Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2025-05-01/Traffic report

Traffic report

Of Wolf and Man

By Igordebraga, CAWylie, GN22, Shuipzv3, Rahcmander

This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, CAWylie, GN22, (April 6 to 26); Shuipzv3 and Rahcmander (April 13 to 19).

Off through the new day's mist I run
Out from the new day's mist I have come
We report, pulsing with the earth
Company we keep, compiling the data while you sleep...

So seek the wolf in thyself (April 6 to 12)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Dire wolf	2,101,677	Colossal Biosciences decided to do a "de-extinction" of the dire wolf that hasn't lived since the Ice Age, using the DNA from two fossils followed by gene-editing gray wolf genomes and creating clones gestated by domestic dogs, resulting in three pups, Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi (named after Rome's founders who suckled on a she-wolf and a character from A Song of Ice and Fire, a series that has the similarly spelled direwolves). However, they're only hybrid gray wolves, as their genetics are very different than that of the dire wolf.
2	A Minecraft Movie	1,616,223	Hollywood had a rough first trimester where only Captain America: Brave New World made big numbers, but at the end of it came the year's first true blockbuster, with over $500 million in two weeks and analysts even considering the possibility of it becoming the second video game adaptation to surpass a billion after The Super Mario Bros. Movie (which also features Jack Black in its cast!). At the same time, Minecraft fans reacting to the "Chicken jockey!" scene by creating chaos in theaters is not as welcome, and there's even a new disclaimer asking for viewers to behave themselves, if only because someone will need to clean all the spilled popcorn!
3	ChatGPT	1,363,013	This just keeps itself here, helped by how it surpassed 150 million users. And the trend of using it to generate or convert images in the style of Studio Ghibli led to OpenAI deciding to add a watermark to such pictures and environmental concerns.
4	Deaths in 2025	990,219	Sometimes I felt that I couldn't go on I wanted to leave, just run away from home But I would remember what my daddy said With tears in his eyes on his dyin' bed...
5	Natalia Grace	904,917	In 2010, it seemed like an American couple had watched Orphan and decided it was the way to get rid of their own Eastern European adoptive daughter with dwarfism (pictured here in a documentary), leaving her alone in an apartment while telling others she was also a sociopathic adult woman pretending to be a child. But it was all a neglectful lie, leading to criminal charges against the couple, and a Hulu show telling this weird story, Good American Family.
6	The White Lotus season 3	900,758	This popular series ended its third season on April 6 on HBO. Reviews for this installment were mostly positive, although some critics disliked its slow pace, and the season finale was called "disappointing" by a Forbes reviewer. (Warning: spoilers in the review and at the season link.)
7	The White Lotus	880,148
8	Mickey Rourke	760,324	This 72-year-old American actor entered the Celebrity Big Brother UK's house for its 24th series and its 17-episode run that premiered on April 7. Almost immediately, he began making physical advances toward the host, AJ Odudu, and disparaging remarks toward housemate JoJo Siwa. He was given a formal warning by series producers and was removed from the house on April 12, following similar behavior toward other housemates.
9	Peter Navarro	753,454	Trump's senior counselor for trade and manufacturing got into a war of words on social media with senior advisor Elon Musk this month. President Trump's global trade tariffs have cost Musk around $31 billion, causing Musk to question Navarro's Harvard education and calling him a "moron".
10	Adolescence (TV series)	742,277	Falling out of this list's top five, where it has been for nearly a month, this Netflix crime drama has been viewed 114 million times in as short of time, making it the platform's third most popular English-language series. It has even gotten the attention of UK's Prime Minister Keir Starmer (pictured in a meeting with series producers), discussions in Parliament, and been made free to view in secondary schools. Its success (and Starmer) has prompted the series' producers to discuss ideas for a second season.

