Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-12-11/Traffic report
Deaths of Mandela, Walker top the list
Summary: When one edits this page for too long, one is tempted to appoint oneself as the psychoanalyst for the human race, or at least the English-speaking portion thereof. Since nearly everyone uses Wikipedia, the constant stream of TV updates, pointless celebrity scandals, and inquiries after who has died can seem like a dreary peek into humanity's surprisingly banal collective consciousness.
So when two notable deaths occur in the same week, one a treasure of the world widely regarded as a true Great Man in a time of comparative minnows who died peacefully in his sleep after a long life; the other a mid-tier actor who died in a car crash, the cynic can smugly note that the latter got nearly twice as many views as the former, and that humankind once again rushed to scandal, while ignoring the passing of history. Except for one thing: stats can lie. In fact, actor Paul Walker's tragic and grisly death was announced on 1 December, the day this list began counting, while Nelson Mandela's passing was announced late on 5 December, two days before the end. Per day, Mandela's death generated more than twice the views of Walker's. While the public sympathise with the tragedy of Walker's death, it appears they aren't being led by sensationalism alone.
See WP:TOP25 for the complete top 25 report.
For the week of 1 to 7 December, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages* were:
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Glad you provided the explanation as to why Walker beat Mandela, so it doesn't prove that my son's urgent mention of Walker dying when I tried to tell him about Mandela, is not representative.--Milowent • hasspoken 22:14, 12 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]