Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-08-13/Traffic report

Traffic report

Disease, decimation and distraction

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It's been a grim few weeks. It says something that formerly arresting crises like the

Yazidis has spurred the usually war-wary Barack Obama to action. Our users largely sought escape through movies, as Hollywood looked set to have one of its most profitable Augusts ever. Guardians of the Galaxy

generated a massive amount of interest on the list, as people sought background information on the relatively unknown Marvel property.

For the full top 25 list, see

WP:TOP25. See this section

for an explanation of any exclusions.

As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of August 3 to 9, 2014, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages, were:

Rank	Article	Views	Notes
1	Ebola virus disease	2,418,063*	Since it was discovered in 1976, the Ebola virus has killed 2,541 people. Compare that statistic to those of current outbreak , which is already one of the longest on record, the first to cross borders, and responsible for more than a third of the above deaths. Our viewers have apparently caught the panic bug, as views to this page are up 16% on last week. *Includes hits for the Ebola redirect page.
2	Guardians of the Galaxy (film)	1,033,416	Holding steady at #2, this 2014 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics series opened in the UK on 31 July and the United States on 1 August. As of 10 August, the film's worldwide earnings are just under $240 million. While aided by a rapturous critical reception (it was the third best-reviewed film of the summer, according to Rotten Tomatoes), it fell a steep 67% at its second weekend at the US box office. It remains to be seen whether strong word of mouth will see it through to the end.
3	John Venn	769,330	The logician and inventor of the Venn diagram got a Google Doodle on his 170th birthday on 4 August.
4	Tomato soup	727,310	Not the sort of topic one would expect to be sitting alongside blockbuster films, deadly epidemics and vicious conflicts, but there does seem to be a reason for it: a minor controversy has erupted online over rumours that Campbells' iconic version actually contains animal products, to the point where Campbell's had to issue an official denial this week.
5	Yazidi	481,326	This fascinating ethno-religious group, neither Islamic State .
6	Deaths in 2014	386,611	The list of deaths in the current year is always a popular article.
7	Star-Lord	384,340	The lead character from superhero team, played by Chris Pratt (pictured) in the 2014 film , has been largely unknown to the public at large, at least until the aforementioned film started blasting boxoffice records. leading many to learn of his history for the first time.
8	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014 film)	373,093	Well, it seems that all the fanboy crying about the trailer aping The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the casting of Megan Fox as April O'Neil, and Michael Bay ruining their childhood was pretty much for show, as the new TMNT movie made $65 million in its opening weekend. Even adjusted for inflation, that's still 70% higher than the Turtles managed in 1990, at the peak of their fame. Doubtless the popularity of Nickelodeon's recent TV reboot helped, but post-GenX nostalgia no doubt played a role as well.
9	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant	358,274	This almost absurdly brutal jihadist group, which proudly posts mass executions it carries out on Twitter, has been disowned even by al-Qaeda. Nonetheless it has managed to carve out a "caliphate" for itself currently about the size of Pennsylvania from what is supposed to be Iraq and Syria . Until now it has met with remarkably little opposition, but now the US is stepping in with airstrikes to help the overburdened Kurds.
10	Facebook	355,751	A perennially popular article.