Wikipedia talk:Top 25 Report

This article has been mentioned by multiple media organizations:

Emily Yahr (January 4, 2018). "Do you fall down a Wikipedia rabbit hole after each episode of 'The Crown'? You're not alone". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 4, 2018. Retrieved December 17, 2020. The site confirmed this Wednesday when editors revealed the most-read English Wikipedia articles of 2017, and seemed fascinated by how many on the list had to do with pop culture, particularly TV shows. [...] In a discussion of the site's top 50 articles for 2017, the editor wrote that he was most struck by the queen's prominence on the list, which was "phenomenal when you consider the fame and ubiquity of many of the entries which fall below her." [...] The data was also a revealing glimpse into the viewing habits for Netflix shows, as the streaming service famously refuses to release ratings information. Wikipedia pages for Netflix's controversial teen suicide drama "13 Reasons Why" and sci-fi hit "Stranger Things" also made the most-read list at No. 10 and No. 20, respectively.
Stephen Harrison (October 9, 2020). "The Wikipedia Battle Over the Tragic Death of a Bollywood Star". Slate. Archived from the original on December 14, 2020. Retrieved December 14, 2020. When Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September, her Wikipedia article rocketed to the top of the "Top 25 Report," a weekly list of the most popular articles on English Wikipedia [...] According to the Wikipedia volunteers who compile the Top 25 report, only five other articles [besides Sushant Singh Rajput] have ever seen weekly page views pass the 10 million mark[.]
Andrew Morse (December 28, 2020). "COVID-19, presidential election top Wikipedia's most-read articles in 2020". CNET. Archived from the original on December 30, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic and the US presidential election dominated the online encyclopedia's year, with seven articles related to the two broad topics landing in its Top 10 for most-viewed articles of the past 12 months. Those seven articles generated a combined 297 million page views, according to preliminary data provided by the site. The Top 10 generated a combined 396 million page views. (Wikipedia published a blogpost with the Top 25 most-read articles on Monday.) [...] Three articles on the coronavirus -- COVID-19 pandemic, coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic by country and territory -- netted nearly 145 million page views combined. The articles were Nos. 1, 6 and 8, respectively. More articles on the election made the Top 10, though they were more diverse in terms of topic. Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and the 2020 United States presidential election racked up 152 million combined views. They ranked Nos. 2, 4, 5 and 9, respectively. Articles on late NBA star Kobe Bryant and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II also made the list, as did an annual article on the year's notable deaths.
Ed Erhart (December 28, 2020). "Pandemics and politics: 2020 through the lens of Wikipedia". Wikimedia Foundation. Archived from the original on December 28, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2021. This is my sixth annual post sharing the list of Wikipedia's most popular articles of the year, and each year I've had to come up with different ways of saying "people really love the latest pop culture" ...
"10 most-read Wikipedia articles of 2020". Gadgets Now. January 8, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2021. 2020 was also the year when for the first time "in the (short) history of this list, more than 50 articles got over 10 million unique views!", noted Wikipedia. Wikipedia has shared a list of top 50 but here we bring you the top 10.
Gwen Aviles (December 27, 2019). "'Avengers', Billie Eilish and Chernobyl among top Wikipedia articles of 2019". NBC News. Retrieved April 18, 2021. Film and television dominated Wikipedia's catalog of top 25 most popular articles of the year

The Top 25 Report

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Archive 1	Archive 2	Archive 3
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Archive 7	Archive 8	Archive 9
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Report schedule

As of the December 22 to 28, 2024 report, there have been 626 Top 25 Reports. Of those, 332 have been contributed to by Igordebraga, 148 by Serendipodous, 72 by Milowent, 70 by SSSB, 47 by Mcrsftdog, 45 by CAWylie, 41 by YttriumShrew, 36 by Vestrian24Bio, 33 by Stormy clouds, 32 by TheJoebro64, 32 by Benmite, 30 by Ollieisanerd, 29 by OZOO, 29 by Kingsif, 22 by Shuipzv3, 21 by Rajan51, 20 by Rebestalic, 20 by Rahcmander, 17 by ltbdl, 13 by Soulbust, 13 by Max BuddyRoo, 12 by I am RedoStone, 11 by Krimuk2.0, 10 by A lad insane, 10 by Marinette2356, 9 by Bucket of sulfuric acid, 8 by InPursuitOfAMorePerfectUnion, 7 by Death Editor 2, 6 by TheConflux, 6 by ElijahPepe, 6 by GeorgeBailey, 5 by Maplestrip, 5 by Hugsyrup, 5 by Boyinaroom, 4 by Alexysun, 3 by JFG, 3 by Thatoneweirdwikier, 3 by Ab207, 3 by Spinixster, 3 by -insert valid name here-, 2 by Pythoncoder, 2 by FunksBrother, 2 by FoxyGrampa75, 2 by Newtothisedit, 2 by Ktin, 2 by BarntToust, 2 by DementiaGaming, 1 by Rayukk, 1 by Ahecht, 1 by Od Mishehu, 1 by Rogerknots, 1 by Miraclepine, 1 by Maka the Two Star Meister, 1 by Timbaaa, 1 by Sailawen, 1 by TuorEladar, 1 by Berrely, 1 by Wizzito, 1 by TenorTwelve, 1 by Canadian Paul, 1 by CT55555, 1 by The Optimistic One, 1 by Capsulecap, 1 by JSFarman, 1 by Karnataka, 1 by Gonnym, 1 by Hubert555, 1 by Bairagi Ram, 1 by CanonNi, and 1 by AndrewPeterT.

Useful links regarding "random" spikes:

The Last of Us (TV series)

I'm curious about the lack of entry for The Last of Us (TV series) on the latest report; it received 511,440 pageviews, which would have placed it at 20th. Was there something that prompted its exclusion? Thanks in advance! – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 01:09, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Rhain: My mistake, probably forgot to count it while compiling the list. Rewrote to include it. igordebraga ≠ 05:20, 14 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Makes sense, considering there was a related article with a very similar name at #15 anyway. Thanks for looking into it! – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 05:27, 14 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

ChatGPT

I find it very odd that we continue to include ChatGPT in Top 25 Reports (including on June 15 to 21, June 8 to 14, and June 1 to 7) despite it being a very popular website. It gets high amounts of views even when there is no relevant news to push it up in views. I believe we already exclude popular websites like YouTube and Facebook for the obvious reason that they are well-known enough to get regular views no matter the circumstance. wizzito | say hello! 19:58, 6 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

We exclude YouTube and Facebook for the opposite reason, as well-known as the sites are the views are too high to be organic traffic (just see Youtube's 2021 progression, a sudden fall followed by excessive numbers that kept for a while, with the page often breaking at least 100k with no explanation). ChatGPT is on the public consciousness and the page might benefit from the old tradition of people searching on Google and clicking on the Wikipedia page rather than, or in addition to, the actual website. Even if we're running out of things to say about it, for now I'd keep it. Don't know about the others (i.e. @SSSB:, @CAWylie:, @Shuipzv3:, @GN22:, @Ollieisanerd: and others who didn't help much in last week's Report leading to a late finish and could at least collaborate with the latest one) igordebraga ≠ 02:37, 7 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

If an outside perspective helps—when I've written the year-end popularity articles for the WMF, we've kept ChatGPT as the underlying pageview data doesn't support removing it. Writing from memory, the null referrer count last year was a bit higher than most articles, but that still left it nowhere near Facebook, YouTube, etc. More on that in the footnotes here. Ed ^{[talk] [OMT]} 02:49, 7 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the explanation. wizzito | say hello! 14:08, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]