Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-02-11/Traffic report

Wikipedia presents itself as a repository for the world, and while that is a noble sentiment, it is still true that, as far as viewers are concerned, the English language Wikipedia is very often the American Wikipedia, and never has that been more apparent than this week. The Super Bowl, a sporting event of negligible importance to most of the world, so uplifted the people of America that they flooded the Top 10 with six articles on the subject. With the addition of Chris Kyle, the subject of yet another trivial media storm over American values, and Bruce Jenner, an American reality TV star, it's clear that American obsessions are paramount this week.

'''For the full top 25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions.'''

As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of February 1 to 7, 2015, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:


 * {| class="wikitable"

! Rank ! Article ! Class ! Views ! Image ! Notes
 * 1
 * Tom Brady
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|2,144,681
 * Tom Brady 2011.JPG
 * Prior to this week, the New England Patriots quarterback with the all-American name had led his team to the Super Bowl six times in the last thirteen years, and won thrice. This week adds a seventh Super Bowl and fourth win to his credit, after being named MVP for Super Bowl XLIX for scoring four passing touchdowns.
 * 2
 * Chris Kyle
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|1,585,185
 * Chris Kyle January 2012.jpg
 * 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 two weeks ago) the topic still has enough oxygen to keep it near the top of this list.
 * 3
 * List of Super Bowl champions
 * Featured article star.svg
 * align="right"|	1,480,853
 * This list invariably pops up once a year, as Americans first scramble for facts to determine which team will win, then rush back to see if their dream/nightmare came true.
 * 4
 * Super Bowl XLIX
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|1,396,896
 * I loathe American football, but even I would have been captivated by this game; with the teams tied at half time, the Seahawks built up a ten-point lead in the 3rd quarter, but the Patriots pulled into the lead in the final two minutes. Almost inevitably, this was the highest rated Super Bowl in history, with viewership peaking at 120 million, nearly two fifths of the entire US population.
 * 5
 * Juan Cuadrado
 * Symbol start class.svg
 * align="right"|	974,691
 * Brazil and Colombia match at the FIFA World Cup 2014-07-04 - Juan Cuadrado.jpg
 * The Colombian winger was signed to Chelsea on 2 February for £26.8 million ($40.8 million), but the negotiations went down to the wire, leading to a spike of interest the day before.
 * 6
 * Katy Perry
 * Featured article star.svg
 * align="right"|935,844
 * Katy Perry November 2014.jpg
 * Super Bowl viewership rose substantially during the singer's performance at the halftime show.
 * 7
 * New England Patriots
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|930,455
 * Colts vs Patriots 2011 01.jpg
 * The winners of this year's Super Bowl are happily ensconced in the top 25. The losers aren't, which is sad. They're the Seattle Seahawks. Very nice team apparently. Popular in Canada. Its fans set the Guinness World Record for loudest crowd noise. Twice. They've won nine division titles and three conference championships. They won last year's Super Bowl. The Patriots didn't. Seriously, they're a great team.
 * 8
 * Fifty Shades of Grey
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|713,992
 * Color icon gray v2.svg
 * The onetime Twilight fanfic that introduced 100 million bored housewives to the questionable joys of BDSM shot back into the list thanks to the imminent release of the film adaptation.
 * 9
 * Bruce Jenner
 * Symbol start class.svg
 * align="right"|897,891
 * Bruce Jenner 2012.jpg
 * The former track and field Olympian and current honorary Kardashian got into the news this week.
 * 10
 * Super Bowl
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|842,313
 * This is clearly becoming a trend.
 * }
 * Bruce Jenner
 * Symbol start class.svg
 * align="right"|897,891
 * Bruce Jenner 2012.jpg
 * The former track and field Olympian and current honorary Kardashian got into the news this week.
 * 10
 * Super Bowl
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|842,313
 * This is clearly becoming a trend.
 * }
 * This is clearly becoming a trend.
 * }