Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/September 21 to 27, 2025
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (September 21 to 27, 2025)
Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, Shuipzv3, and CAWylie.
Still lots of death and politics here, making the sports and entertainment entries a relief.
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charlie Kirk |  | 2,321,632 | .jpg) |
A massive memorial service was held for the controversial right-wing activist in the same stadium where the Arizona Cardinals play, attracting so many people that 20,000 had to watch in the nearby indoor arena. One of the speeches was delivered by his widow, who forgave the man accused of the murder. |
| 2 | Erika Kirk |  | 1,583,276 | ||
| 3 | 2025 Ballon d'Or |  | 1,076,964 |  |
France Football unveiled their picks for the best players of the 2024-25 season. The top awards went on the male side to Champions League winner Ousmane Dembélé (#14) and the female side to Aitana Bonmatí, who won Spanish club tournaments and ended as runner-up on both the Women's Champions and the Women's Euro (although she didn't play the latter due to illness). |
| 4 | Zubeen Garg | | 1,053,519 | The "Heartthrob of Assam", who could play 12 instruments and sing in over 40 languages, died at age 52 while swimming in Singapore on September 19. His body lay in state for a public memorial until cremation on September 23, when he received full honors and a 21-gun salute. | |
| 5 | Deaths in 2025 | | 1,032,026 |  |
I tell myself I've got, say, 30 years. At 75 this place will suit me fine. I've never feared the grave but what I fear's that great worked-out black hollow under mine. |
| 6 | ChatGPT | | 1,017,651 |  |
The overuse of this chatbot leads to news of all flavors, like a woman who won the lottery following its number suggestions, and a lawyer fined for using fake AI-generated quotes in court. |
| 7 | One Battle After Another | | 1,010,616 | .jpg) |
Two years after his last movie, Leonardo DiCaprio returns under the direction of Paul Thomas Anderson as a retired revolutionary who must rescue his daughter from a corrupt military official. Fast-paced, well-acted and combining both thrilling set pieces and a few funny moments, One Battle After Another was praised by critics and opened as the #1 movie with a $22.1 million weekend, although whether it will be an exception on most of Anderson's movies underperforming at the box office is yet to be seen. |
| 8 | D4vd |  | 858,796 | .jpg) |
The only news to arise from the disappearance and death of a teenager, whose decomposed body was found on September 8 in the trunk of this singer's car, is that her body was released to her family for a funeral and that she was not pregnant at the time of her death. Her cause of death has been listed as "deferred", pending the release of the autopsy report. |
| 9 | They Call Him OG | | 824,573 | .jpg) |
No, this isn't about the "original gangster" and American rapper/actor Ice-T. This is the latest Indian crime thriller released on September 25. Filming began in 2023, with Pawan Kalyan (pictured) cast as OG, a retired gangster returning after 10 years to take on a new crime lord. Filming had some delays, since Kalyan was made deputy chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in 2024. |
| 10 | Assassination of Charlie Kirk | | 823,412 |  |
#1 was fatally shot in the neck while addressing an audience on the campus of Utah Valley University. 22-year-old Tyler James Robinson was arrested for it, and showing how weird the world has gotten, the cartridges used by him had Internet memes inscribed in them: the spent one read "Notices bulges OwO what's this?", and three others had "Hey fascist! Catch! ↑→↓↓↓" (the input to summon a bomb in Helldivers 2), "Oh bella ciao bella ciao bella ciao ciao ciao", and "If you read this, you are gay LMAO". |
| 11 | The Ba***ds of Bollywood | | 779,705 | .jpg) |
Aryan Khan dips his toe into filmmaking with this satirical series. Aided by his producer parents (Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan), he has garnered high praise for his debut set against the Hindi film industry. It was released September 18 on Netflix. |
| 12 | International recognition of Palestine | | 699,613 |  |
Ten countries recognized Palestine this week - Andorra, Australia, Canada, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Portugal, San Marino, and the United Kingdom. Many of the countries used the announcement to reiterate calls for a ceasefire to the Gaza war, the release of hostages taken by Hamas, the exclusion of Hamas from the governing authority of Palestine, and a two-state solution. Predictably, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out, insisting there will be no Palestinian state. Allies of US president Donald Trump, who has consistently sided with Israel, has also warned of repercussions. With the recognition by France and the UK, the US is the last permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to not recognize Palestine. |
| 13 | Jimmy Kimmel | | 615,556 |  |