Somebody take me in your arms tonight, alright (April 13 to 19)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Rory McIlroy	2,917,887	On April 13, this Northern Irish golfer became the sixth golfer ever to achieve the career Grand Slam by winning the 2025 Masters Tournament, after already emerging successful in the 2011 U.S. Open, 2012 and 2014 PGA Championship, and the 2014 Open Championship.
2	Sinners (2025 film)	1,406,940	Ryan Coogler writes and directs this movie where Michael B. Jordan (pictured) plays twins in the 1930s Mississippi Delta, whose opening of a juke joint is crashed by terrifying visitors. The atmosphere, cast and a sweet blues soundtrack win the viewer even before the plot changes halfway through (the trailers spoiled it, but for the uninformed it's the same thing done in From Dusk till Dawn), so reviews were glowing and Sinners topped the box office with $61 million worldwide.
3	Justin Rose	1,196,084	This English golfer led for the first two days of the Masters before falling six strokes behind #1 on day three. In the final round, he was able to make a resurgence and end the tournament tied for first. He ended up losing by one stroke in the sudden-death playoff, making Rose a three-time Masters runner-up.
4	Jaat (film)	1,177,898	Released on April 10, this Indian action film (featuring Regina Cassandra, pictured) has yet to recoup its ₹100 crore budget. But it's getting there, and, with not many new releases happening for the rest of April, it should well surpass it. In other news, the film received some backlash on April 18 for its negative portrayal of Jesus in a church scene, with additional condemnation of releasing the film during the Easter holiday. The scene in question was subsequently removed from the film.
5	ChatGPT	1,135,784	Millions of people use this chatbot, and the CEO admitted that treating with the same politeness of a human spends a lot of energy.
6	WrestleMania 41	1,059,902	Professional wrestling's annual "show of shows" began in Paradise, Nevada, with the first of two nights ending the week. The first match saw Jey Uso become the new WWE world heavyweight champion, and the night ended with Seth Rollins (pictured) winning a triple threat match with the help of his new manager Paul Heyman. The second night occurred on Sunday and is sure to be listed here.
7	Deaths in 2025	986,210	From #2's soundtrack: "Sing with me for the dawn The long goodbye Beckons all..."
8	Deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia	980,982	A Maryland resident, who was never convicted of a crime, is confined in a El Salvador prison – initially the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) – after an administrative error. U.S. president Donald Trump and El Salvador's self-styled "coolest dictator in the world" Nayib Bukele have done nothing to bring him back despite a U.S. Supreme Court order to facilitate his return.
9	A Minecraft Movie	940,771	Beware the chicken jockey. This highly-successful movie loosely based off a highly-successful video game is continuing to be highly successful, and inadvertently, highly dangerous. Certain moviegoers…um, overreacting…when Jack Black exclaims, "Chicken jockey!" have caused incidents of asphyxiation and injury. So please, please, please save the drama for the screen.
10	List of Black Mirror episodes	918,112	Series 7 of the anthology showing how technology brings up the worst in humanity came out on April 10 on Netflix. The episodes were a sequel to the Star Trek send-off, life support being worsened by greed, the Mandela Effect being real, a movie remake being derailed, a simulation game being a man's obsession, and a breakup being revisited through AI.

The Pope is pop, pop doesn't spare anyone (April 20 to 26)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Pope Francis	6,826,504	In 2013, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was just planning on retiring in Buenos Aires when #3 resigned and thus he had to fly to the conclave in Rome. He wound up elected as the new Pontiff, choosing a papal name homaging Saint Francis of Assisi, and never stepped foot in his native Argentina again. Noted for his Jesuit humility – he always wore simple white clothes and lived in the guest house rather than the Papal apartments – and a progressive agenda, Francis had already spent some time in the hospital this year due to respiratory diseases, and less than a day after giving his Easter address at St. Peter's Square (that included a call for a ceasefire in Gaza) and receiving the visit of US vice-president JD Vance, he suffered a stroke and died at the age of 88.
2	Sinners (2025 film)	3,054,880	A saint man directly followed by Sinners, now that's ironic. Michael B. Jordan plays twins in 1930s Mississippi getting unexpected and dangerous visitors at the opening of their juke joint. Reviewers and audiences alike where enthralled by Ryan Coogler's mixture of period piece, supernatural horror, and blues musical, and with the box office having passed its $100 million budget it should soon become profitable.
3	Pope Benedict XVI	2,530,935	#1's predecessor Joseph Ratzinger, who resigned his papacy and lived on as pope emeritus until 2022. There was talk of #1 resigning, but he ultimately chose to serve for life.
4	WrestleMania 41	2,381,330	On April 20, the second night of the annual WWE event, John Cena (pictured) won his 17th championship, setting a record for the title. Spending the past seven weeks as a heel, Cena hit Cody Rhodes with a low blow to secure the victory.
5	2025 NFL draft	1,885,673	On May 1, 2024, Deion Sanders tweeted the prediction that his son Shadeur Sanders, who was quarterback for his father's college team, would be one of the first five players to be picked in #5. Nearly a year later, 143 selections went by, before Shedeur was selected by the Cleveland Browns, their seventh choice in the three-day event.
6	Pope John Paul II	1,810,868	"The pope was shot at point blank, pop doesn't spare anyone!" Before #3 we had 27 years of the Polish Karol Wojtyla, making him the third longest-serving pope after Pius IX and the first one, St. Peter. John Paul II was fairly popular – even if, as mentioned previously, a hitman tried to kill him once – for going all around the world, attempting to improve the Catholic Church's relations with other religions, fighting against dictatorships, and helping ending the communist rule in his country and the rest of Europe.
7	List of popes	1,653,320	When Jesus told one of his apostles "I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church", the one eventually known as Saint Peter followed that founding the Diocese of Rome that became the center of the Catholic Church, and the bishop of that diocese earned the title of 'Pope', derived from the Greek word for 'father'. #1 was the 266th Pontiff, although the list of popes is fairly complicated as the count includes some of the antipopes that claimed to be Bishop of Rome, but are not currently recognized by the Catholic Church.
8	Pope	1,177,472	The leader of the world's 1.28–1.41 billion Catholics. Currently, it's sede vacante until the end of the 2025 papal conclave.
9	Deaths in 2025	1,022,885	Sing with me now, just for today Maybe tomorrow, the Good Lord will take you away...
10	Pope John Paul I	1,003,197	1978 was the year of three popes: Paul VI died on August 6, and later that month Albino Luciani, Patriarch of Venice, was elected pontiff, naming himself after his predecessor and the previous one (John XXIII). Yet he died after only 33 days, leading to a second conclave that put #6 at the Holy See.

