Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/December 17 to 23, 2017

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (December 17 to 23, 2017)

Prepared with commentary by Soulbust ← Last week's report – Next week's report →

Here is the annual report: The Top 50 for 2017

The Last Jedi Takes The Crown

Just like at the box office, Star Wars: The Last Jedi comes in at #1 on the Top 25 Report for the second week in a row. Its release spread to its predecessor, The Force Awakens (#21), the Star Wars umbrella overall (#5), and one of the media franchise's most popular characters in Darth Vader (#10). Several actors featured in the newest Star Wars installment also make their way on the Report this week, as Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, and Daisy Ridley come in at #15, #24, and #25, respectively.

British royals were prominent on the Report again, thanks to the second season of Netflix's The Crown. Count 'em up: Princess Margaret (#3), Queen Elizabeth II (#6), Prince Philip (#7), Lord Snowdon (#17), Prince Charles (#18), and Edward VIII (#22) were all entries this week due to their portrayals on The Crown. Just for good measure with British royals, let's add in Meghan Markle (#19), who's in this week because of her and Prince Harry's recent engagement photos. As for royalty outside of Britain, the music world's reigning rap queen Cardi B (#16) also makes it on the Report.

Death also made a dent on the Report this week. The general Deaths in 2017 count (#8) appeared as usual, but received a sizable boost in readership due to Kim Jong-hyun's (#2) suicide. Jong-hyun's death also attracted readership to Shinee (#13), the Korean boy band he was a part of.

Finally, online culture makes its presence through the explosion of Bitcoin (#4), the repeal of Net neutrality (#9), and the Reddit TIL-boosted Johannes Gumpp (#12).

