prisoners, and his government had the international community complaining about the intensification of the nuclear program of Iran and overall belligerence (supporting Russia against Ukraine, arming the groups that attack Israel and last month downright firing some missiles and drones), and Iran's own staging protests against the morality police. In spite of that it's expected that the government itself will not see many changes after his death, aside from the country's de facto ruler Ali Khamenei (who has been Supreme Leader of Iran since 1989) appointing the vice president as acting president until new elections are held on June 28.
2	Ali Khamenei	1,029,402
3	Deaths in 2024	1,000,312	Goodbye You can keep this suit of lights I'll be up with the sun I'm not coming down 'Cause I'm already gone...
4	2024 Indian general election	990,635	The Indian Lok Sabha election is almost reaching the conclusion next week. It is to be decided whether the ruling party (which has been in office since 2014) will continue for another five years making it to 15 consecutive years or the opposition party would get their turn after 10 years.
5	Ademola Lookman	933,770	The 2024 UEFA Europa League final was a moment of recognition for this striker, born in London to Nigerian parents (leading him to play internationally for the African country), who scored all three goals that guaranteed the title to Atalanta BC. Losing team Bayer Leverkusen didn't cry too much given they finally got the Bundesliga that evaded them for over 100 years.
6	Oleksandr Usyk	910,189	This Ukrainian boxer managed to defeat #13 to become the "Undisputed Heavyweight Champ!".
7	Morgan Spurlock	846,546	On the 20th anniversary of Super Size Me, an Academy Award-nominated documentary revolving around spending a month eating only McDonald's to see what so much fast food does to a body, its director/star Morgan Spurlock died at 53, following struggles with cancer. His career was not exempt from controversies, like claims that Super Size Me was not completely accurate (particularly for hiding Spurlock's alcohol abuse) and Spurlock himself admitting a history of sexual misconduct (something that made 2017's Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!, showing the dirt of the chicken industry, lose a distribution deal and ultimately become his final movie).
8	2024 Varzaqan helicopter crash	821,820	#1 had left the Giz Galasi Dam near the border with Azerbaijan to inaugurate a refinery in Tabriz, when his helicopter crashed in a forest. All eight people in the aircraft died, which also included the Foreign Minister and two authorities of the province of East Azerbaijan (one of whom survived the crash itself and picked up the pilot's phone to answer the rescue crew before passing from his injuries), and three flight crew. It should be noted that two other Iranian presidents were involved in helicopter crashes, as the country's aircraft are not in optimal condition given international sanctions lead to replacement part shortages.
9	Bridgerton	779,673	The first half of this American Netflix series set in the early 1800s in an alternative London Regency era was released last week. With the previous seasons having won two Emmy awards and more, the highly expected third season opened up to positive reviews across the internet.
10	President of Iran	729,927	Ever since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that overthrew the monarchy, the biggest authority of the country is a religious one, the Supreme Leader of Iran, but right below him there is a President chosen by the people. #2 has held both offices, being President from 1981 to 1989 (following the only other than #1 to die as President, Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, whose offices were bombed), when he became Supreme Leader as the hand-picked successor of the recently deceased Ayatollah Khomeini.
11	King and Queen of the Ring (2024)	710,407	Six wrestling matches took place in this WWE event on May 25: Cody Rhodes defeated Logan Paul to retain SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Championship; Liv Morgan (pictured) defeated Becky Lynch to win Raw's Women's World Championship; Raw's Gunther defeated SmackDown's Randy Orton to win the King of the Ring tournament; and SmackDown's Nia Jax defeated Raw's Lyra Valkyria to win the Queen of the Ring tournament. Gunther and Nia Jax's wins earned their respective title shots at SummerSlam 2024, which is set to occur in August.
