When I ’m using Wikipedia , I ’m usually spending time of day getting lost in the site’sbottomless pitof random factoids for hours on closing . Apparently though , this puts me in the nonage . If you look at the most popular page on the platform from this year , you ’re most likely to discover pages discussing politics or the spherical pandemic , and small else .
In a Mondayblog military post , Wikimedia Foundation staff member Ed Erhart detailed the 25 Wikipedia pages that harvest the most orb throughout all of 2020 . Of the list , seven of these Sir Frederick Handley Page were related to the COVID-19 pandemic in some way . All told , Erhart noted that these pages — which sport title like “ Coronavirus disease 2019 ” and just apparently “ Coronavirus”—racked up 225 million views between them . In fact , the most read article this year , per Erhart ’s list , wasthis page(titled “ COVID-19 pandemic ” ) that rack up over 83 million views on its own . Naturally , reader looking into the obvious historical analogue also boosted the article on theSpanish fluto the number 11 spot .
The second most take article?Donald Trump ’s , which Erhart says garner about 55.5 million views . The pages for Kamala Harris and Joe Biden followed in the fourth and fifth stain , right afterthis pagedetailing the listing of deaths in 2020 . ( Deaths likely played a Brobdingnagian part in the rankings this year ; outside the devastating pandemic itself , Kobe Bryant , Chadwick Boseman , and Sushant Singh Rajput — who died in a planing machine crash , of colon cancer , and by suicide , respectively — all made the top 25 this yr . )

Photo: Lionel Bonaventure (Getty Images)
“ This is my sixth one-year C. W. Post portion out the list of Wikipedia ’s most pop articles of the year ” Erhart wrote . “ And , as with most thing this year , the list was very different . ”
As he put it , these inclination have historically been a reflexion on how much Wikipedians lie with geeking out over movies , euphony , and everything pop finish adjacent . In 2019 , the top spot go to Avengers : Endgame , and the seventh situation go toJoker . Billie Eilish ’s Sir Frederick Handley Page got its own bit further down the tilt , as did two separate pages describing Game of Thrones ( the whole series ) and Game of Thrones ( just the 8th time of year ) . Similar sort of pattern emerge in the listsfrom 2018and2017 .
Erhart excuse that while pop culture was n’t completely absent from our minds this year , it certainly claim a backseat . showcase in breaker point : Billie Eilish moved from the 9th most popular varlet to the thirty bit . The downgrade is fitting for a year that put over unnumberable concerts and closed numberless venues . Personally , envision this slow decline has made it that much hard to really embrace the circumscribed amount of albums and movies that did come out this class . The only piece of pop culture to garner enough views to make Erhart ’s list — Bong Joon - ho ’s Parasite — hit theaters in May of last year .

Wikipedia is n’t only a position where you could readfull episode recapsfor Keeping Up With The Kardashians or learn about theStraw Hat Riots of 1922 ; it ’s also a plaza thatpromises some degreeof objective fact . In a year where readers were bombarded with twisting and misinformation at every bit , and democratic political program like Facebookhalf - assed any attemptat limiting this sort of drivel , I get it on that I ascertain Wikipedia’stransparent approachto handling election - relate capacity felt like a breathing time of novel air . And it look like a gross ton of other people did , too .
The full list is multiply below :
COVID-19 pandemic , 83,040,504

Donald Trump , 55,472,791
Deaths in 2020 , 42,262,147 *
Kamala Harris , 38,319,706

Joe Biden , 34,281,120
Coronavirus , 32,957,565
Kobe Bryant , 32,863,656

COVID-19 pandemic by country and district , 28,575,982
2020 United States presidential election , 24,313,110
Elizabeth II , 24,147,675

Spanish flu , 22,239,766
Elon Musk , 21,459,625
2016 United States presidential election , 21,240,023

Michael Jordan , 20,745,473
Coronavirus disease 2019 , 20,492,847
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States , 19,266,908

Sushant Singh Rajput , 18,631,858
COVID-19 pandemic in India , 18,598,599
QAnon , 18,070,938

Parasite ( 2019 picture show ) , 17,539,085
Chadwick Boseman , 17,060,572
United States , 16,959,947

YouTube , 15,044,125
United States Electoral College , 14,819,264
Princess Margaret , Countess of Snowdon , 14,763,684

Donald TrumpElon MuskWikipedia
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