Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/August 6 to 12, 2017

Prepared with commentary by OZOO

← Last week's report – Next week's report →

Hast du etwas Zeit für mich; Dann schreibe ich ein TOP25 für dich

Topping the news cycle this week were the threats by Kim Jung-un (#21), Supreme Leader of North Korea (#22) to launch missiles at the US territory of Guam (#1). This raised a vital question for our readers: What is a Guam? Staying second is the current series of Game of Thrones; which also pulls up the series overview in 4th and the episodes list in 9th. The death of singer Glen Campbell took 3rd; and there were a few other deaths in the article, with the near-ever-present Deaths in 2017 list in 5th; recent suicides in India being linked to a so-called "game", Blue Whale (#11); Reddit learning about the 1995 Death of Nicole van den Hurk (#6) in the Netherlands; and the impending 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales (#12).

Usain Bolt (#7) and Justin Gatlin (#20) both in the top 25 following their antics at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics (#13). In celebrity news, the divorce of Anna Faris and Chris Pratt gets them both in the list in #14 and #17 respectively. Cinematically, the top film remains Dunkirk (#8), with Jab Harry Met Sejal (#15) and Annabelle: Creation (#23) also making the list. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (#16) is here for the anniversary of the nuclear attack (which a lot of people are thinking about for some reason). McDonald's magnate Ray Kroc (#18) and musician Seal (#19) are both here miscellaneously; and Reddit also offers us some disgusting chocolate (#10). Possibly you eat it to make nuclear war more tempting?

