London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Jul 10, 2025

Pandemics and politics: 2020 through the lens of Wikipedia

Pandemics and politics: 2020 through the lens of Wikipedia

Which English Wikipedia entries got the most views this year? Here’s the top 25.

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.”

Then 2020 happened — and, as with most things this year, the list was very different.

Instead of blockbuster films, bingeable shows, musicians, or celebrities taking the top slots, English Wikipedia’s most popular articles of 2020 were about the 1COVID1-19 pandemic that has affected nearly every single human in the world.

In all, seven of the top 25 articles were directly related to 1COVID1-19, and just these alone recorded around 225 million pageviews. People from all walks of life came to Wikipedia to stay abreast with the fast-changing information available about the virus, much of it specifically verified by a plethora of reliable sources — something required by the encyclopedia’s policy on citations for medical articles.

The other major theme to surface in this year’s list is politics. Specifically, the lengthy and contentious presidential election in the United States.

The biographies of three of the four major candidates were each read by tens of millions of people. Donald Trump, the incumbent and now outgoing president, was the second-most popular article of 2020, dropping in views from when he was the subject of the most-viewed article of 2016 following his successful election campaign that year.

His opponents Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, the incoming vice president and president, followed in fourth and fifth place (respectively). Kamala Harris’ article received four million more views than Joe Biden’s.

Moreover, ongoing debate about the election stretched beyond Election Day on 3 November: in its aftermath, millions of people came to Wikipedia’s article about the Electoral College to learn about the complex process that formally selects the executive leadership of the United States.

If you’ve read this far, you might wonder what happened to the aforementioned non-political pop culture, particularly film and television.

The answer is that they’re still on the list, albeit overshadowed.

The clearest examples are the tens of millions of people who came to Wikipedia to read about the lives and deaths of basketball star Kobe Bryant; Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput; and American actor Chadwick Boseman.

Millions also visited pages dedicated to the killing of George Floyd and the shooting of Breonna Taylor, incidents that became the center of racial justice protests across the United States. Floyd and Taylor were the subject of the 29th and 40th most-trafficked articles of the year, respectively.

Seven of the top 25 articles were attributable in all or part to the media many of us watched on our devices this year. For example, basketball star Michael Jordan’s pageviews rose after the sports channel ESPN premiered The Last Dance, a widely acclaimed documentary about his career and the 1990s championship-winning Chicago Bulls. In addition, Netflix’s The Crown, a particular stand-out in these annual most-popular lists, was the source of many of the searches for Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. (Diana, Prince Philip, and Charles also placed in the top 40.)

Finally, Billie Eilish — a surprise addition to Wikipedia’s popular articles of 2019 — was the 32nd most-popular article of 2020 after winning the four most important Grammy Awards in the more normal times of January 2020.

The list


Here are the top 25 most-popular English Wikipedia articles of 2020 and their total pageviews. Check back for a final update in January 2021.

1. 1COVID1-19 pandemic, 83,040,504

2. Donald Trump, 55,472,791

3. Deaths in 2020, 42,262,147*

4. Kamala Harris, 38,319,706

5. Joe Biden, 34,281,120

6. Coronavirus, 32,957,565

7. Kobe Bryant, 32,863,656

8. 1COVID1-19 pandemic by country and territory, 28,575,982

9. 2020 United States presidential election, 24,313,110

10. Elizabeth II, 24,147,675

11. Spanish flu, 22,239,766

12. Elon Musk, 21,459,625

13. 2016 United States presidential election, 21,240,023

14. Michael Jordan, 20,745,473

15. Coronavirus disease 2019, 20,492,847

16. 1COVID1-19 pandemic in the United States, 19,266,908

17. Sushant Singh Rajput, 18,631,858

18. 1COVID1-19 pandemic in India, 18,598,599

19. QAnon, 18,070,938

20 . Parasite (2019 film), 17,539,085

21. Chadwick Boseman, 17,060,572

22. United States, 16,959,947

23. YouTube, 15,044,125

24. United States Electoral College, 14,819,264

25. Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, 14,763,684

Notes


* This list uses data that was current as of 15 December 2020. We will update this list in early January 2021 with data from the final two weeks of the year.

* “Deaths in 2020” is a page that gets very long, very fast. Because of that, each month Wikipedia’s editors split it into month-by-month lists. As of publishing time, that covers December 2020 — but if you’re reading this in 2021, the page will be redirected to Wikipedia’s “Lists of deaths by year.”

* As with every year we’ve done this list, the top articles are screened using the percentage of mobile views. Any article with less than 10% or more than 90% mobile views was removed, as it is a strong indicator that a significant amount of the pageviews stemmed from spam, botnets, or other errors.

* Previous most-popular Wikipedia articles by year posts are available for 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
NVIDIA Achieves Historic Milestone as First Company Valued at $4 Trillion
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of X After Two Years
US Imposes New Tariffs on Brazilian Exports Amid Political Tensions
Azerbaijan and Armenia are on the brink of a historic peace deal.
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Weinstein Victim’s Lawyer Says MeToo Movement Still Strong
U.S. Enacts Sweeping Tax and Spending Legislation Amid Trade Policy Shifts
Football Mourns as Diogo Jota and Brother André Silva Laid to Rest in Portugal
Labour Expected to Withdraw Support for Special Needs Funding Model
Leaked Audio Reveals Tory Aide Defending DEI Record
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
London Stock Exchange Faces Historic Low in Initial Public Offerings
A new online platform has emerged in the United Kingdom, specifically targeting Muslim men seeking virgin brides
Trump Celebrates Independence Day with B-2 Flyover and Signs Controversial Legislation
Boris Johnson Urges Conservatives to Ignore Farage
SNP Ordered to Update Single-Sex Space Guidance Within Days
Starmer Set to Reject Calls for Wealth Taxes
Stolen Century-Old Rolls-Royce Recovered After Hotel Theft
Macron Presses Starmer to Recognise Palestinian State
Labour Delayed Palestine Action Ban Over Riot Concerns
Swinney’s Tax Comments ‘Offensive to Scots’, Say Tories
High Street Retailers to Enforce Bans on Serial Shoplifters
Music Banned by Henry VIII to Be Performed After 500 Years
Steve Coogan Says Working Class Is Being ‘Ethnically Cleansed’
Home Office Admits Uncertainty Over Visa Overstayer Numbers
JD Vance Questions Mandelson Over Reform Party’s Rising Popularity
Macron to Receive Windsor Carriage Ride in Royal Gesture
Labour Accused of ‘Hammering’ Scots During First Year in Power
BBC Head of Music Stood Down Amid Bob Vylan Controversy
Corbyn Eyes Hard-Left Challenge to Starmer’s Leadership
London Tube Trains Suspended After Major Fire Erupts Nearby
Richard Kemp: I Felt Safer in Israel Under Attack Than in the UK
Cyclist Says Police Cited Human Rights Act for Riding No-Handed
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Musk Battles to Protect Tesla Amid Trump Policy Threats
Air France-KLM Acquires Majority Stake in Scandinavian Airlines
UK Educators Sound Alarm on Declining Child Literacy
Shein Fined €40 Million in France Over Misleading Discounts
Brazil’s Lula Visits Kirchner During Argentina House Arrest
Trump Scores Legislative Win as House Passes Tax Reform Bill
Keir Starmer Faces Criticism After Rocky First Year in Power
DJI Launches Heavy-Duty Coaxial Quadcopter with 80 kg Lift Capacity
U.S. Senate Approves Major Legislation Dubbed the 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Largest Healthcare Fraud Takedown in U.S. History Announced by DOJ
×