Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2019-12-27/Traffic report

Traffic report

Queens and aliens, exactly alike, once upon a December

This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Igordebraga (November 24 to 30, December 8 to 14); Hugsyrup and Igordebraga (December 1 to 7).

Kingpins and queens and alien thieves, taking lives denied (November 24 to 30, 2019)

Most viewed articles of November 24 to 30, 2019

The Disney+ show that led for the past two weeks has been ousted by a release in the bigger streaming service, as Netflix got Martin Scorsese's latest crime epic The Irishman, and the historical figures there also get entries, including the top one. Netflix also brought in recent history from across the pond, with all the views for British royal family members who come along with The Crown. Movies in actual theaters also have royals (Anna and Elsa of Arendelle in #5) and re-enactments of real events (#6, #9). Thanksgiving (#10) and wrestling (#8) close off the list.

Rank	Article	Views	About
1	Jimmy Hoffa	2,238,665	Martin Scorsese makes yet another Mafia epic, only this time with a limited theatrical release before it hit Netflix. The movie itself is sandwiched between two of the main characters, the famed labor union leader who mysteriously vanished, Jimmy Hoffa (played by Al Pacino), and the protagonist, a truck driver turned hitman, Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro, who was a guarantee in a Scorsese movie in the old days).
2	The Irishman (2019 film)	2,139,328
3	Frank Sheeran	1,658,531
4	The Mandalorian	1,550,932	The Star Wars streaming sensation, making all of us foreigners who can't get Disney+ the more jealous that is not possible to legally watch it yet.
5	Frozen II^[1]	1,353,343	You only see what your eyes want to see / How can life be what you want it to be... Sorry. It's not like I can discuss Elsa and Anna's return, my country only gets this movie in January!
6	Richard Jewell	1,151,435	The film about how the hero of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing was then vilified by the media only comes out in December, but had its festival premiere and good reviews.
7	Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon	1,071,519	The Crown is back, and so are a lot of British royals to our report. The biggest views aren't for the show's main star, but her deceased younger sister.
8	Survivor Series (2019)	1,040,807	From crowns to belts, as the latest WWE pantomime was held and had the main card won by Shayna Baszler.
9	Elizabeth II	905,531	Back to the monarchs with the Queen of the United Kingdom (and many more places), now played in The Crown by Oscar winner Olivia Colman.
10	Thanksgiving	855,382	The annual holiday that reunites families for feasting. Hopefully there are very few cases of turkeys thrown out windows.

Every week is exactly the same (December 1 to 7, 2019)

Most viewed articles of December 1 to 7, 2019

I believe I can see the future, 'cause I repeat the same routine. Or at least readers do, given half the subjects of last week have returned, including the whole top 4 and most of the top 10, including two entries that had been #13 and #16 in the extended list. The only thing that is brand new is an Asian multisport events (#5), showing the sizeable amount of English-speaking Filipinos can push an entry here.

I can't remember how this got started, but I can tell you exactly how it will end.

Rank	Article	Views	About
1	Jimmy Hoffa	2,289,492	The top three spots this week are dominated by one film, and the two main characters in that film; played by Al Pacino and Robert de Niro respectively. Notable for using CGI technology to both age and de-age the two leads to portray them at different times in their lives, it's also notable for being based almost entirely on the questionable account of one of those two individuals. The one that didn't famously disappear, obviously.
2	The Irishman (2019 film)	1,835,586
3	Frank Sheeran	1,752,309
4	The Mandalorian	1,406,893	The first ever live-action Star Wars TV series has received mixed reviews so far, but it's a bold experiment and probably the only good reason to sign up for yet another streaming subscription, since it's exclusive to Disney+. Featuring Pedro Pascal in the title role, alongside an eclectic cast that includes Werner Herzog and Carl Weathers, it's now up to episode five with three more to come.
5	2019 Southeast Asian Games	877,811	The 30th Southeast Asian Games took place from the 30th November to 11th December, in the Philippines, which took over as host last minute (well, in 2015) after Brunei withdrew from the role.
6	Richard Jewell	804,072	This entry's story is one that will make you both sad and angry. A genuine hero whose actions at the Centennial Olympic Park bombing saved lives, he was then hounded by press and law enforcement and treated as a suspect on the flimsiest evidence. What brings him back into the public consciousness this week is the release, on 13th December, of Richard Jewell the film about his story.
7	Elizabeth II	747,579	Like the other royals on this list, it's a little hard to tell how much of the UK Head of State's appearance in Wikipedia's searches is down to her reappearance in Netflix's The Crown (this time played by Olivia Colman), how much is down to the amusing moment when she appeared to tell off her daughter for refusing to meet Donald Trump, and how much is down to her position as mother of the man now best known for coming up with some of the world's least convincing alibis.
8	Deaths in 2019	726,230	It'll never stop being interesting, will it. And, with only a handful more weeks for late additions to this article, perhaps it's more interesting than ever.
9	Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon	721,341	Another The Crown-based appearance on the list. Princess Margaret, recast for season 3 along with the rest of the cast, was portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter. And at least we can be sure she's mainly here due to the popular Netflix show and not for how she dealt with either Donald Trump or Jeffrey Epstein.
10	Knives Out (film)	633,007	After a dark sci-fi actioner and the bleakest Star Wars ever, Rian Johnson went for a lighter route with Knives Out, a comedic murder mystery starring Ana de Armas (pictured) as the caretaker of the victim, Christopher Plummer, among stars such as Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis and Toni Collette. Following much critical praise to the writing and acting, Knives Out is also keeping itself strong at the box office, with two straight weeks as runner-up to a certain Disney behemoth.