12	Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga	700,913	9 years after Mad Max: Fury Road revived the highly influential post-apocalyptic film series, one of its characters, Imperator Furiosa (cosplay pictured), gets a movie telling her origin story, featuring both her child self (portrayed by Alyla Browne) kidnapped from The Green Place of Many Mothers, and her young adult self (Anya Taylor-Joy) who becomes the baddest bitch in The Wasteland. Furiosa doesn't stray away from the aesthetics and frantic action that made Fury Road so beloved, and has been warmly received by critics and audiences alike (albeit its North American opening was unusually weak for a holiday, barely beating The Garfield Movie and failing to surpass $30 million). Now fans can only pray director George Miller lives long enough to make a proper fifth movie with Mad Max himself.
13	Tyson Fury	669,761	This awesomely named British boxer lost his undisputed heavyweight championship belt to #6.
14	Xander Schauffele	634,732	This American golfer won his first major championship with a PGA-record 21 under par score at Valhalla on May 19.
15	Iran	589,711	With the death of #1 on May 19 and #2 appointing #19 as #10 (acting), this country (historically known as Persia) should frequent this list through the end of June or longer.
16	Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes	589,112	Readers are still interested in the latest installment of the world dominated by talking apes, which has gotten a positive response and earned over $300 million worldwide.
17	Carlo Acutis	512,838	Pope Francis has approved the canonization of the first Millennial saint, this Italian who had a catalogue of Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions in his website before dying of leukemia in 2006, at the age of 15. The two miracles attributed to praying to Acutis were a Brazilian boy who had a pancreatic defect and a Costa Rican woman who healed from a cerebral hemorrhage.
18	Terrence Howard	511,469	An actor with a once bright career, that included the TV show Empire, an Oscar nomination for Hustle & Flow and playing James Rhodes in Iron Man (before being recast with Don Cheadle as the character became War Machine), who appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience spewing all sorts of nonsense, including that he could "kill gravity" and "didn't believe in the number zero".
19	Mohammad Mokhber	495,124	#1's death lead to his vice to take over as president of Iran. Mokhber was CEO of both a telecommunications company and a bank, and served as a medical officer during the Iran-Iraq War.
20	Cassie Ventura	479,207	CNN obtained and published CCTV footage of #25 violently assaulting Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016, with Diddy grabbing Ventura, punching her then throwing her to the ground, followed by kicks and stomps. Ventura previously filed a lawsuit against Diddy in November 2023 alleging a decade-long "cycle of abuse, violence and sex trafficking", which was settled out of court.
21	Heeramandi	478,427	Sanjay Leela Bhansali's latest period drama on Netflix continues to be on this list and Netflix's Global Top 10 for Non-English TV Shows list for the fourth (and possibly final) week. Although it is not historically accurate regarding Tawaif culture, I'll watch it for cinematic experience.
22	Nicola Coughlan	474,938	The Irish lass returned as Penelope Featherington in #9's third series, released on May 16 and sparked by her and Luke Newton's "endearing chemistry".
23	Anthony Edwards (basketball)	451,417	The NBA Conference Finals are rolling on, and the two stars of the Minnesota Timberwolves, this one known as "Ant-Man" and former first overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns, are struggling to find their form against the Dallas Mavericks of Luka Doncic, subsequently losing the first two games even if they were playing at home in Minneapolis. (the other series also shows a team failing at the wrong time, namely the Indiana Pacers who are already one game away from elimination by the Boston Celtics)
24	Von Erich family	449,770	It's a tragedy that interest is waning over this cursed wrestling family, depicted in The Iron Claw (a quite good movie that was mostly ignored by the awards circuit and has even more of an audience after entering ~~HBO~~ Max). However, we still have hope for Kevin (pictured) at age 67.
25	Sean Combs	447,292	Kesha is now singing the opening lyric of "Tik Tok" as "wake up in the morning like fuck P. Diddy", showing how the last year full of lawsuits ruined the rapper's reputation even if he had just released a comeback album, The Love Album: Off the Grid. Combs even had to release an apology video once the footage of him assaulting #20 became public.