Once Jimmy Kimmel Live! was taken off the air for the FCC complaining on its host commenting on #10 and its fallout - the news coverage focused more on "the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them", but perhaps what really bothered the government was mocking how the president (#25) was rather blasé about a supposed friend's death compared to how he hailed the ballroom he's adding to the White House - there was an intense backlash, including people cancelling their Hulu/Disney+ subscriptions in protest, so one week later it returned. Kimmel had a long monologue thanking the support (including from opposers like Ted Cruz), championing for free speech and against censorship, and above all predicting how Trump's pettiness led to the most viewed regular episode of the show (6.26 million) and millions of views on YouTube: "You almost have to feel sorry for him. He tried, did his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly." |
| 14 | Ousmane Dembélé | | 593,976 |  |
#3 had its biggest honor awarded to this French striker as he helped Paris Saint-Germain win an elusive UEFA Champions League and also end as runners-up on the expanded 2025 FIFA Club World Cup and get two national championships. |
| 15 | 6-7 (meme) | | 572,965 | .jpg) |
Every now and then, silliness emerges to take our minds off the troubles of the world. This meme, adopted by Generations Z and Alpha, finds correlations of the numbers wherever possible. It originated in the "Doot Doot" song by Skrilla, wherein he repeats the numbers. The lyric has been used by athletes of a certain height (6 feet 7 inches (201 cm)). |
| 16 | Assata Shakur | | 569,378 | .jpg) |
This American political activist, associated with the Black Liberation Army (BLA), was reported to have died in Cuba on September 25. Born JoAnne Deborah Byron, she and other BLA members were charged with several crimes in the early 1970s which ultimately resulted in a shootout on a New Jersey turnpike with police. Several people were killed or wounded, including Shakur. She was arrested for killing a police officer, but claimed she could not have fired the fatal shot as she was injured early in the fracas. In 1979, with help from the BLA, she escaped custody and received right of asylum in Cuba, where she spent the remainder of her life. In 1985, she became the first woman to be added to the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list. The Black Lives Matter movement is said to be attributed to her writings. |
| 17 | Ballon d'Or |  | 530,324 | _02.jpg) |
Magazine France Football chooses the best footballers of the season since 1956, an award that was even was fused with FIFA's own for a few years. The latest winner (#3) was #14, the sixth Frenchman to do so after Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini, Jean-Pierre Papin, Zinedine Zidane and Karim Benzema. |
| 18 | Wrestlepalooza (2025) | | 512,542 |  |
In a WWE professional wrestling event last attributed to ECW, there were numerous wrestlers returning to grapple in the ring on September 20: Brock Lesnar, AJ Lee, and The Usos. Most matches were underwhelming, except for the Women's World Championship one between Stephanie Vaquer (pictured) and Iyo Sky. Vaquer became the first Chilean-South American to win the title. |
| 19 | Alien: Earth | | 498,282 | _08.jpg) |
The FX (plus Hulu and Disney+) extension of the long-running sci-fi horror franchise aired the final episode of what creator Noah Hawley admitted could be the first of more seasons. Admittedly, a continuation would be nice, the ending both doesn't wrap all plot points and outright starts new stories, and of course as much as the children on robot bodies and evil megacorporations were interesting, viewers would want more of the Alien himself rather than sideline it for many episodes. |
| 20 | Black Rabbit | | 493,794 |  |
This Netflix crime thriller miniseries has Jude Law and Jason Bateman as the founders of the restaurant Black Rabbit who see many dangers go after them. |
| 21 | Robert Redford | | 491,889 |  |
Movie fans still mourn the loss of this popular actor, who among other things starred in Best Picture winner The Sting, made another one (winning Best Director in the process) in Ordinary People, used the name of one of his most popular roles to create a showcase for independent cinema in the Sundance Film Festival, and as a reference to his political thrillers appeared in a Marvel approach to the genre, Captain America: The Winter Soldier (a cameo returning to the role in Avengers: Endgame marked his retirement from film). |
| 22 | Tylenol (brand) | | 478,171 | .jpg) |
The latest nonsense spread by the guy at the bottom of this list involves him claiming this widely used medicine (chemical name paracetamol) causes autism, when it actually only helps with the headaches his government causes. |
| 23 | Ryder Cup | | 477,356 |  |
The week ends with the opening of the biennial golfing competition between US and European teams in match play. The Bethpage Black Course in Long Island, New York, hosts the event. |
| 24 | Ed Gein | | 461,625 |  |
Brace yourselves for all the views this article will get from people watching Monster: The Ed Gein Story! (as long as it doesn't plaster its name all over our Records page like the subject of the first season of the serial killer anthology did...) |
| 25 | Donald Trump | | 458,949 |  |
In a way returning to where we started, as he spoke in #1's funeral, blaming the Democratic Party and arguing that "the violence largely comes from the left". During the week there was also the above mentioned accusation thrown against over-the-counter painkillers (#22) and the decision to deploy troops to Portland, Oregon claiming it's "war-ravaged" simply because of anti-ICE protests. (when violent crime has actually been down, and would be more sensible sending troops to help cities that still haven't recovered from Hurricane Helene) |