Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, GN22, Shuipzv3, CAWylie, and -insert valid name here-.

⭠ Last week's report

A few artist deaths lead the viewcount, while there is still a lot of entertainment and politics.

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	Notes/about
1	Michelle Trachtenberg		6,388,444		A former child actress better known for her roles in popular TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gossip Girl, Michelle Trachtenberg died at the age of 39, possibly of complications that emerged from a liver transplant (her family denied an autopsy on religious grounds). In the 97th Academy Awards right after the week covered here, Trachtenberg was not in the In memoriam segment, raising complaints from her fans, but she was on the extended obituary in the Oscars' website and possibly got excluded for being less prominent in movies compared to TV (her most popular film role is EuroTrip!).
2	Gene Hackman		5,430,970		A very acclaimed actor who died at 95, with a career of five decades mostly spent playing gruff people (including the roles that gave him two Academy Awards, Best Actor as a rough cop and Best Supporting Actor as a morally questionable sheriff) in movies such as Bonnie and Clyde, Superman, Mississippi Burning, Enemy of the State, and Runaway Jury, before being forced to retire in 2004 for health reasons (meaning that sadly his last movie is Welcome to Mooseport), only reappearing for a few narration gigs while dedicating himself to writing. Hackman's death had an element of surprise in that his wife and dog were also found dead at his home, with no indication of foul play or carbon monoxide poisoning.
3	Pope Francis		1,355,265		While the awards circuit recognizes Conclave, the possibility of a real-world pope election for the first time in 12 years is being raised, as the pontiff remains in a serious condition due to respiratory problems.
4	Chhaava		1,348,629		The latest Bollywood box-office hit chronicles the adventures of #10 as he battles Mughal forces.
5	2025 German federal election		1,317,670		The centre-right/conservative CDU/CSU won the most seats, with its leader, Friedrich Merz, projected to be Germany's next chancellor. The far-right Alternative for Germany, which received support from #6, doubled its vote share to place its best results ever, becoming the biggest party in all five former East German states. The SPD, the leading party of the ruling coalition, posted its worst results for more than 130 years. Its junior partner, the Greens, also lost seats, while former coalition partner the FDP lost all its seats and failed to reach the 5% threshold for representation in the Bundestag. The Left Party significantly improved its voting share and gained seats. The parties will now hold negotiations to form a governing coalition, though all relevant parties have continued to rule out involvement with the AfD.
6	Elon Musk		1,242,921		LONG LIVE THE REAL KING
7	Zero Day (American TV series)		1,101,430		This Netflix miniseries released on February 20th documents a former US president, played by Robert De Niro, put in charge of investigating a zero-day cyberattack with major damage across the country. Reviews were mixed, with a rating of 53% on Rotten Tomatoes by both critics and users.
8	Deaths in 2025		1,074,700		As our #2 once said, "Getting old is like being a car. Eventually, the parts start to wear out, and you're just hoping the engine holds up."
9	The White Lotus season 3		877,544		The third season of #25 was ordered in 2022 and premiered last week on HBO. This installment features an ensemble cast, led by Leslie Bibb (pictured), and follows the lives of the staff and guests at a posh wellness resort in Thailand. Early critical reviews have been favorable.
10	Sambhaji		874,937		The son of the famed ruler Shivaji, this guy was a real-life warrior who was killed by the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb's men.
11	Dan Bongino		827,138		On February 23, #20 texted on Truth Social that this guy will be the 20th deputy director of the FBI. He hosts The Dan Bongino Show on Rumble and previously hosted Unfiltered with Dan Bongino on Fox News until 2023.
12	Roberta Flack		820,079		A singer who had her biggest success in the 1970s with songs such as "Killing Me Softly with His Song", "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Feel Like Makin' Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", Roberta Flack died at the age of 88. Flack had not performed since 2018, when she fell ill during an appearance at the Apollo Theater and was later diagnosed with ALS.
13	Severance (TV series)		797,706		This show starring Adam Scott continues to release new episodes on Apple TV+ until March 21.
14	Belle Gibson		791,703		After Inventing Anna had a woman lying about her background to take advantage of others, and The Dropout had a lying entrepreneur making it big in the healthcare business before being unmasked, comes a Netflix show in the same area, Apple Cider Vinegar, regarding this Australian wellness influencer who had good intentions selling healthy recipes, but had the inexcusable deceit of pretending to have terminal cancer and even promoting alternative medicine to treat tumors. Unlike Anna Sorokin and Elizabeth Holmes Gibson hasn't been sent to prison, but she still lost in the court of law for spending money she had promised to send to charity, and Gibson still hasn't paid the ensuing fines.
