Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-04-22/Traffic report

Couch potatoes rule this week, as 9 of the top 10 slots were taken by either movies, TV, or sports. The surprising success of Furious 7 maintained its domination for the third week running, even eclipsing the return of Game of Thrones, the most popular fictional topic last year. Game of Thrones even had to compete with the première of Daredevil, the latest televisual extension of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which opened on Netflix this week to stellar reviews. Aside from the late B. R. Ambedkar, the only other intrusion of the real world into this bubble of fantasy and pop culture was the murder of Odin Lloyd, which, let's face it, has as much to do with football as it does with crime.

'''For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.'''

As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of April 12 to 18, 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
 * Daredevil (TV series)
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|1,492,776
 * Daredevil Logo.jpg
 * The first of four projects started as part of a deal between Marvel Studios and Netflix, this TV series was released in its entirety on the service on April 10. It's impossible to gauge the public response to this ("ratings" don't really have meaning when applied to Netflix shows) but the critical response has been ecstatic (Rotten Tomatoes currently rates it at 97%) and if its Wikipedia position is anything to go by, the public appear to have taken to it too.
 * 2
 * Furious 7
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|1,359,495
 * Tfatf-logo.svg
 * "Fast and furious" pretty much sums up the seventh instalment of this long-running series, as it has managed to accrue an astonishing $1.13 billion worldwide in just its first 15 days on release, including the highest opening weekend gross ever in China. But while box office is certainly the prime mover of Wikipedia views when it comes to movies, it isn't really enough. For a movie to get this kind of attention on Wikipedia, it either needs to be controversial, like Fifty Shades of Grey or American Sniper, or genuinely beloved, like Guardians of the Galaxy. I don't know if it is too early to make the call, but Furious 7 already has an IMDB rating (one of the surest indicators of audience affection) of 7.9; to put that in perspective, a rating higher than 8 makes a film eligible for the top 250 list.
 * 3
 * Game of Thrones (season 5)
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|1,269,257
 * Game of Thrones 2011 logo.svg
 * And it's baa-aack. The TV show that has become synonymous with the Top 25 Report aired its season première on April 12, to record ratings. I am not the world's greatest fan of Game of Thrones, but I swear, even if you thought it was televisual swill, after curating this list for three years solid you'd have the dadadadaDUM! dadadadaDUM! dadadadaDUM! crashing around your skull too.
 * 4
 * Jordan Spieth
 * Symbol start class.svg
 * align="right"|1,210,126
 * Jordan_Spieth_February_2015.jpg
 * This American golfer's stellar performance in the 2015 Masters Tournament drew much attention. On April 10, Spieth broke the 36-hole Masters scoring record by posting 14-under 130 through two rounds, and on April 11 he broke the 54 hole record at the Masters by shooting a 200 total (16 under par).
 * 5
 * Paul Walker
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|1,160,566
 * Paul Walker.jpg
 * Furious 7 will be the last, and definitely biggest, film of Paul Walker's career, and was completed despite his tragic death midway through production. How much of the film's current record grosses was in memoriam to a fallen star is impossible to say.
 * 6
 * Aaron Hernandez
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|1,047,045
 * Aaron Hernandez.JPG
 * What is the only thing America loves to follow more than sports stars? Disgraced sports stars. This very-quickly-former New England Patriot got similar views back in 2013 when he was only a suspect in the murder of Odin Lloyd, but shot back into the list on April 15 when he was finally convicted of first-degree murder and was handed a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
 * 7
 * Game of Thrones
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|974,531
 * Game of Thrones 2011 logo.svg
 * See #3.
 * 8
 * Daredevil (Marvel Comics)
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|821,055
 * WonderCon 2011 Masquerade - Marvel's Daredevil (5594665058).jpg
 * Stan Lee's blind vigilante got a gritty and edgy adaptation for TV this week (see #1).
 * 9
 * B. R. Ambedkar
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|789,883
 * Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.jpg
 * The architect of India's Constitution and campaigner for the rights of untouchables got a Google Doodle to celebrate his 124th birthday on April 14.
 * 10
 * List of Game of Thrones episodes
 * Symbol list class.svg
 * align="right"|692,095
 * Game of Thrones 2011 logo.svg
 * Most likely people searching for air dates (see #3)..
 * }
 * Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.jpg
 * The architect of India's Constitution and campaigner for the rights of untouchables got a Google Doodle to celebrate his 124th birthday on April 14.
 * 10
 * List of Game of Thrones episodes
 * Symbol list class.svg
 * align="right"|692,095
 * Game of Thrones 2011 logo.svg
 * Most likely people searching for air dates (see #3)..
 * }
 * }