And a report someone writes, Once upon a December (December 8 to 14)

Most viewed articles of December 8 to 14, 2019

The year is ending, and in some good news the topics here are renewing. Even if the ever-present death list (#10) is responsible for the top entry with a dead rapper. There is also a TV event (#3), a British election (#5), a beauty pageant (#9), and people finding a way to escape religious persecution (#7) to counter the return of a biopic subject (#2), a streaming series (#4) and film (#6, #8).

Rank	Article	Views	About
1	Juice Wrld	3,659,287	Jarad Anthony Higgins, aka Juice WRLD, who last year broke out with "Lucid Dreams", tragically had a fatal seizure at just 21 due to a pill overdose.
2	Richard Jewell	1,879,643	Clint Eastwood (pictured) is approaching 90, and doesn't seem ready to stop making movies. This time it was a biopic of this security guard who tried to contain the Centennial Olympic Park bombing, which has gathered some criticism for simplification of the events and controversial portrayal of a reporter, and opened at 4th place in the box office (behind two sequels and Knives Out).
3	Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse)	1,679,639	Every year, those DC Comics shows on The CW do a massive crossover. And 2019 had one inspired by the first DC event comic, bringing all heroes together to prevent the destruction of the multiverse. The event also had the return of two Supermen, Brandon Routh and Tom Welling (pictured).
4	The Mandalorian	1,093,421	The first live-action Star Wars TV series, exclusive to Disney+ and thus widely pirated, if only to see where that adorable Baby Yoda came from.
5	2019 United Kingdom general election	1,019,906	The lack of a Brexit withdrawal agreement led to a snap election, where the Conservative Party again got the majority of Parliament seats.
6	Jimmy Hoffa	952,929	A labor union leader who famously disappeared in 1975, Hoffa had already been the subject of an eponymous biopic starring Jack Nicholson, and now has been portrayed by another acting legend, Al Pacino, in our #8.
7	Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019	873,457	India has now made it easier for persecuted religious minorities from the neighboring Muslim majority countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to get naturalized, with over 30,000 migrants expected to be immediate beneficiaries. The Act is controversial for its exclusion of Muslims, with the UN describing it as "fundamentally discriminatory", some states refusing to implement it, and protests leading to several deaths, thousands detained, and internet access cut off in several regions.
8	The Irishman^[2]	839,331	Film award season has started to recognize Martin Scorsese's crime epic, so viewer interest remains high.
9	Miss Universe 2019	814,087	Even if some people question the relevance of beauty pageants in this day and age, they still gather attention. The winner was South African Zozibini Tunzi, leading to many congratulatory chants of "Wakanda Forever!" (to the disapproval of some).
10	Deaths in 2019	802,040	Cracked eggs, dead birds Scream as they fight for life I can feel death Can see its beady eyes...

^ Combined views with Frozen 2, as the article got renamed during that week
^ Combined views with The Irishman (2019 film), as the article got renamed during that week

Exclusions

These lists exclude 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 Top 25 Report talk page if you wish.

← Previous "Traffic report"

Next "Traffic report" →

In this issue

27 December 2019 (all comments)

Traffic report

Discuss this story

These comments are automatically transcluded from this article's talk page. To follow comments, add the page to your watchlist. If your comment has not appeared here, you can try purging the cache.

Amazed(!) at how dense people are, regarding Tunzi's win on Miss Universe -Gouleg (Talk • Contribs) 14:32, 27 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the report. Your commentary makes the statistics more interesting. As for Elizabeth II, I haven't watched The Crown (yet), but I did read her article recently, out of curiousity. Mainly because I forgot how old she was... then, I ended up reading the whole article. Clovermoss (talk) 02:24, 31 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

There's an error here. There's been no "Queen of England" title since 1707, it's Queen of the United Kingdom. The C of E God Save the Queen! (talk) 10:21, 4 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I perfectly know that. If it was a mainspace article it would be wrong to be this informal. It's not, so I just went "Queen of England (and many more places)", linking to the Commonwealth in the parenthesis. But someone changed it, if it tickles your fancy. igordebraga ≠ 02:29, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Keep up with The Signpost on Twitter, Facebook or Mastodon.

Home

About