15	Volodymyr Zelenskyy		773,998		On February 24, the third anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the president of Ukraine was welcoming a dozen leaders at Kyiv, many of whom were finally taking the opportunity to announce further financial and military aid. Zelenskyy then traveled to Washington, D.C. for a meeting with #20, which devolved into a tense confrontation. Trump threatened to withdraw US support if Ukraine did not make a ceasefire agreement with Russia, in which Zelenskyy replied that such a deal is unacceptable to Ukraine without security guarantees. Trump also accused Zelenskyy of "gambling with World War III", while vice president JD Vance accused Zelenskyy of being "disrespectful" and not showing enough gratitude for US help. With Trump demanding an apology from Zelenskyy and further US-Ukraine cooperation facing an uncertain future in the aftermath of the fiery meeting, Zelenskyy flew to London, where he received a much warmer reception from Charles III and prime minister Keir Starmer, and met with more than a dozen world leaders.
16	Killing of Gabby Petito		753,628		In August 2021, 22-year-old Gabby Petito was murdered in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming by her fiancé Brian Laundrie, who committed suicide the next month. A Netflix docuseries about these tragedies called American Murder: Gabby Petito was released on February 17.
17	ChatGPT		670,468		OpenAI announced Deep Research was expanded to all subscribers of the ever-popular chatbot, and released its latest language model, GPT-4.5, for those same paid subscribers.
18	Dragon (2025 film)		666,177		A Kollywood comedy drama about a rich man being forced to return to college to clear his backlogs.
19	The Gorge (film)		648,448		Apple TV+ released a movie with quite a blend of genres, giving romantic comedy overtones with an American (Miles Teller) and a Russian (Anya Taylor-Joy) who fall for each other while stationed in opposite sides of a canyon in the middle of nowhere, while it's mostly a thriller given that gorge houses a mysterious and dangerous threat (giving a chance for director Scott Derrickson to show off his horror credentials).
20	Donald Trump		639,002		In this week’s edition of "What Did Donald Do?" (WDDD), we find #15 in quite a bind as he was berated by President Trump (and Vice President JD Vance, who was the first off the list at #26) during a meeting where he and Trump were supposed to sign a minerals agreement. The Trump administration suffered a string of several losses in lawsuits and court cases nationwide as several judges found that it was defying court orders to rescind its pause on federal funds, although the Supreme Court did halt an order requiring Trump to release all federal funds by February 26. The Donald signed a controversial executive order on March 1 designating English as the official language of the United States executive branch that he reasons will help unify the country.
21	Kash Patel		637,385		The newly inaugurated director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was off to a wild start, as along with naming #11, in his first call to FBI officials Patel was reported to have "rattled off so many changes that employees couldn't tell if he was serious about all of them" while also announcing he would spend much time in his residence in Las Vegas, and that he planned a partnership between the FBI and the UFC!
22	Ruby Franke		637,669		One year after her conviction, the woman who had rose to fame on YouTube chronicling life with six children only to later be arrested for aggravated child abuse had her story told in the Hulu documentary Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.
23	Captain America: Brave New World		629,379		The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie hasn't exactly set the world on fire, and has yet to pass the box office of 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger (which had a whole different Star Spangled Man, as there it was the original, Steve Rogers, while the new one has Sam Wilson, previously known as Falcon). There was even an unusual event: in an empty screening attended by only two people, the ceiling collapsed as if the Red Hulk had decided to show up.
24	ICC Champions Trophy		618,194		The ninth edition of this quadrennial cricket competition is being waged from February 19 to March 9 in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
25	The White Lotus		618,308		The third season (#9) of this acclaimed HBO black comedy/drama series premiered last week. The series has won 15 Emmy Awards (including Outstanding Limited Series) and two Golden Globe Awards (also for Best Limited Series). Series creator and filmmaker Mike White (pictured) has won three Emmys for his work on the show.

• 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.