top 25 Report/July 4 To 10, 2021

Prepared with commentary by Mcrsftdog, Igordebraga, Kingsif

⭠ Last week's report

Football, of the proper variety, sees two large weekend finals. Obviously come writing this summary, the Euros have been decided, but no spoilers. In other sport, the grass season of tennis has some finals too. All this points to northern summer, giving us several summer blockbusters now that it's either safe or economically necessary for countries to be opening up public spaces again.

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	Notes/about
1	Dilip Kumar		2,517,717		This storied Bollywood actor and producer, spending over 50 years championing his industry, passed away on Wednesday. One of the few Bollywood stars to earn mainstream recognition outside India, but the pageviews coming from such a big country surely did the heavy lifting here.
2	Black Widow (2021 film)		1,920,846		Due to the goddamned pandemic, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had to skip 2020. And now it has returned to theaters with Natasha Romanoff fighting a personal war between the Civil and Infinity wars. Like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it's a spy thriller as much as a superhero movie, now with girls. In any case, it provides a fun experience while introducing Natasha's successor and should be making some money and getting some Wikipedia views during its run.
3	UEFA Euro 2020		1,559,343		In this week's semi-finals, Italy defeated Spain and England defeated Denmark. On Sunday, Italy will face England at Wembley Stadium; this will be the second time (since 1996) that England has hosted the UEFA Euro finals, and the first time they've actually played in said match. Remember the last European contest, which Italy won and England lost? Perhaps fortunately for England, there's no popular vote this time.
4	The Tomorrow War		1,139,779		Yes, the summer blockbuster has truly returned, even if you'll be watching this one on streaming. It's... well, it exists. There's the internet's least-favorite Avenger in it. So, yeah. Movies.
5	Ashleigh Barty		1,117,914		Two years after her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, this Australian tennis player got her second championship by beating Karolína Plíšková at Wimbledon.
6	Loki (TV series)		1,044,964		Only one episode left, and no one knows what to expect, especially when the last one had an alligator version of Loki!
7	Deaths in 2021		890,837		They built you a temple and locked you awayAw, but they never told you the price that you payFor things that you might have doneOnly the good die young
8	UEFA European Championship		881,069		Happens every 4 (well) years, the 2020 (one year late) installment (#3) ramped up this week.
9	Jovenel Moïse		872,387		The president of Haiti was assassinated on Wednesday. According to the Haitian government, the assassins are a group of foreign mercenaries—mostly Colombian, but joined by two Floridians. Moïse had previously been the center of a constitutional crisis, refusing to step down from the Presidency.
10	Emma Raducanu		836,533		In the quarterfinals, #5 beat compatriot Ajla Tomljanović, who had just defeated this young British player. She'd entered as a wild card, something the home country are wont to do, even though tennis isn't as nationalistic as a certain other sport, and has quickly become a national treasure since making it to the singles fourth round is the furthest a British woman has gone in the Open era (sorry, Jo). Though she had to retire ill, given Raducanu is just 18, hopefully it's the start of a victorious career.
11	Copa América		828,008		South America's equivalent of #8. The two greatest players ever, Pelé and Diego Maradona, never won, but Argentina's second best, Lionel Messi, managed to get it on Saturday - and Brazil didn't care about losing to him! (see #15)
12	Murder of James Bulger		806,319		This happened in 1993, but young Americans are hearing about it for the first time just now. A landmark case in handling juvenile murderers, the legacy is familiar to most people, but a true crime podcast and then "American reacts to news of James Bulger murder" getting popular on #16 prove that even the most notable of international events can take time to make it in America.
13	Saira Banu		678,408		The widow of #1.
14	Gareth Southgate		660,417		The manager of #19 formerly played for the team. Southgate missing in a penalty shootout in the semi-finals of the 1996 Euros prevented the team from advancing to the finals, spoiling the hope of it coming home. After leading the team to their best World Cup and UEFA results since 1966, you'd expect him to be forgiven. Ah, but don't forget that the only people who hate the English players more than literally everyone else (who only despise the idea of the team), are their own fanatics. English football being seen by some as the ultimate display of nationalism, the hooligans can comprise some unsavory types.
15	2021 Copa América		599,957		If the national team loses to its archenemy at its own home and it's not considered a national tragedy, you can tell people were not very approving of the tournament. Blame it on a government that makes little of a pandemic that took half a million lives while jumping in at the opportunity of hosting a football championship.
16	YouTube		597,859		This article always gets a lot of views, which is a little strange isn't Google - but maybe some more came through this week when Mozilla and Microsoft took shots at the video platform. Can software giants have beef?
17	Critical race theory		591,738		The two sides of the United States. One, a critical view of U.S. justice as pertains to race being quashed. A nation that is sticking its fingers in its ears and singing la la la to claims that a liberal justice system is maybe not as liberal and just as the foundations said nation was built on. Two, a celebration of the liberal justice said nation was built on. This year, on July 4 as always, Americans of the United[citation needed] variety celebrated the 245th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A speech by President Biden, marking the occasion, was described as "declaring independence from COVID-19", with many Americans celebrating in ways that would've been dangerous (and, in some localities, illegal) during last year's lockdown. They're almost certainly still dangerous, if no longer illegal.
18	Independence Day (United States)		587,719
19	England national football team		587,493		For the first time in 55 years, the English team managed to win a semifinal! (namely, of #3) And like the victorious 1966 FIFA World Cup Final, there's some (frankly barely-mentioned, given the final is so close) refereeing controversy, as the other side (and the rest of Europe, since nobody want England to win, because it's England) claim Raheem Sterling threw himself for the game-winning penalty kick to be awarded. The English, of course, claim that a penalty wasn't awarded to #24 being pushed over in the box, so all's fair in love and football. If there are three certainties in life, they're death, taxes, and refereeing decisions being more important than the truth in football. We can only go on these esteemed refs' words, especially with ones who have chosen to minimally use VAR.
20	Omagh bombing		585,693		Reddit asked for nice photos with a disturbing story, and when someone shared one of people posing by the car used in this 1998 attack - which was then reposted on Buzzfeed - thousands had to search for information on it. Sigh.
21	F9 (film)		577,590		Cars blow up, something about family. Summer blockbuster, go catch COVID in a movie theater near you!
22	Sarah Shahi		563,590		Stars in Sex/Life, a raunchy new Netflix show.
23	Novak Djokovic		551,312		The record of Grand Slam titles held by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal was tied by this Serbian once he won Wimbledon. Maybe later this month Djokovic can do what he couldn't five years ago, show all his prowess at the Olympic Games instead of crashing and burning?
24	Harry Kane		523,526		Here I am, rock you like Harry Kane... Sorry. The penalty kick that qualified #19 at #3 was scored by this Tottenham Hotspur striker.
25	Haiti		518,476		Probably not a great place to be, all things considered.

 

Exclusions

• 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.