On Wikipedia, Black Panther won the Olympic gold
Did you know that you can view Wikipedia’s most popular articles from each day or month?
Well, now you do. And the most popular article on the English Wikipedia last month was the Marvel superhero film Black Panther, which was released in the United States on 16 February to widespread critical and popular acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes summarizes the reviews, 97% of which it measured as positive, by stating that “Black Panther elevates superhero cinema to thrilling new heights while telling one of the [Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s] most absorbing stories — and introducing some of its most fully realized characters.”
Beyond the article on the film, Black Panther influenced three other entries in the top 25 most popular articles: Michael B. Jordan, who portrayed the film’s antagonist; Chadwick Boseman, who played the protagonist (#17); and the article about the comic book version of Black Panther (#23).
The second most-popular article was about Sridevi. A Bollywood actress widely known for being the industry’s first woman superstar, Sridevi passed away on 24 February. Having appeared in major films in five different Indian languages, Wikipedia’s article on Sridevi notes that she had “pan-Indian appeal” and was once voted the country’s best actress from the last one hundred years.
The Winter Olympics came, perhaps surprisingly, only in third place. Norway came away with the most medals overall and the most gold medals, the latter tied with Germany.
Here are the top ten most popular articles from February 2018. For the full list, head over to Topviews Analysis.*
- Black Panther (film), 8,163,571
- Sridevi, 6,359,702
- 2018 Winter Olympics, 4,828,193
- Elon Musk, 3,471,643
- Exo (band), 3,415,620
- Sylvester Stallone, 3,147,866
- Deaths in 2018, 2,983,212
- Shaun White, 2,830,665
- The Cloverfield Paradox, 2,407,298
- Michael B. Jordan, 2,257,866
A few notes
On Elon Musk (#4): Pageviews to the article about the business magnate and entrepreneur spiked around the launch of Falcon Heavy, a launch vehicle designed by Musk-owned SpaceX.
Exo (band) (#5): Wikimedia UK, an independent organization devoted to promoting the Wikimedia movement in the UK, started a Twitter feud between fans of the Korean pop bands Exo and BTS. BTS won the poll there in a landslide, but Exo took the pageviews crown for the moth.
Sylvester Stallone (#6): Many of last month’s views to the article about the iconic US action film star came after he was subjected to a death hoax, which was removed from Wikipedia almost immediately.
The Cloverfield Paradox (#9): Regardless of your opinion on the film itself, Netflix’s strategy to release it right after the Super Bowl certainly garnered attention — enough to put it on this list. And while The A.V. Club’s Alex McLevy has argued that this “stunt … derailed basically all the promotional steam” for Altered Carbon, a Netflix series released two days before Cloverfield, the show slotted in at #15.
Michael B. Jordan (#10): Jordan portrayed the antagonist in Black Panther. Chadwick Boseman, who played the film’s protagonist, was #17, and the article about the comic book version of Black Panther was #23.
Ed Erhart, Senior Editorial Associate, Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
We’ve removed articles with above 90% or below 10% mobile views, as this is usually an indicator of being a false positive. See more.
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