For the week of December 17 to 23, 2017, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Views	Notes
1	Star Wars: The Last Jedi	2,379,767	So, as The Last Jedi completed its first week in theaters, the Internet raged on about what was done with the titular Last Jedi, portrayed by Mark Hamill (pictured). That's not a spoiler, by the way. Depending on who you ask, TLJ was either wonderful or woeful. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an absolutely jarring, mind-boggling 92%/52% split among critics/audiences, respectively. Just to provide some more samples, it also currently has a 7.7/10 on nearly 200,000 IMDb ratings, and on Metacritic it has an 86/100 aggregation from critics and a 4.7/10 user score. It's an aesthetically gorgeous film, with some odd artistic choices that distinguish it from the other films in the series. Solid flick (in my opinion), but I guess time'll really help a general consensus to settle. I'd recommend you watch it for yourself, although chances are you already have. No change from last week.
2	Kim Jong-hyun (singer)	1,602,123	Views spiked for the K-pop singer on December 18, after he tragically took his life at just 27 years old. K-pop has been one of those things that always seem to be a whole lot more popular than one would think at first. No doubt, fans mourned the loss of Jonghyun, as he is better known as. For anyone who may be experiencing feelings that Jong-hyun experienced, please reach out to a friend, professional, a hotline.
3	Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon	1,170,769	This is the first of six The Crown-related entries on this list. First of seven British royalty-related entries. Vanessa Kirby must be doing a phenomenal job portraying Princess Margaret, as the latter seems to be the royal attracting the most interest from Crown viewers. No change from last week.
4	Bitcoin	1,033,804	Bitcoin's article is experiencing the same type of explosive growth that bitcoin itself is. Although, this week, bitcoin was far less volatile on Wikipedia than it was in reality. Perhaps extra attention was paid to bitcoin due to the cryptocurrency reaching a record high on Sunday, followed by even higher volatility than normal throughout the week. Up 1 from last week.
5	Star Wars	1,030,122	So, I guess when you're one of, if not the most recognizable media franchise in history and you release the highly anticipated eighth film in your main film franchise—and it becomes the most heavily polarizing film in a long time—people will be interested in the entire franchise as a whole, huh? Up 4 from last week.
6	Elizabeth II	981,789	The Queen is a perpetual fixture of interest from the general population. Netflix's release of season 2 of The Crown earlier this month is just the latest pop culture media directing interest to Queen Elizabeth's article. Down 2 from last week.
7	Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh	830,717	We're halfway there for Crown entries. Speaking of halves, Prince Philip is the other half to #6. Down 1 from last week.
8	Deaths in 2017	778,764	Still as morbid as ever, but also steady as ever, as interest in this year's death tally hasn't waned. In the constraints of this week, views on the article peaked on Monday, when Jong-hyun (#2) passed. Up 4 from last week.
9	Net neutrality	658,334	My Internet keeps ~~getting throttled~~ slowing down every time I try to write an in-depth blurb about net neutrality. Interest from readers also seems to be slowing down, and fast. Down 7 from last week.
10	Darth Vader	628,480	Usually left off this list due to a lack of mobile views (which may indicate bot activity instead of real eyeballs), Lord Vader sneaks into the top 10 as #1 propels overall interest for a flurry of Star Wars related articles. Up 8 from last week.
11	Bright (film)	592,663	Oh, where to start with this one? So the obvious surges in page views seen on Friday and Saturday can be attributed to the film's December 22 rollout on Netflix. But it's just so much deeper than that. The urban fantasy flick starring Will Smith (pictured) was probably best described by Quartz as an opposite to The Last Jedi. I mean, that Rotten Tomatoes critic/audience split currently sits at 31%/89%. That's a stupidly huge 58% swing. And then there's also the added element in which—just hours before the film's release—filmmaker, actress, and YouTube personality Anna Akana accused Bright screenwriter Max Landis of sexual assault toward multiple women. So, #11. Should be interesting to see how all that plays out.
12	Johannes Gumpp	580,298	A product of Reddit's TIL (today I learned) subreddit, which, on the last day of this report, was able to spike Gumpp's article's page views high enough to reach #12. So, yesterday Reddit learned that "the mysterious baroque painter Johannes Gumpp is known to have painted only one self portrait which also happens to be a triple self portrait in which he appears from behind painting his own face reflected in a mirror." I was also pretty interested to find that this article was only recently created on the English Wiki; the Reddit thread even got into discussing editing on Wikipedia, which I found almost a little too meta for me. Kinda like Gumpp's self-portrait.
13	Shinee	578,972	Interest in the K-pop / J-pop boy band surged after the death of #2. They're a celebrated group in their native South Korea, by the way, even being called the "Princes of K-pop".
14	Ted Kaczynski	576,012	Only thing I could find was that the drama miniseries, Manhunt: Unabomber based on the atrocities committed by Kaczynski is set to be released on DVD on December 26. I guess there's hype for that.
15	Adam Driver	544,275	Driver's performance as Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi (#1) is certainly a topic of discussion and debate for Star Wars fans. I still love Kylo's introduction in The Force Awakens (#21).
16	Cardi B	525,654	So, ~~model~~, ~~comedian~~, "stripper hoe" turned 2017 rap icon, Cardi B made some waves on the Top 25 Report, after making money moves on the Billboard charts throughout the year. For the uninitiated, Cardi first got hot on social media platforms like Instagram and Vine (rest in peace, buddy). She then broke out via the sixth season of Love & Hip Hop: New York, before transitioning into an already very successful rap career. She's on the list this week because on Friday, "La Modelo", a collaboration with singer Ozuna, and "Bartier Cardi", a single off her upcoming album, were both dropped.
17	Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon	517,555	Lord Snowdon, a British photographer, was once upon a time married to Princess Margaret (#3). As she remains of top interest for Crown readers, it only makes sense that Antony would get some trickle-down readership. Down 7 from last week.
18	Charles, Prince of Wales	511,329	Perhaps now would be a good time to mention that I don't watch The Crown. Down 1 from last week.
19	Meghan Markle	503,831	And that's a wrap on entries inspired by The Cro... wait... oh. Meghan Markle is the additional (and technically future) British royal entry on this week's Report that isn't directly tied to The Crown. Apparently, the engagement photos for Prince Harry and Ms. Markle were released this past week, and some people made a fuss over the sheer dress Markle wore.
20	Tiger Zinda Hai	470,448	As returning readers may know, Indian readers have a big impact on English Wiki. So, new Indian films are especially visited. Salman Khan (pictured) stars in the second film of the Tiger franchise. It's very possible this film will return to the list next week.
21	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	455,613	The predecessor to The Last Jedi is no doubt getting a bump in readership due to the latter's release. With two years in the rear-view since TFA's release, it seems the consensus on director J. J. Abrams' (pictured) kickoff to the Star Wars sequel trilogy is that it does a solid enough job with reintroducing audiences to the Star Wars universe, even if it does borrow quite a bit from an earlier installment.
22	Edward VIII	453,705	Ah, now we're done with Crown entries. It's kinda interesting how Edward's intention to marry an American divorcée led to his abdication. Eighty or so years later and Meghan Markle (#19) is an American divorcée who's set for a royal wedding with Prince Harry in May. Signs of social progress here. Down 3 from last week.
23	List of Twenty20 International records	445,590	This past week, the cricket world saw Rohit Sharma (pictured) match the world record for fastest century off 35 balls in Twenty20 International. Full disclosure: I know nothing about cricket, so typing that out was rather odd.
24	Carrie Fisher	424,589	Another Star Wars-related entry here. Carrie Fisher appears in #1, reprising the role of General Leia Organa. The Last Jedi is dedicated in her memory, as this will unfortunately be her last film.
25	Daisy Ridley	409,273	And the list ends with the lead actress of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Ridley, who is absolutely gorgeous and talented, reprises her role as Rey in The Last Jedi. Mild spoiler warning: While some fans may feel disappointed, even betrayed, by #21's teasing of Rey's parentage and The Last Jedi trailers for misleadingly hinting at a turn to the dark side for Rey, Ridley still gives a solid performance (again, in my opinion).

Exclusions

This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish.

Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.