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Summary: The traditional start of summer vacation in the United States appeared to be a signal for the English-speaking world to bid a fond farewell to the real one, as summer blockbuster movies, cheesy music, 1960s post-modern porn, cable television and guys with neon helmets arrived to shuffle all the cares and casualties of the news cycle away- save a small cameo for the gawking media circus's objet du jour, Jodi Arias.
For the week of May 19 to May 25, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:
| Rank | Last | Wks | Article | Views | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 20 | 718,144 | A perennially popular article, though a newcomer to the top spot. Since it is always in the news for some reason or other, it's difficult to say why it reached the top this week. | |
| 2 | 3 | 12 | Game of Thrones | 678,593 | This epic fantasy TV series launched its third season on March 31, and has seen its ratings almost double on its premiere episode. |
| 3 | - | - | Xbox One | 646,124 | Microsoft's contender in the already-controversial eighth generationofvideo game consoles made its debut this week, to both positive and negative reaction. |
| 4 | 1 | 5 | The Great Gatsby | 640,459 |  |
| 5 | 6 | 4 | Star Trek Into Darkness | 594,176 | As of May 25, this movie has grossed a hair under $200 million worldwide. Despite this, its distributors are debating whether to call it a disappointment. Such is the way of Hollywood these days. |
| 6 | - | - | Fast & Furious 6 | 553,248 | This indestructible franchise roared into its sixth installment with nearly $100 million grossed in 48 hours. If Riddick does similar business, it would appear that Vin Diesel's comeback is assured. |
| 7 | 7 | 4 | Daft Punk | 505,760 |  |
| 8 | - | - | Memorial Day | 480,399 | The last Sunday in May (that's May 27 this year), the day that the United States chose to honour its war dead, is perhaps better known as the traditional beginning of US summer vacation, and is thus eagerly anticipated by millions of people too young to serve but old enough to stand in line for action movies. |
| 9 | - | - | Ray Manzarek | 448,016 |  |
| 10 | 17 | 6 | Game of Thrones (season 3) | 438,951 | see #2 above |
| 11 | - | - | Naked Came the Stranger | 428,178 | A popular TIL on Reddit let to a spike in interest in this literary hoax, in which a team of genuinely skilled writers attempted to compose the most terrible work possible, with the aim of showing that the hoi polloi will consume any drivel. It ultimately sold 100,000 copies, to the writers' smug satisfaction. Actually, all they really proved was that porn sells, so no big sociological truth there. |
| 12 | 16 | 30 | Deaths in 2013 | 426,157 | The lists of deaths in the current year is always a quite popular article. |
| 13 | 18 | 6 | List of Game of Thrones episodes | 414,749 | see #2 above |
| 14 | 10 | 2 | Eurovision Song Contest 2013 | 399,591 | The final for the kitschiest exercise in human unity ever devised, that 800 million people across a continent love to hate to love, was televised on May 18 from its spiritual homeland, Sweden. |
| 15 | - | 2 | Killing of Travis Alexander | 389,453 | An indecisive jury brought this back to the top 25 this week as they proved unable to reach a proper sentence. |
| 16 | - | 20 | 371,626 | A perennially popular article | |
| 17 | - | - | The Fast and the Furious (series) | 366,691 | see #6 above |
| 18 | 9 | 2 | Random Access Memories | 360,148 | Daft Punk's new album (see #4 above) |
| 19 | 25 | 32 | YouTube | 355,535 | Another perennially popular article |
| 20 | - | 4 | Aashiqui 2 | 355,305 | The popularity of this Bollywood blockbuster is a window on the substantial Indian presence on the English Wikipedia. |
| 21 | 8 | 3 | The Great Gatsby (2013 film) | 344,278 | Baz Luhrmann's 3D, hip-hop-infused, orgiastic take on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel remains popular on Wikipedia. |
| 22 | 22 | 31 | World War II | 340,821 |  |
| 23 | - | - | Liberace | 331,199 |  |
| 24 | - | - | Doctor Who | 327,582 | On May 18, the longrunning British scifi series had its last season finale before its much-anticipated 50th anniversary in November. |
| 25 | - | - | Tumblr | 326,556 | This popular microblogging website made its debut in the top 25, thanks to being purchased by Yahoo! |
Specific removals this week (those articles for which no reason for any sudden popularity could be located):
