When the media decides who you are rooting for.
Yeah sure, this movie with 1.3 rating and 5 (out of 100) metascore, with only 50k ratings, is the #1 movie this week. The algorithm is really transparent and trustworthy, clearly there's no manipulation going on.
(for those who don't know, IMDb is owned and operated by Amazon)
You look at the audience score and it's 100%. Look closer and the 100% is from something called audience verified. Meanwhile the actual audience is way lower. It's maddening
99% audience score on rotten tomatoes. They are claiming those are not bot reviews. Hahaha
They tried giving us a martyr in Charlie Kirk, now we have more myth making with this Melania nonsense. It's so blunt too...
Might be numbers one because of so many ratings, not cause the ratings are good.
#3 has way more ratings and way higher ones too:
I guess it could be lower because it's a series or something, but #10 is a movie, has a higher rating, and has more ratings too:
My only other idea of what "popularity" could mean is the page view count, but then it should probably be called something other than "top 10 on IMDb" IMHO.
If I were tasked with implementing an algorithm tasked with being "justifiable" but also putting it at the top, I'd simply refuse.
If I was a complicit piece of shit, though, I'd probably use engagement, scaled by recency... with whatever recency curve puts it at number 1.