Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/January 17 to 23, 2021


Don't forget to read the 2020 annual top 50 report

edit

Prepared with commentary by Mcrsftdog, Benmite, Igordebraga, and TheConflux

⭠ Last week's report

One of the changes we wanted for 2021 is already in place as Joe Biden takes residence in the White House, and finally gets the top spot in the Report after his running mate, the previous election, and the guy Biden defeated and ousted got more views.

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 Joe Biden   5,277,181   On January 20, Joe Biden became the President of the United States, and Kamala Harris became his understudy.

As mentioned above, this is the first time that Biden has ever topped this list since it first launched in 2013. When it first became clear he was likely to win the Democratic primaries in March, well, we had bigger things to worry about. At the convention, he was upstaged by Harris. When he finally won the election, he was again beaten out for the top spot, this time by #3. So I suppose it's high time that he gets #1! I'm curious to see if and when he'll make a repeat appearance on top of the list.

2 Kamala Harris   4,454,215
3 Donald Trump   2,592,253   At 8 a.m. on January 20, Trump departed the White House, flying to Mar-A-Lago, rather than stay to see the two above be inaugurated. Hopefully he won't appear on this list too much longer as the world moves on.
4 Richard Ramirez   2,421,184   The "Night Stalker" that terrorized L.A. in the 80s is the subject of Netflix's docuseries Night Stalker.
5 Amanda Gorman   2,402,986   Gorman delivered her poem, "The Hill We Climb," at Biden's inauguration. She's the youngest poet to do so, at the age of 22.
6 Beau Biden   1,892,110   #1's oldest son, who was a close friend of #2 and died in 2015.
7 Jill Biden   1,833,122   The new first lady.
8 Phil Spector   1,814,503   Phil Spector passed away at the age of 81 on January 16. Spector was, as the BBC put it, "talented but flawed;" he produced iconic records like "Be My Baby," he inspired Brian Wilson to create Pet Sounds, and was convicted for the murder of Lana Clarkson.
9 Larry King   1,533,519   A journalist who went on to have a fruitful career hosting radio and TV shows, Lawrence Harvey Zeiger (the new surname came from King's Wholesale Liquor!) died at the age of 87.
10 Doug Emhoff   1,476,946   The husband of Kamala Harris (#2) is the first-ever Second Gentleman of the United States.
11 WandaVision   1,424,609   Scarlet Witch and Vision relive moments out of old sitcoms that are clearly an illusion of sorts in the return of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, only not in theaters, but a Disney+ show.
12 Ashley Biden   1,390,930   The daughter of #1 and #7 (his two sons were with his late first wife).
13 Jen Psaki   1,344,735   Out with the old, in with the new! We've finally got a new Press Sec who I know next to nothing about other than that she's been press secretary-ing for some time now and she has the most vibrant hair out of the entire Biden cabinet (just ignore that Cecily Strong quote from last week.) Hopefully she'll last a tad bit longer than Sean, or Sarah, or Stephanie, or...you get it.
14 QAnon   1,202,483   The supposed hero of this conspiracy theory (#3) has been rightfully evicted from the White House, so maybe the ignorant right needs a new nonsensical idea to push?
15 Hunter Biden   1,127,144   And speaking of right-wing conspiracy theories, #1's son who was accused of corrupt activities related to Ukraine.
16 Martin Luther King Jr.   1,083,773   Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was on Monday.
17 Bridgerton   1,045,363   Still high views for this Netflix period drama.
18 President of the United States   993,004   #1 is now the Commander-in-chief and so-called "leader of the free world".
19 Hank Aaron   932,772   Baseball Hall of Famer Aaron died at the age of 86.
20 Deaths in 2021   932,059   Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
21 Lana Clarkson   927,840 The victim of Spector.
22 List of presidents of the United States   926,892   #1 is the 46th here (technically 45th, Grover Cleveland holds two numbers for serving non-consecutive mandates).
23 Family of Joe Biden   847,512   Many of whom are spread on this list (and in the picture, have the illustrious company of Michelle Obama). About time that the family of #1 rather than his running mate (#2) gets more attention.
24 Keystone Pipeline   816,018   In one of his first acts as President, #1 revoked the permit that was granted to TC Energy Corporation to expand this oil pipeline, showing the new government certainly aims more to help the environment.
25 Bernie Sanders   752,178   The Bern spread like wildfire this week as an image of Sanders at the Inauguration in a chair with his arms and legs neatly crossed like a fancy dog, looking cozy but a little disgruntled in the same coat he wore in his last meme and some lovely gloves made by a second grade teacher from Vermont, made it to nearly every corner of the internet: fashion, boxing, space, gaming, music, movies, you name it. Someone even created a website which allowed people to put him anywhere they wanted. It inspired thinkpieces from both fans and haters, but like many a meme these days, it was a bit of a dead horse by the end of the week. The strangest part about the meme is that it doesn't make much sense, and not in an absurdist, post-internet kind of way, but just in a "this image looks funny, let's put it literally everywhere for no reason" kind of way. Thankfully, Bernie managed to use the image's rapid popularity for good by making merch for charity.
 
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (January 17 to 23, 2021)


Exclusions

edit
  • 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.