Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2020-03-01/Traffic report

Traffic report

February articles, floating in the dark

This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Igordebraga. "The Signpost" thanks him for his work on this issue under difficult conditions -S

The official data provider crashed back in January, so all of these lists were compiled through another tool by yours truly, who also put up the tables and wrote the analysis on why these articles attracted reader attention.

In the paint (January 26 to February 1, 2020)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (January 26 to February 1, 2020)

Rank	Article	Views	About
1	Kobe Bryant	22.840.307	Kobe Bryant had a victorious basketball career that broke many records. And he also managed a landmark on Wikipedia, breaking the top week caused by Prince's death and also managing 20+ million views in 7 days, given people couldn't believe that the Black Mamba died at just 41 in a helicopter crash.
2	Coronavirus	5.230.882	From one tragedy to another, the group of viruses that has a new instance (#10) currently causing panic in China (#4).
3	Kobe Bryant sexual assault case	3.926.069	As people remembered our #1, the blemish in his life also emerged, a 2003 incident where a Colorado woman accused Kobe of rape. Prosecutors dropped the case.
4	2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak	2.982.102	The Chinese city of Wuhan was struck with a new kind of pneumonia which had neither a clear cause or an effective vaccine. It originated from a new kind (#10) of coronavirus (#2). Tens of thousands of cases have emerged so far, mostly in China, with 725 of them fatal, and all sorts of preventive measures have ensued.
5	Billie Eilish	2.215.950	The Grammies were swept by the "Princess of Anti-Pop", becoming one of the youngest winners and also the first to take the big four categories (Album, Song, and Record of the Year, and also Best New Artist) since Christopher Cross went sailing for this feat in 1981.
6	Royal Rumble (2020)	1.951.351	Houston hosted this WWE pantomime, featuring male and female versions of the title fight with 30 wrestlers, won by Drew McIntyre and Charlotte Flair (pictured), respectively.
7	Sikorsky S-76	1.491.193	Related to our #1, the helicopter which crashed (in fact, the article at #9 is now 2020 Calabasas helicopter crash); the whole incident that took the lives of Kobe, his teenage daughter Gianna, two of her teammates and their parents, a basketball coach, and the pilot; and his father, fellow basketball player "Jellybean" Joe Bryant (the nickname is why Kobe's middle name was Bean), who only lost one NBA Final while his son won five, and was coaching in Italy when he heard of the tragedy.
8	Joe Bryant	1.457.866
9	Death of Kobe Bryant	1.413.482
10	Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)	955.824	The possibly bat-originated virus (#2) that is causing chaos in China (#4).

In the field (February 2 to 8, 2020)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 2 to 8, 2020)

Rank	Article	Views	About
1	Shakira	3,691,879	This here writer has known the Colombian co-headliner of the Super Bowl LIV halftime show ever since she was a brunette teen who sung only in Spanish, instead of the twerking blonde bombshell who lit up the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. And the strength of her performance can also be seen in how Shakira beat Whenever, Wherever was in the actual game...
2	Patrick Mahomes	3,054,444	...such as the quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs, who led a comeback in the final quarter that earned both the title and being chosen as Most Valuable Player of the game.
3	Kirk Douglas	2,557,820	One of the last surviving stars of the film industry's Golden Age – among other things, He was Spartacus! – Issur Danielovitch lived up to the age of 103, having many successes to his name and also a few descendants also in the acting business, most notably his oldest son Michael Douglas.
4	Jennifer Lopez	2,257,538	Along with our #1, the Super Bowl halftime had another Latin singer with impressive vigour and physicality for their age (J. Lo's 50, and Shakira is only 7 years younger!) and a performance heavy on sex appeal. Moral guardians complained.
5	2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak	2,230,933	The Chinese city of Wuhan was struck with a new kind of pneumonia without clear cause or effective vaccines, which was discovered as originating from a new kind of coronavirus (#8). Tens of thousands of cases have emerged so far, mostly in China, with 1,527 of them fatal, and all sorts of preventive measures have ensued.
6	Pete Buttigieg	1,668,177	The first openly gay presidential candidate in the US, the former sailor and mayor of South Bend, Indiana has won the first of many primaries (#9) – or at least tied with Bernie Sanders – to pick the Democractic candidate.
7	Andy Reid	1,493,503	For a long time, this American football coach was unable to win the big one. The Super Bowl victory has finally redeemed him.
8	Coronavirus	1,410,124	A type of virus (so called because in a microscope, they appear to be surrounded by a stellar corona) that encompasses many disease bringers, including the one currently causing panic with #5.
9	Iowa caucuses	1,248,434	The United States presidential primary season started with this Midwestern state known for its corn and other agricultural products.
10	Kobe Bryant	1,224,313	The impact of the "Black Mamba"'s tragic death, which made huge men cry, is still being felt.

In the theater (February 9 to 15, 2020)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 9 to 15, 2020)