For the week of August 6 to 12, 2017, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	Notes
1	Guam		1,285,582		Guam, a small unincorporated territory of the United States located in the Pacific Ocean, has hit the headlines this week as the focus point of North Korean threats to attack the United States, threats which, as of now, have amounted to words, and hopefully will not move into action.
2	Game of Thrones (season 7)		1,280,182		The seventh series of the massively popular fantasy series Game of Thrones continues. Episode four of the current series, broadcast on August 6, was entitled "The Spoils of War" and attracted 10.17 million viewers in the United States, with the number of leaks relating to the series having almost no impact on the popularity. The article is up roughly 200,000 views from last week.
3	Glen Campbell		1,119,797		Glen Campbell, the American singer, guitarist, songwriter, television host, and actor, died on August 8 at the age of 81. As a singer, his best known hits included "Rhinestone Cowboy" and "Wichita Lineman; while he was Golden Globe nominated for his role in 1969's True Grit and was known for hosting The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television.
4	Game of Thrones		843,276		Still no surprise to see the fantasy drama series, based on the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin (pictured), in the list. It usually is when the series is being broadcast, after all. And often when it isn't. Three places and ~90k views up from last week.
5	Deaths in 2017		709,903		I wonder how long into the inevitable nuclear apocalypse this article will keep on being updated for? I hope it's most of it.
6	Death of Nicole van den Hurk		650,206		Reddit sez: Following the 1995 death of Nicole van den Hurk, her stepbrother falsely confessed in 2011 to killing her to get her body exhumed for DNA testing, thus leading to the arrest and prosecution of her attacker.
7	Usain Bolt		560,149		Continued disappointment for Bolt at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics. After finishing third in his final 100 metres race, Bolt was the fourth leg runner for Jamaica for the final race of his career in the men's 4 × 100 relay; but suffered an injury shortly after starting his sprint and was unable to take an expected win. The race was won by the team from the United Kingdom.
8	Dunkirk (2017 film)		537,237		Christopher Nolan's (pictured) acclaimed war film based on the Dunkirk evacuation is still gripping audiences, with its ensemble cast including Fionn Whitehead, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance and One Direction's Harry Styles, as well as near-universally positive reviews, having the movie's current worldwide box-office at $370 million and rising. Down 3 places and 300k views from last week.
9	List of Game of Thrones episodes		526,388		A rise of 12 places and almost 100k views for the list of episodes of the US fantasy series. It's good to have a recap.
10	United States military chocolate		509,663		Reddit again, this time with the factoid that Milton Hershey developed an emergency chocolate bar for the military in 1937 designed to be so disgusting that soldiers would only eat them in emergency situations. It reminds me of dwarf bread from Terry Pratchett's Discworld, designed to help you survive by helping you realise how much more edible everything else is. That's a cultural point, that is.
11	Blue Whale (game)		487,245		This disturbing "game" has been linked to two suicides and two attempted suicides in India. I'm not a psychologist, I have no media knowledge, I have not studied this, but I question whether or not these suicides would be taking place if there wasn't so much coverage of the so-called "game".
12	Diana, Princess of Wales		483,893		In this, the twentieth anniversary month of the former Princess of Wales's death in a car accident, there's been an unsurprising amount of coverage in the United Kingdom dragging up the past. Channel 4's 6 August broadcast probably the catalyst for this placing
13	2017 World Championships in Athletics		480,580		The 16th edition of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics were held at the London Stadium (aka the London Olympic Stadium) in London from 4 to 13 August. The medal table was topped by the team from the United States. Inês Henriques of Portugal set the only world record of the event, in the women's 50 km racewalk.
14	Anna Faris		469,526		Anna Faris, the actress known for roles in Mom and Scary Movie, has split from her husband of eight years, Chris Pratt (#17), it was announced on August 6.
15	Jab Harry Met Sejal		459,926		Imtiaz Ali (pictured) has directed this new Indian romantic comedy, released on 4 August, which stars Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma as Harry and Sejal respectively. Our article says that "The movie did not meet the expectations of both the audience and the critics" which is a wonderful phrase. I think I'll say that instead of quoting Rotten Tomatoes scores in this article from now on.
16	Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park		451,190		The annual 6 August Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony is held in this park, which commemorates the legacy of Hiroshima as the first city in the world to suffer a nuclear attack, on 6 August 1945. Not really a surprise to see an interest in the atomic bombings, what with everything going on this week.
17	Chris Pratt		443,559		Chris Pratt, the actor known for roles in Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, has split from his wife of eight years, Anna Faris (#14), it was announced on August 6.
18	Ray Kroc		428,287		Ray Kroc (like crocodile, but not spelt that way), the man who built the food giant that McDonald's is today, may well be on the list as a result of the recent addition of Michael Keaton-starring biopic The Founder to the US version of Netflix.
19	Seal (musician)		418,455		For the second week in a row, an America's Got Talent guest judge makes it into our top 25. Seal, however, has picked up less than half the viewers of Laverne Cox, last week's entry, possibly due to the fact that he's not a real seal.
20	Justin Gatlin		416,147		Gatlin followed his controversial win in the 100 meters race at the start of the 2017 World Championships in Athletics (#13) with a second place in the 4 × 100 relay.
21	Kim Jong-un		399,450		The Supreme Leader of North Korea is engaged in a war of words with Donald Trump, the President of the United States. Kim has threatened to fire missiles at Guam (#1), while Trump has threatened "fire and fury the likes of which the world has never seen." Personally, I hope they hold off on it, as I'd be pretty annoyed if the world ended before I could see Benjamin Mendy in a City shirt.
22	North Korea		390,252		Led by #21, who is threatening #1.
23	Annabelle: Creation		372,087		The fourth instalment in the The Conjuring series, the prequel to 2014's Annabelle, is out. Directed by David F. Sandberg (pictured) and depicting the origin of the possessed doll Annabelle, the horror film has exceeded the expectations of the critics, being described as that rare thing, a movie which improves upon its predecessor.
24	List of most viewed YouTube videos		366,288		"Despacito", by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi (pictured) remains the most viewed YouTube video, and the first to pass three billion views. The video for "See You Again", by Wiz Khalifa, the previous most viewed, is the only other video to pass three billion so far, although "Gangnam Style" (remember that? I don't) is close.
25	Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017		362,623		Build up for the forthcoming solar eclipse in which the heroic Moon shall briefly block out the accursed Sun. The eclipse will be visible within a band across the contiguous United States, which is naturally causing much excitement amongst eclipse viewers, who shall be congregating on viewing locations to see the phenomenon. All of which makes you wonder - if hiding the Sun causes this much excitement, was Mr. Burns really in the wrong?

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.
• Per consensus, XXX is excluded.

Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.