Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2016-03-23/Traffic report

Shakespeare had a fortune teller forewarn Julius Caesar to beware the Ides of March. Given Caesar was assassinated that day, it's fair to say he was insufficiently wary. As are, it seems, our viewers, as numbers are significantly down on last week. Or perhaps they're simply weary, with a significant holdover of topics indicating that they found little new to be interested in.

'''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 March 13 to 19, 2016, the 10 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
 * Donald Trump
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|2,412,293
 * Donald_Trump_January_2016.jpg
 * "Donald Trump", unsurprisingly, was the 17th most viewed article of 2015, during which it accrued over 14 million views. In the four weeks it has stood at #1 on this list, the article has garnered nearly 21 million views. If that number were included in last year's list, it would be at #5. Just for the last four weeks. So completely has Trump fused together the two principal preoccupations of our viewers (current events and entertainment) that it is simply impossible to know which reason is driving them more. Do our viewers see his presidential campaign as a genuine epochal shift in the political landscape of the US? Or simply as yet another reality TV show? Come the end of year one of President Trump's administration, it will be interesting to see if the show is still going.
 * 2
 * Saint Patrick's Day
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|2,042,316
 * Kilbennan St. Benin's Church Window St. Patrick Detail 2010 09 16.jpg
 * Every man has his day, at least if he's a saint. And when your day happens to involve copious alcohol consumption and opportunities for grade school cruelty, it is bound to be popular.
 * 3
 * Merrick Garland
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|1,696,246
 * Merrick Garland.jpg
 * Five days before Barack Obama named this federal judge from his home turf of Chicago his nominee for Justice of the Supreme Court, Republican senator Orrin Hatch cited him as a moderate candidate that Obama would never choose. Of course, the fact that Obama did choose Garland has not stopped Senate Republicans hoping to block confirmation until after the next president is elected, citing the "Biden Rule"; a term which didn't exist before this year and even Joe Biden has contested its existence.
 * 4
 * 10 Cloverfield Lane
 * Symbol start class.svg
 * align="right"|865,546
 * Mary_Elizabeth_Winstead_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg
 * The fact that this science fiction thriller, which was produced by J. J. Abrams and includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead (pictured) in the cast, has apparently nothing to do with the original Cloverfield (it was initially titled "The Cellar") does not seem to have deterred audiences or critics. It has earned $45 million in its first ten days; triple its production budget, and has a 90% RT rating.
 * 5
 * Republican Party presidential primaries, 2016
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|721,981
 * Republican Party presidential primaries results, 2016.svg
 * Seventeen began. Three remain. In the wake of the "Super Tuesday II" primary elections on the 15th, with Trump storming four of five states. The holdout, Ohio, was won by its current governor, John Kasich; much, I am sure, to his relief, as he had said he would drop out if it was not. Poor Marco Rubio had not said he would drop out if he lost his home state of Florida, but did so following his loss there. With the contest quiet until the next big primary push on the 22nd, the Presidential election has entered a kind of surreal cruise control, as the country waits to see if Trump can reach that magic number of 1237 delegates he needs to secure the nomination without a brokered convention.
 * 6
 * Genie (feral child)
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|687,378
 * Stasi Dark Room.JPG
 * This horrifying story, in which a young child was forced to spend the first thirteen years of her life in a blacked out room without any human contact, became the topic of intense discussion on Reddit this week, with many asking very difficult questions; was it right for the researchers to test her the way they did, or was she simply too good an opportunity to study cognitive development? Should she have gone back to her mother, who claimed she was forced into the abuse, or stayed with the researchers who had become, against scientific ethics, her surrogate parents? There are no easy answers when dealing with something so complex and fragile as a human life.
 * 7
 * Ides of March
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|670,947
 * Vincenzo Camuccini - La morte di Cesare.jpg
 * The Ides of March (or March 15), the day on which Julius Caesar was assassinated, has lived on ever since as a metaphor for violent political transition; whether revolution in the name of freedom (As Brutus himself suggested on coins minted after the event) or betrayal in the name of political ideals, as William Shakespeare suggested in his Julius Caesar. With so-called "Super Tuesday II" falling on the Ides of March this year, and its resultant downfall of Marco Rubio, many are seeing the date reaffirm itself as a time of political reckoning.
 * 8
 * Deaths in 2016
 * Symbol list class.svg
 * align="right"|634,903
 * Skullclose.jpg
 * The annual list of deaths has always been a fairly consistent visitor to this list, averaging about 500,000 views a week. Since the death of David Bowie, this article's average views have jumped.
 * 9
 * Saint Patrick
 * Symbol b class.svg
 * align="right"|627,900
 * Saint Patrick (window).jpg
 * The patron saint of Ireland was not, in fact, Irish, and actually may have been born in what would some day become England (but wasn't yet, so patriotic Irish readers can relax); he owes his status in Ireland to Irish pirates, who abducted him and took him there, giving him the familiarity he needed when he returned many years later to convert the locals.
 * 10
 * Ariana Grande
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|619,144
 * 93.3 FLZ Jingle Ball Tampa Florida IMG 6850 (11490195453) (cropped).jpg
 * She isn't known for her acting chops, but Ariana Grande, by all accounts, crushed it as guest host of Saturday Night Live this week, doing spot-on impressions of Britney Spears, Shakira, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, and even Jennifer Lawrence, as well as a debut of her latest single, "Be Alright".
 * }
 * Saint Patrick (window).jpg
 * The patron saint of Ireland was not, in fact, Irish, and actually may have been born in what would some day become England (but wasn't yet, so patriotic Irish readers can relax); he owes his status in Ireland to Irish pirates, who abducted him and took him there, giving him the familiarity he needed when he returned many years later to convert the locals.
 * 10
 * Ariana Grande
 * Symbol c class.svg
 * align="right"|619,144
 * 93.3 FLZ Jingle Ball Tampa Florida IMG 6850 (11490195453) (cropped).jpg
 * She isn't known for her acting chops, but Ariana Grande, by all accounts, crushed it as guest host of Saturday Night Live this week, doing spot-on impressions of Britney Spears, Shakira, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, and even Jennifer Lawrence, as well as a debut of her latest single, "Be Alright".
 * }
 * }

