Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/September 4 to 10, 2022

The Top 25 Report

• Home
• About
• Archives
• Full list
• Talk
• Most viewed pages (alt)
• Records
• Most Edited
  (Weeklypedia)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (September 4 to 10, 2022)

Prepared with commentary by YttriumShrew, Igordebraga, Kingsif, and an IP. (special thanks to ElijahPepe for doing the numbers)

⭠ Last week's report Next week's report →

The UK got two new leaders this week! Honestly, you wait 70 years for one...

What should have been the big news was the changeover of the British prime minister for the third time since Brexit, but 18 months after the death of Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II has left us, and Wikipedia was floored, like other parts of the internet. The Queen's article reviewed a massive amount of views seen only every few years, such as Michael Jackson and David Bowie after their deaths in 2009 and 2016 respectively.

Her Majesty only got less views in a week than Kobe Bryant after his death in January 2020, and the influx of people reading articles on the British Royals managed to push out the seemingly never-leaving Deaths in 2022, ironically in a week shaped by a departure.

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	Notes/about
1	Elizabeth II		16,073,459		After an extraordinarily long 70 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II died this week at the age of 96. If there's one thing that can be said about her, it's that she was a constant; many had never known another monarch. She was also something of a unifying figure for the United Kingdom and, to a lesser degree, the other countries where she was monarch (at least, among those who didn't want to get rid of her). Thus it is natural that her death would inspire a huge reaction around the world and especially in the UK, with endless tributes, large-scale mourning, and wall-to-wall news coverage.
2	Charles III		9,376,455		#1's eldest son, who spent decades waiting to be king, during which he married twice, to #8, mother of his children (#5, 17), and #9, and unlike his grandfather (#6) chose to keep his first name for his regal one, making him sort of a successor to the Merry Monarch. He'll start in the new job at the ripe age of 73!
3	Liz Truss		3,423,676		The UK's new prime minister, whose first days in office were soon completely overshadowed by a royal succession and a period of national mourning. Truss previously served as Foreign Secretary during Boris Johnson's premiership and was also a part of the cabinets of both Theresa May and David Cameron. She became the PM after defeating Rishi Sunak (who would go on to succeed her as PM) in the July-September 2022 (UK) Conservative Party leadership election, held after Johnson was forced out in July. She ran a campaign centred around a right-wing laissez-faire economic pitch and a decent dollop of social conservatism; highlights included her dissing her high school and cosplaying as Margaret Thatcher. Expectations are pretty low, if polling is anything to go by.
4	Operation London Bridge		3,200,256		London Bridge is falling down. With the Queen's death, many learned about the "secret plan" prepared years ago for these very days. Admittedly it had been an open secret for quite a while, and had been the subject of a lot of media attention, which explains why it had an article in the first place. Yes, that really is London Bridge. It's quite underwhelming, isn't it?
5	William, Prince of Wales		2,994,105		With Charles now on the throne, William is the new heir apparent, and the new Prince of Wales, as everyone moves one space up the line of succession. Let's hope he doesn't die before his dad, because next after him is a nine-year-old.
6	George VI		2,959,304		#1's father who she succeeded as monarch.
7	Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh		2,739,342		The husband of the late Queen, who died over a year prior in April 2021. The loss of Philip has often been speculated as a major cause of the Queen's declining health before her death.
8	Diana, Princess of Wales		2,630,955		The very famous royal death, the ex-wife of #2. Most of her attention isn't exactly positive for the late monarch, coming in the form of people comparing the outpourings of grief and, in select circles, making memes about how Diana plans to greet Elizabeth II in the afterlife (you can imagine).
9	Camilla, Queen consort of the United Kingdom		2,081,610		The new Queen consort.
10	Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva		1,943,982		Narrowly preventing a top-ten monopoly for Britain is the latest big Bollywood film, which looks remarkably similar to many recent Hollywood ventures (big budget, superpowers, world-scale setting and plot, plans for a shared universe, mixed to positive critical reception). Evidently the influence of the MCU is spreading into other film industries. It opened at #1 in India, #3 in the UK and #2 in the US of A (the highest position ever occupied by an Indian film).
11	Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother		1,782,173		#1's mother, who outlived her husband (#6) by fifty years, during which the UK had two Queen Elizabeths (though one was "the Queen" and the other "the Queen Mother").
12	The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power		1,716,961		Prime's Tolkien prequel continues to introduce a large audience to the creation of the eponymous Rings of Power.
13	Edward VIII		1,596,106		Another former monarch, whose reign consisted mostly of a constitutional crisis over whether he could marry the person he wanted to. Not the last time marriage has caused difficulties for the House of Windsor.
14	Balmoral Castle		1,562,034		The Queen's personal residence in Scotland, and the place of her death. It was reportedly one of her favourite castles to live in (and she is one of the few people who you could say that about without implicitly accusing them of squatting).
15	Brendan Fraser		1,525,074		A film and its star. How nice of them to come as a pair. The Whale premiered at the Venice Film Festival to good reviews, especially for Fraser's performance as a morbidly obese man, and the film won multiple awards and was nominated for the Golden Lion. The rest of the world will have to wait till December.
16	The Whale (2022 film)		1,413,580
17	Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex		1,412,655		Another royal, although no longer an active one. He got some attention for travelling to Balmoral separately from the rest of his family - even though he was, fortunately, in the UK rather than his home in the US at the time - and so arriving after the world had already been informed of his grandmother's death. Hey, at least he didn't decide to drive himself from the airport at breakneck speed like his brother (#5), in a move definitely not too dangerous for the heir apparent.
18	Asia Cup		1,349,041		And it's another rather British thing, cricket! Though this is actually South Asia duking it out in the UAE. Pakistan and Sri Lanka made the final, which hasn't happened yet, so I'll add the result when I come back in a few days. Update: Sri Lanka won their sixth title.
19	George V		1,311,506		#1's grandfather, and a past monarch himself.
20	House of the Dragon		1,249,481		From the House of Windsor to House Targaryen, as HBO's prequel to Game of Thrones continues to release episodes. It's gonna be here for a while.
21	Monarchy of the United Kingdom		1,211,924		And back again with three more royal articles, including the event that started this tidal wave of views.
22	Queen Victoria		1,194,470
23	Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II		1,127,221
24	Frances Tiafoe		1,104,957		Throughout all this the U.S. Open has been taking place, but, like most things this week, was rather drowned out. It is still represented through Tiafoe, who became the first African-American man to reach the semifinals at Flushing Meadows since Arthur Ashe.
25	List of longest-reigning monarchs		1,095,045		And finally, a list on which #1 is second, beaten only by Louis XIV of France (pictured), although there are plenty of monarchs who potentially had reigns longer than his but are unverified or disputed.

Just off the list

• 26 - Catherine, Princess of Wales (1.081.619) - #5's wife, with nearly 100k more views than the death list, and 300k than #17's wife. Both women stayed back from Balmoral to be with their respective children, but have taken on royal duties greeting the mourning public since.

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.