While Cricket and related articles feature prominently on the list, Bollywood isn’t too far behind with two of this year’s major blockbuster films finding their way into the top 25.

New Delhi: The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia, released its annual list of the most viewed articles on English Wikipedia in 2023, and for the first time since the foundation started publishing these year-end most popular lists in 2015, articles related to Indian topics were prominently featured in the list, with about seven appearing in the top 25.

The top 25 most viewed pages in 2023, released Tuesday, reflect the world’s interest in innovation in artificial intelligence, people who died this year and the growing power of Indian users to influence trends on the website.

Cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world, but no cricket article has ever been in the Foundation’s year-end lists, until now. In 2023, cricket comprised a full 16 per cent of English Wikipedia’s top 25 articles. The articles for the ‘2023 Cricket World Cup’ (number three), hosted this year in India, and ‘Indian Premier League’ (number four) made their way into the list of the top five most viewed articles.

These Wikipedia articles, along with the ‘Cricket World Cup’ (number six) and ‘2023 Indian Premier League’ (number nine) articles collectively received over 116.8 million pageviews.

While Cricket and related articles feature prominently on the list, Bollywood isn’t too far behind with two of this year’s major blockbuster films finding their way into the top 25. ‘Jawan’ and ‘Pathaan’, both starring Shah Rukh Khan feature in eighth and tenth place on the list respectively, collectively racking up more than 41.7 million page views. Around their release dates, both films peaked at over one million page views in a single day on English Wikipedia alone.

Hollywood’s ‘Oppenheimer’ (fifth) and the article on ‘J. Robert Oppenheimer (seventh) are positioned higher on the list, whereas ‘Barbie’ and ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ are featured at positions 13 and 20 respectively.

The Wikipedia article for ‘India’ is also featured in the 21st position, with almost 14 million page views.

Here are this year’s top 25 articles on English Wikipedia.

1. ChatGPT: 49,490,406 pageviews
2.  Deaths in 2023: 42,666,860 pageviews
3.  2023 Cricket World Cup: 38,171,653 pageviews
4.  Indian Premier League: 32,012,810 pageviews
5.  Oppenheimer (film): 28,348,248 pageviews
6.  Cricket World Cup: 25,961,417 pageviews
7.  J. Robert Oppenheimer: 25,672,469 pageviews
8.  Jawan (film): 21,791,126 pageviews
9.  2023 Indian Premier League: 20,694,974 pageviews
10.  Pathaan (film): 19,932,509 pageviews
11. The Last of Us (TV series): 19,791,789 pageviews
12. Taylor Swift, 19,418,385: pageviews
13.  Barbie (film): 18,051,077 pageviews
14. Cristiano Ronaldo: 17,492,537 pageviews
15.  Lionel Messi: 16,623,630 pageviews
16.  Premier League: 16,604,669 pageviews
17.  Matthew Perry: 16,454,666 pageviews
18.  United States: 16,240,461 pageviews
19.  Elon Musk: 14,370,395 pageviews
20.  Avatar: The Way of Water: 14,303,116 pageviews
21.  India: 13,850,178 pageviews
22.  Lisa Marie Presley: 13,764,007 pageviews
23.  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: 13,392,917 pageviews
24.  Russian invasion of Ukraine: 12,798,866 pageviews
25. Andrew Tate: 12,728,616 pageviews

The readership of Wikipedia articles is often driven by current affairs. This year saw a number of positive, global developments in India, including becoming the first country to land a spacecraft on the south pole of the moon through its Chandrayaan-3 mission, the winning of an Oscar for ‘Best Original Song’ for ‘Naatu Naatu’ – the first time an Indian film song has ever been recognised for these awards, India’s G20 presidency, and the hosting of the 2023 Cricket World Cup.

“Wikipedia is a vital source of up–to–date and fact-checked information for people in India and around the world. Anyone who wants to learn more about a current event or gain knowledge on a topic can consult the free and collaborative online encyclopedia,” said Anusha Alikhan, Chief Communications Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation.

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