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.

Most edited articles

For the March 21 – April 21 period, per this database report.

Title	Revisions	Notes
Deaths in 2025	2048	Aside from the Pope listed above, deaths of the period include George Foreman, Manoj Bharathiraja, Jay North, Rubby Pérez, Kyren Lacy, Mario Vargas Llosa, and two that earned proeminent spots in the last Traffic report, Val Kilmer and Richard Chamberlain.
2025 Myanmar earthquake	1526	Already afflicted by a civil war, the Southeast Asian nation entered a state of emergency after the most powerful earthquake to hit the country since 1912, killing up to 5,352 people (a significant number being Muslims given the seismic activity happened during the Friday prayer and collapsed mosques) and injuring thousands more. Neighbors Thailand, China and Vietnam were also affected.
Margaret	1377	Some IPs have seemingly decided to add just about every famous Margaret to this article.
Department of Government Efficiency	1253	The divisive company set up to cut down expenses of the U.S. government. Its figurehead Elon Musk told his investors that he planned to reduce his government work, but that he will "likely" continue for the remainder of Trump's term.
Candidates of the 2025 Canadian federal election	1199	Plenty of updates on who can received votes on the election that starts on April 28.
2025 World Snooker Championship	1197	On April 19, the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield received the world's best snooker players for a tournament that lasts until May.
Tariffs in the second Trump administration	1048	New tariffs were placed on all goods brought into the U.S., causing an immediate stock market crash and bear market. A breakdown on the tariffs lead to the much mocked discovery that one of the locations hit by taxes is Heard Island and McDonald Islands, a distant archipelago that isn't inhabited by humans, but by penguins! The outcry eventually made Trump notice that the other countries were "getting a little bit yippy" and put a pause on all of those over 10% (except for China, which Trump slapped with a 145% tariff). Trump also exempted electronics from the tariffs.
Deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia	1022	Kilmar Abrego Garcia left his El Salvador for the United States in 2011 to escape gang threats, and was given withholding of removal to remain living and working legally. 14 years later, having started a family and no criminal charges, an administrative error mistakenly sent him to a maximum security prison in his home country. The United States Supreme Court concluded that he deserves to be sent back to the U.S., but the Salvadorean president has refused the requests so far.
L2: Empuraan	908	This Mollywood action thriller film, a sequel to the 2019 film Lucifer and the second instalment in the Lucifer trilogy was released on March 27 and managed to recover its budget of ₹180 crore (US$21 million) in just 4 days and break several records. It was jointly produced by Aashirvad Cinemas, Lyca Productions, and Sree Gokulam Movies, with Mohanlal reprising his role as the lead character.
Snow White (2025 film)	846	Disney remade its first animated feature in live action, it wasn't received well (the reactions go from critics being unimpressed to haters deciding to do some review bombing on IMDb to make it the website's lowest rated movie) and hasn't even made $200 million worldwide when the budget is on the $240–270 million range. The bad response even made the studio stop the development of a Tangled remake. Yet there is another one of those adaptations due this year, and Lilo & Stitch is actually being eagerly awaited.
List of Philippine television shows	836	Another case of IPs extending a list.
2025 Turkish protests	760	Once Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was arrested, this was taken by the population as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan trying to weaken his opposition, leading thousands and eventually millions, of both sides of the political spectrum, to protest against the economic crisis, democratic backsliding and other issues that the government caused.
2024–25 Liga 4 national phase	752	A few users are really dedicated into updating the fourth tier of Indonesian football.
A Minecraft Movie	729	Hollywood's biggest hit of the year so far, with over $800 million worldwide. (although it's only the second highest-grossing movie of the year, as China's population of billions was enough for their cartoon Ne Zha 2 to become only the seventh movie to surpass $2 billion!)
Jaat (film)	728	Given I mentioned one country with a population surpassing a billion, the other, India, has the world's largest film industry, and this Bollywood action film is one of its releases.