Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (January 11 to 17, 2015)

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Summary: With the

As prepared by Milowent, for the week of January 11 to 17, 2015, 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	Chris Kyle		2,959,672		A huge jump from 1.2 million views last week, fueled by the PTSD -afflicted veteran whom he had taken to a shooting range.
2	Charlie Hebdo		1,574,119		Down from #1 last week. There have been far more heinous acts of terror committed in the name of Islam; in the days leading up to this attack, as many as 2000 people were murdered in Nigeria by Boko Haram. But it would take a skilled writer to envision an act more symbolic. A group of obsessive theocrats savage a longstanding French satirical magazine for the crime of violating their religious custom, carving a jagged gash between piety and freedom of expression. They go on to murder a Muslim police officer in cold blood. Another gunman targets a kosher market, murdering four more for the crime of being Jewish, while a Muslim employee risks his life to save the survivors. A better fable of the wrenching complexities inherent in the defining cultural divide of our time could not be asked for, were it not written in blood.
3	Je suis Charlie		1,450,62		Up from 492,145 (#13) last week. "I am Charlie", the call of defiant solidarity that spread throughout France and then the world after the Charlie Hebdo shooting, continues its popularity, perhaps proving that the "keep" voters at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Je suis Charlie (closed January 11) had the better argument.
4	American Sniper (film)		1,112,696		Another big jump in views for director Clint Eastwood's latest film.
5	Boyhood (film)		900,015		Though released theatrically in the United States in July 2014, this coming-of-age drama film, shot intermittently over a 12-year period, only reached wide attention when it won three Golden Globe Awards on January 11, for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director (Richard Linklater), and Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Arquette), followed by six Academy Award nominations on January 15.
6	I (film)		896,273		Indian Tamil film released January 14.
7	Stephen Hawking		835,693		The Golden Globe for Eddie Redmayne , who portrays him in the film.
8	Charlie Hebdo shooting		719,940		See #2.
9	The Imitation Game		700,545		Has received eight Oscar nominations.
10	Birdman (film)		680,588		Has received nine Oscar nominations.
11	Michael Keaton		653,459		Stars in #10.
12	Alan Turing		631,921		The subject of #9.
13	Martin Luther King, Jr.		593,352		The American holiday dedicated to him falls on January 19 this year.
14	Peyton Manning		578,765		Manning's American football team lost to his former team in the playoffs this year.
15	Amal Clooney		576,293		George's spouse attended the Golden Globe awards on January 11, which appears to track a peak in views.
16	Foxcatcher		539,371		Had three Golden Globe nominations, and now has five Oscar nominations. This film is about murder of David Schultz. It been nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture .
17	Boko Haram		525,139		As of January 2015, this terrorist Islamist group based in northeast Nigeria now controls about 20,000 square miles of land.
18	List of Super Bowl champions		510,909		It is American football playoff time once again.
19	PK (film)		504,632		Numbers are still steady for this Bollywood film, starring Aamir Khan and Anushka Sharma . Released on December 19, it has already become the highest grossing Bollywood film of all time.
20	72nd Golden Globe Awards		482,125		A big driver of traffic this week.
21	Deaths in 2015		479,681		The viewing figures for this article have been remarkably constant; fluctuating week to week between 450 and 550,000, apparently heedless of who actually died.
22	Facebook		473,619		A perennially popular article.
23	Mia Khalifa		525,139		This Lebanese porn actress gained attention by becoming the most popular porn star on Pornhub.com, and with her Middle Eastern background being fodder for additional news coverage.
24	Gone Girl (film)		444,788		Four Golden Globe nominations. One Oscar nomination.
25	Cristiano Ronaldo		436,351		The Real Madrid footballer won the 2014 FIFA Ballon d'Or on January 12.

• 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.