Rank	Article	Views	About
1	Parasite (2019 film)	5,196,541	February 9 was a particularly busy night for Sharon Choi, an aspiring filmmaker who acted during the Academy Awards as the translator for the crew of Parasite, a Korean dark comedy about class warfare that made history by becoming the first Best Picture winner not in English, while also gathering prizes for Director, Adapted Screenplay and International Film. The only thing missing from their night was Park So-dam stepping up to the microphone to sing this.
2	92nd Academy Awards	2,211,751	Speaking of the Oscars, which along with again being without a host this time also felt without direction – including Eminem performing "Lose Yourself" 17 years late – there were three awards for 1917 (one of them not very deserving), two for Ford v Ferrari, and prizes for Elton John, Toy Story 4, and the costumes of Little Women, while The Irishman got shut out in a bad night for Netflix (and director Martin Scorsese, caught napping during the aforementioned performance).
3	2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak	1,769,680	China is doing all it can to contain this disease, which with 1,775 deaths out of over 70 thousand cases, has already killed more people than SARS back in 2003–04.
4	Joaquin Phoenix	1,602,528	What do you get when you cross an actor nominated for playing Emperor Commodus, Johnny Cash and a man who fell in love with his phone with the role of a psycho that already provided an Oscar to one of his friends? He gets what he fucking deserves! And while thanking for his Best Actor prize, Phoenix had a heartfelt if a bit scattershot speech (apparently the cancel culture is as bad as the dairy industry...).
5	Renée Zellweger	1,300,910	In the 16 years after winning Best Supporting Actress for a hammy, rooster-killing and hilarious role in Cold Mountain, the once and future Bridget Jones had a very uneven career. But by playing Judy Garland in Judy, Zellweger got her second Oscar, this time for Best Actress.
6	XFL (2020)	1,175,197	February 8 marked the return of Vince McMahon's attempt to fill in the American football offseason with a league of his own. And go figure why this time he only chose one city without an NFL team, which received the St. Louis BattleHawks.
7	Caroline Flack	1,155,548	A British television and radio host who killed herself at the age of 40, a month prior to a scheduled trial hearing for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend.
8	Valentine's Day	1,105,343	The annual greeting-card and chocolate consumption holiday had never fallen out of the top 5 even in its worst years. But the entries pushed by our #2 proved too much.
9	Coronavirus	1,104,459	A type of viruses that cause respiratory infections, ranging from the common cold to the one causing panic in China (#3).
10	Birds of Prey (2020 film)	1,084,302	While she attended #2 given Bombshell got her a nomination, Margot Robbie was also starring in the top-grossing movie in the country, her return to the role of Harley Quinn in the entertaining and well-received by critics and fans Birds of Prey. Even if said box office intake has been sluggish, which can be attributed to high content ratings, #3 closing theaters in Asia, and the last Harley Quinn flick making viewers wary.

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 16 to 22, 2020)

In the podium (February 16 to 22)

Rank	Article	Views	About
1	Michael Bloomberg	1.865.322	A record $500 million was spent by the former Mayor of New York City in his presidential campaign, and yet his first debate appearance in Nevada was less than stellar.
2	Caroline Flack	1.774.503	This British television and radio host had a rough couple of months. In December 2019 she was charged with assaulting her boyfriend, tennis player Lewis Burton, and released on bail with the conditions that she would not contact Burton and would stand trial in March. Less than a month before the trial, Flack killed herself.
3	Parasite (2019 film)	1.560.205	Donald Trump might have complained about the Academy Awards recognizing a Korean movie and bragging about not having seen it, but many Americans thought otherwise and have decided to overcome their laziness for subtitled movies and give Bong Joon-Ho's movie a chance, resulting in Parasite entering the box office top 10 as a result.
4	Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo	1.249.835	Narcos: Mexico has returned, and thus again readers seek more on the Guadalajara Cartel founder played by Diego Luna.
5	Pop Smoke	1.163.293	One more name to the list of murdered hip hop musicians, as Bashar Barakah Jackson died at just 20 during a home invasion.
6	Tyson Fury	795.113	This awesomely named boxer finally had a rematch for a 2018 fight that ended in a controversial split draw, and this time had a technical knockout on adversary Deontay Wilder.
7	Sonic the Hedgehog (film)	765.770	After a badly received trailer that even forced a delayed release so the visual effects could be reworked, the live-action adaptation of Sega's mascot who has been a gaming icon since 1991 hit theaters... and instead of being yet another disastrous video game adaptation, surprised many by being simply fun (helped by having Jim Carrey in full manic mode as the hedgehog's nemesis Doctor Robotnik), and followed two movies in receiving mostly positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, while also taking the top of the box office from Birds of Prey and staying there for a second week (beating another movie of a man dealing with a computer-generated animal, The Call of the Wild).
8	Deaths in 2020	763.794	"Yeah, you better seek out another road 'Cause this one has ended abrupt, oh-oh Say Hello 2 Heaven, heaven, heaven..."
9	Ken Miles	727.814	Ford v Ferrari won two Oscars, so more people decided to give the movie a chance, and also research on the British driver portrayed by Christian Bale.
10	Billie Eilish	694.074	Already a big deal enough to sing at the Academy Awards (though she wasn't pleased by her performance; still, we're forever grateful for this reaction to unfunny banter), the young singer proved the power of her ASMR- like music with her theme song for the next James Bond movie, "No Time to Die", having hit #1 in the UK Charts.

Exclusions

These lists exclude 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 Top 25 Report talk page if you wish.

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1 March 2020 (all comments)

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Rather biassed summation of the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case. Yes, "prosecutors dropped the case", but only after the victim refused to testify and subsequently settled out of court for a reported $2.5 million. WWGB (talk) 11:40, 2 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This is one yike -Gouleg (Talk • Contribs) 14:38, 2 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@WWGB and Gouleg: Thank you both for expressing your opinions here. I edited this material before publication, and I can see why you disagree with my edit. I can also see where other people might agree with the edit or disagree in the other direction. It was a tough call for me. I can only explain some of my reasoning and let our readers make the call. I don't like to accuse people of crimes after their death when they can't defend themselves, or might upset their family at a very bad time for them. In this case it would not be a BLP violation, but in similar cases it might be. I do see why people would want more information here, but please realize that there is only a limited amount of space in this article. There would be no room for subtleties. I have a rule of thumb when editing that seldom fails me: "when in doubt, report the facts in the simplest way possible."

I'd prefer that this page did not become a forum on the rape accusation - there are better places for that. But readers should feel free to express their feelings on my editing. Thanks again. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 15:42, 2 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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