Summary: It was a dark week. In the wake of the attacks on Boston, users sought out background to make sense of an apparently senseless tragedy. From the war-torn region from which both the (suspected) bombers hailed to the string of apparently unrelated ricin attacks that fell in the same few days, Wikipedia was a port of call for those seeking information. In lighter news, the Jackie Robinson biopic 42 continued to spark interest in the pioneering sportsman, while Tom Cruise's new movie was listed.
For the week of April 14 to 20, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:
It is always interesting to see which Google Doodle will spark the public's imagination. The surge of interest in this 18th century mathematician (inventor of the term f(x) and populariser of the symbol π) shows that the general public, or at least the Wikipedia-reading segment thereof, is not as willfully ignorant as one might think.
The topic of the week. No contest. In fact, it would've had two entries on the list if we counted the 600k views by the redirect Boston Marathon bombings.
This horrifyingly toxic substance (made from castor beans, no less) made waves when a series of letters posted to public figures were revealed to contain traces of it. Though apparently not related to the Boston bombing, it certainly contributed to the climate of terror that dominated the week.
This curious "holiday", which falls on April 20 (for obvious reasons) refers to the mysterious number 420 and its long link to marijuana usage. While it may not quite be to cannabis what Oktoberfest is to beer, it no doubt aspires to be.
Interest in this Roman political figure (onetime financial backer of Julius Caesar and widely considered the richest man in Roman history) was no doubt spurred by his starring role in Spartacus: War of the Damned.
Otherwise known as CISPA, this hugely controversial act passed the US Congress with little comment from the media, despite its potentially dramatic impact on personal privacy.
The former Deftones bassist and occasional poet, who for the last five years lived in a semi-comatose state caused by a car crash, died of cardiac arrest at the age of 42.
This list is derived from the WP:5000 report. It excludes the Wikipedia main page (and "wiki"), non-article pages, and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish. Standard removals this week include:
G-force; this has been in the Top 25 since the list was started at the beginning of the year. The continuing popularity of this article, which jumped in June 2012, has been without explanation. Articles on popular scientific concepts get nowhere this level of viewing based on our analysis to date, e.g., Gravitation (49,516 views from March 3–9), and therefore we have decided to remove it from the list as most likely caused by non-human views.
Cat anatomy; explanation still unknown for its continuing high view counts
Specific removals this week (those articles for which no reason for any sudden popularity could be located):
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