Your Traffic Reports for the weeks of June 26 – July 2, and July 3–9, 2016:
The dominant topic in Wikipedia traffic the week of June 26 to July 2 was sports, and more particularly football, withUEFA Euro 2016 in the top spot for third straight week. AndIceland's improbableteam (#22 in theWP:TOP25) victory over England in UEFA Euro 2016 put that country's article at #5.Lionel Messi's (#4) defeat at theCopa América (#12) final, and his subsequent retirement announcement, was also big news. In other news, the hangover fromBrexit (#25) kept theEuropean Union (#9) in the top ten for a second week, and putBoris Johnson (#13) andTheresa May (#17) on the Top 25 as well.Game of Thrones also merits a mention, taking slots #2 and #3, and itsseason finale episode article at #18.
Moving on to the week of July 3–9, sports dominated again this week, with the traditional return ofWimbledon joining the lead-up to theUEFA Euro 2016 football tournament, the latestUFC event, and an unexpected team change for an NBA superstar. But it was a sport of an entirely modern kind,Pokemon Go, that led the pack, and before you ask, yes,Pokemon is anesport. Traditional summer distractions such as movies and television round out the list, with the inclusion of politiciansDonald Trump andAndrea Leadsom after the Top 10 to remind us (barely) of the real world.
For the full top-25 lists (and our archives back to January 2013), seeWP:TOP25. Seethis section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles every week, seeWP:MOSTEDITED. For the most popular articles thatORES models predict are low quality, seeWP:POPULARLOWQUALITY.
The ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from theWP:5000 were:
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UEFA Euro 2016 |  | 1,590,000 |  | A third straight week in the top spot, though with less than half as many views as last week. The Round of 16 commenced on June 25, and the quarter-final rounds were underway when this weeks' report closed July 2. The final four teams were Portugal, Wales(!), Germany, and France, with the next match on July 6. |
| 2 | Game of Thrones |  | 1,126,688 |  | Last week theSeason 6 article was #6, while this general series article was #16 (with 730K views). Why the switch this week? No doubt it is because the season finale on June 26 (The Winds of Winter) (#18) caused more mainstream press coverage, prompting more people unfamiliar with the show to look it up on Wikipedia to see what they were missing. |
| 3 | Game of Thrones (season 6) | | 1,103,448 | | See #2. Numbers up slightly from last week. |
| 4 | Lionel Messi |  | 1,060,930 |  | Up from #21 and 564K views last week. TheArgentineforward and "best footballer on the planet"TM faced Chile in theCopa America Centenariofinal on June 26, and lost on penalty kicks after a 0–0 draw. The 29-year-old Messi announced his retirement after the game. |
| 5 | Iceland | | 784,708 |  | Views spiked on the northern island country's article on June 27 and 28. On June 27, Iceland defeated England 2–1 in theirUEFA Euro 2016 Round of 16 match. But alas, Iceland fell to France on July 3 and did not make the semi-finals. |
| 6 | Pat Summitt | | 764,584 |  | The longtime head coach of theTennessee Lady Volunteers basketball team, who won a record 1,098 games in her tenure, died at age 64. She retired from coaching in 2012 after being diagnosed withearly-onset Alzheimer's disease. Her public openness about her condition was widely admired and helped raise awareness of the disease and its impact. |
| 7 | Battle of the Somme | | 757,121 |  | The 100th anniversary of the commencement of thisFirst World War battle fell on July 1. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies and was thelargest battle of the First World War on theWestern Front. More than one million men were wounded or killed, making it one of thebloodiest battles in history. |
| 8 | Independence Day: Resurgence | | 755,170 |  | The 20-years-later sequel toIndependence Day premiered in the United States on June 24. As of July 4, its worldwide gross is $252 million; the film had a budget of $165 million. It has received mostly negative reviews, though I fully intend to see it. Down slightly from 810K views last week. |
| 9 | European Union | | 736,104 |  | Views previously spiked on June 24 due to theBrexit vote, but traffic remained high (though declining each day) for this entire week as the aftermath of the vote began to be digested. Down from #3 and 1.97 million views last week. |
| 10 | Jesse Williams (actor) |  | 720,299 |  | At theBET Awards on June 26, this actor won a humanitarian award, and delivered a speech highlightingracial injustice,police brutality, andcultural appropriation, which drew press attention far beyond anything the BET Awards normally gets. (BET is an acronym for Black Entertainment Television, the most prominent television network targeting African American audiences.) |
The ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from theWP:5000 were:
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pokémon Go | | 1,371,390 |  | For most people born before theClinton administration,Pokémon is about as comprehensible as the religious customs of some lost Pacific island or the codes and shibboleths of an ancient secret society. Which, by the way, is exactly why your kids love it so much. It's too complicated to explain quickly but the latest iteration exploded into the public mind almost overnight (it currently has more users thanTinder in the US, despite only being in release for 5 days) due to its unique, and perhaps uniquely dangerous, gameplay. Thanks to the wonders ofaugmented reality,Google Maps andGPS, a real-time scavenger hunt has morphed with a video game; it's everywhere you go. Hold up your iPhone to a tree, there's a Pokémon sitting in a crook, waiting to be captured and sent to the death ring, er, I mean "gym". Look down on the pavement, and there's a cute Pokémon staring up at you. And hey look! There's one swimming in that deceptively close and surprisingly deep pond! And there's one across that very busy street! Yes,Pokemon Go-related accidents have already happened, as have muggings, since the game alerts any other players to your current location. Thankfully none of this has proven fatal, though it's only a matter of time before a health official is forced to remind the general public that real people do not get extra lives. |
| 2 | Sultan (2016 film) | | 1,152,393 |  | One big difference betweenHollywood andBollywood is that in Bollywood, stars still matter. AndSalman Khan (pictured) rules the roost right now. His last big film,Bajrangi Bhaijaan, dominatedEid al-Fitr weekend and went on to make nearly $100 million. And now he's done it again. His latest, a wrestling drama, was also released on Eid and has taken in nearly ₹1.96 billion ($29 million) in its first six days. |
| 3 | Independence Day (United States) | | 1,142,261 |  | This is the fourth US Independence Day since we started this list, which means it's time to look for patterns, and one that stands out is that while this article's numbers keep climbing year upon year, it has never been the #1 article for its week. Some have speculated that Americans already know enough about their founding holiday and don't need to look it up. |
| 4 | UEFA Euro 2016 | | 988,687 | | Numbers are down slightly for the quarter- and semi-finals, which saw the darlings of the tournament (Wales andIceland) predictably knocked out byFrance andPortugal. This list's timeframe ends before the 10 July final so expect numbers to shoot up again next week. |
| 5 | Juno (spacecraft) | | 960,161 |  | Not allNASA missions need to be glamorous; this one, which began a slow, winding descent towardsJupiter on 4 July, won't be gracing us with grand vistas of the jewels of the Jovian realm. No: this one is hardcore, pick-to-the-cliff science. Have you ever seen a cutaway image of the inside of a gas giant? Well if not,here's one. Thing is, up until now, it's basically educated guesswork. We don't have any hard evidence of what's under those clouds. But we will, thanks to Juno, which will get the info by mapping Jupiter'sgravitational field. But to do so, it has to get close. Real close. As in, close enough to be fried by Jupiter's 12,000-Chernobyls-per-secondradiation belts. Needless to say, it's a tough little bugger, but its creators don't expect it to be producing useful science for more than 18 months before it's toast. |
| 6 | Nettie Stevens | | 896,719 |  | This pioneeringgeneticist and discoverer of theXY sex-determination system got aGoogle Doodle on her 155th birthday on 7 July. |
| 7 | UFC 200 | | 872,178 |  | The latest in themixed martial arts tournament series was held at theT-Mobile Arena inLas Vegas (pictured) on 9 July. HeadlinerAmanda Nunes defeatedMiesha Tate in the first round. |
| 8 | Serena Williams | | 857,452 |  | The world women's number 1 tennis champion clinched yet another record on 9 July when she beatAngelique Kerber in straight sets to clinch her 22nd major singles title at her natural home,Wimbledon. Two more titles and she will equalMargaret Court's career record. |
| 9 | Antoine Griezmann | | 849,627 |  | Olivier Giroud may have scored two goals forFrance in the Euro 2016 semi-final, but it was Griezmann who scored the most goals in the tournament. |
| 10 | Kevin Durant | | 707,764 |  | The seven-timeNBA All-Star signed with the Western Conference championGolden State Warriors this week for a reported two-year, $54 million contract. |
