Fantastically compiled by the folks at Fivethirtyeight, this is fascinating stuff. And the popularity of the WWE on Wikipedia is astounding.
Nate Silver’s ‘data journalism’ site Fivethirtyeight is a very interesting, and very different type, of sport and news site. Sifting through mountains of data, they produce articles on everything from baseball to boy bands, all rooted in a belief that numbers explain everything.
Over the weekend they produced a cracker, based on the 100 most edited Wikipedia pages, and it is a fascinating insight into the mind of the internet and it’s main source of info, for better or worse.
Top of the pile, unsurprisingly, is George W. Bush, with over 45,000 revisions. Much more surprisingly is the page in second place, a list of WWE Personnel. Sure the WWE goes through talent at a fair rate, and debate among fans is high about all the different aspects of wrestlers lives but over 38,000 revisions is mind-boggling.
To put into perspective just how big the WWE is, in Wikipedia at least, the remainder of the top five is USA, Michael Jackson and Jesus. Other articles on the world of wrestling also feature in the top 100, with The Undertaker at 18, Kane at 37, WWE (46), John Cena (51), RAW (75) and Triple H (76).
The Catholic Church is seventh, Obama is eighth, Adolf Hitler is nine and Britney Spears rounds out the top 10. The things the internet is interested in is certainly varied.
Of course, we scanned the list for Ireland and there we are, tucked in at number 88 with just under 15,000 revisions. That puts us behind countries like Scotland, Greece and Germany and Chelsea football club, who sit in 87th place on the list.
However, Ireland is ahead of World War I (89), Cannabis (92), Scientology (98) and Blink-182 (99), so at least we have that going for us.
To take in the full list, click this link.
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