If you want to know what average online folks are trying to learn about, then perhaps the total view counts on Wikipedia might offer us a glimpse into what most people want to learn about. If the top 25 most-viewed Wikipedia articles of 2023 are anything to go by, then people really cared about the rise of AI and the father of the atomic bomb.
At the top of the list, as expected, is ChatGPT with a whopping 49.4 million pageviews. OpenAI’s chatbot has been making multiple top lists this year, including the list of Android users’ favorite apps. It wasn’t just English-language Wikipedia either. The Wikimedia Foundation wrote that ChatGPT registered over 78 million pageviews across all languages.
There were a few surprising and unsurprising things about this year’s top Wikipedia articles. The top movies of the year usually get a lot of clicks, but folks around the world wanted to know more about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Manhattan Project’s research into the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer came in the number 7 spot for most-clicked Wikipedia entries, but the Oppenheimer film itself sat pretty at number 5. For all those folks who went for the Barbenheimer experience, the Barbie movie was in 13th place with nearly 19.8 million page visits.
Films made up seven of the top 25 articles. These included James Cameron’s sequel to his big blue cat-people CG blowout Avatar: The Way of Water in the number 20 spot. Meanwhile, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 too up the 23rd spot. The Last of Us TV series had more than 19.7 million page views, but it wasn’t able to defeat Bollywood action thriller hits Jawan and Pathaan. As usual, the Indian subcontinent is very active on English-language Wikipedia, helping to send results of the 2023 Cricket World Cup to the third spot of most-viewed Wiki entries.
Oh, don’t forget the celebrities, who made up several of the top spots. Swifties everywhere carried Taylor Swift to the number 12 spot at 19.4 million views. Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi hovered just above 16.6 million views but Portuguese footy king Christiano Ronaldo beat him out at 17.4 million pageviews. Then, right at the number 25 spot is kickboxer turned alt-right figurehead Andrew Tate. The self-described misogynist lodestone for all the internet’s manboys is still awaiting trial over allegations he participated in a human trafficking ring in Romania, but it’s a pretty safe bet that the man’s fans and detractors helped push the fountain of hate into one of the most-searched men in the world.
Scroll down to see the top 25 most-read Wikipedia articles for 2023.
25. Andrew Tate – 12,728,616 pageviews
24. Russian invasion of Ukraine – 12,798,866 pageviews
23. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – 13,392,917 pageviews
22. Lisa Marie Presley – 13,764,007 pageviews
21. India – 13,850,178 pageviews
20. Avatar: The Way of Water – 14,303,116
19. Elon Musk – 14,370,395 pageviews
18. United States – 16,240,461 pageviews
17. Matthew Perry – 16,454,666 pageviews
16. Premier League – 16,604,669 pageviews
15. Lionel Messi – 16,623,630 pageviews
14. Cristiano Ronaldo – 17,492,537 pageviews
13. Barbie (film) – 18,051,077 pageviews
12. Taylor Swift – 19,418,385 pageviews
11. The Last of Us (TV series) – 19,791,789 pageviews
10. Pathaan (film) – 19,932,509 pageviews
9. 2023 Indian Premier League – 20,694,974 pageviews
8. Jawan (film) – 21,791,126 pageviews
7. J. Robert Oppenheimer – 25,672,469 pageviews
6. Cricket World Cup – 25,961,417 pageviews
5. Oppenheimer (film) – 28,348,248 pageviews
4. Indian Premier League – 32,012,810 pageviews
3. 2023 Cricket World Cup – 38,171,653 pageviews
2. Deaths in 2023 – 42,666,860
1. ChatGPT – 49,490,406 pageviews
