Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/March 6 to 12, 2016

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (March 6 to 12, 2016)

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Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States: Based on this chart, you could think this headline will be true someday. Trump has led the chart for two consecutive weeks with over 8 million views each time -- those are very high numbers, well above the average chart topper. In comparison, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders is only #22, and Hillary Clinton isn't even on the chart (nor are the other Republicans) -- she was #54. Outside of Trumpmania, the death of Nancy Reagan was #4, narrowly beaten by her husband Ronald Reagan (#3). The rest of the Top 10 includes two Reddit-fueled articles, two UFC fighters, one movie (10 Cloverfield Lane, #5), one drug (Meldonium, #2), and International Women's Day (#9).

As prepared by Milowent, for the week of March 6 to 12, 2016, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Donald Trump   8,257,174
 
Donald Trump's dominance of this chart is fairly incredible at this point, though perhaps not surprising when the front pages of most American news outlets are filled with details of the latest exploits and incidents surrounding the most bizarre U.S. Presidential campaign in history. For the second week, this article has exceeded 8 million views, when typically a mere 1 or 2 million views is more than enough to be number one for a week. Reporting and commentary in the last week noted that Trump won more primaries last week, that a 78-year-old man sucker-punched a protester at a Trump rally (and Trump offered to pay any resulting legal fees), claims that his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski manhandled Breitbart News Network's Michelle Fields at an event, and the cancellation of a rally in Chicago due to protesters. A 1964 ad titled Confessions of a Republican used to defeat Republican nominee Barry Goldwater also has been in the news due to some eerie similarities to Trump's shenanigans.
2 Meldonium   2,108,543
 
Since January 1, 2016, this drug has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list of substances banned from use by athletes. On March 7, 2016, former world number one tennis player Maria Sharapova announced that she had failed a drug test in Australia due to the detection of the substance.
3 Ronald Reagan   1,683,665
 
The 40th President of the United States died in 2004, but his wife Nancy Reagan (#4) died last week. The two articles were only 10,000 views apart.
4 Nancy Reagan   1,673,052
 
The wife of Ronald Reagan (#3), she died on March 6, at age 94. Those who remember the Reagan presidency may most remember her founding of the Just Say No (to drugs) campaign in the 1980s. She has been buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, next to her husband.
5 10 Cloverfield Lane   1,208,731
 
This science fiction thriller, which includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead (pictured) in the cast, was released in North America in 2016, to positive critical reviews. It earned $24.7 million in its opening weekend, putting it second behind Zootopia (#24).
6 Lupe Fuentes   1,020,335
 
This is all Reddit, who lured in viewers with the headline: "TIL a Puerto Rican man was arrested for watching porno feat Lupe Fuentes, who a pediatrician identified as being underage because of her appearance. The porn star flew there from Spain to show her passport and prove she was 19. The man was in jail for 2 months before that happened."
7 Unfinished portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt   971,792
 
The circumstances of an unfinished portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt being painted before his death was a popular Reddit "Today I Learned" topic this week. See Unfinished portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt to view the actual photo which is under a "fair use" restriction; I created a very poor facsimile of it (pictured at left) for you to shake your head at disapprovingly.
8 Nate Diaz   937,440
 
This mixed-martial artist prevailed over Conor McGregor (#10) at UFC 196 (#13) on March 5.
9 International Women's Day   884,610
 
This day is celebrated annually on March 8, and is an official holiday in a number of countries. It was again celebrated by a Google Doodle.
10 Conor McGregor   817,535
 
The guy who lost to #8.
11 Republican Party presidential primaries, 2016   815,923
 
Up from 668,247 views last week. More states hold primaries on March 15, including Ohio and Florida. If Marco Rubio does not win his home state of Florida, it is likely he will drop out. The same narrative is circulating about John Kasich, former Governor of Ohio, if he does not win his home state.
12 Clara Rockmore   761,166
 
A Google Doodle celebrated the 105th birthday (Rockmore died in 1998) of the virtuoso theremin player on March 9. The mobile viewcount for this article was a quite low 14.51%. Though Google Doodles often have lower mobile view percentages than other popular articles, this is probably due to the fact that the Doodle allows you to take play a virtual theremin. Rockmore is pictured at left with Léon Theremin.
13 UFC 196   731,458
 
See #8, #10.
14 Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016   700,673
 
Despite a sweep of wins across the South, Hillary Clinton has yet to secure the prize, with Bernie Sanders (#22) apparently still very much in contention.
15 O. J. Simpson   700,204
 
Down from 1.3 million views last week. The former football player and Leslie Nielsen costar has become a fixture of this list, thanks to the first season of American Crime Story, the true-crime spinoff of American Horror Story, which focuses on his controversial trial in which he was cleared of murder.
16 Patti Davis   651,502
 
The daughter of #3 and #4, and sister of #18.
17 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2   625,721
 
Something made this popular, can someone tell me what?
18 Ron Reagan   617,733
 
The son of #3 and #4, and brother of #16.
19 Deaths in 2016   614,802
 
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 views have jumped on average.
20 House of Cards (U.S. TV series)   600,093
 
The fourth season of this political thriller series was released in its entirety on Netflix on March 4.
21 House of Cards (season 4)   582,921
 
See #20.
22 Bernie Sanders   577,849
 
The candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. President may be behind Hillary Clinton in delegates, but he easily beats her in traffic this week. Hillary was #54 (339,194 views).
23 Captain America: Civil War   553,053
 
This superhero film is slated for release in North America on May 6, 2016. This includes Chris Evans (pictured), again playing Captain America.
24 Zootopia   538,586 This animated film was released on March 4 to critical acclaim, and has grossed over $438 million worldwide as of March 13. It easily beat 10 Cloverfield Lane (#5) at the box office last week, but young kids don't use Wikipedia as much as science fiction fans, I suppose.
25 Deadpool (film)   507,394
 
The Marvel Comics antihero film starring Ryan Reynolds (pictured) was released on February 12 to a stellar reception. Regarded as a risk by its makers 20th Century Fox, the film has earned over $708 million as of March 13.

Exclusions

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  • 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 also exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (~2% or less) or almost all mobile views (~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.