ChatGPT was the most searched article on Wikipedia in 2023, while the rest of the online encyclopedia’s most-popular post list reveals our morbid curiosity and our thirst for pop culture figures.

The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia, released its list of most popular articles for 2023 this week.

Over the course of the year, English Wikipedia attracted 84 billion views in total.

“The most-viewed Wikipedia articles of 2023 tell the story of you and society at large seeking out knowledge about our ever-changing world from the world’s largest encyclopedia,” the foundation said.

“Your curiosity shows the joy of discovery. The sadness of untimely death. The adrenalin of a cricket final. The magic of a day at the movies. The exuberance of hearing your favourite singer.

“This is 2023 through your eyes.”

Top five most-read articles for 2023

A little over a year ago, ChatGPT, the chatbot developed by Open AI launched.

Through the first half of 2023, the article about ChatGPT had between 100,000 to 400,000 page views “nearly every day”.

Across all languages that Wikipedia supports, there were more than 78 million page views on ChatGPT articles.

The second most-read article on the list is a little more morbid and is “a perennially popular article on Wikipedia”: The list of deaths for the year.

However, given many people die every year, at the end of each month, the editors at Wikipedia split the ‘Deaths in 2023’ article into smaller month-by-month lists.

ChatGPT took the world by storm after it launched in late 2022. Photo: Getty

The top five articles of the year

1. ChatGPT, 49,490,406 pageviews 
2. Deaths in 2023, 42,666,860
3. 2023 Cricket World Cup, 38,171,653
4. Indian Premier League, 32,012,810
5. Oppenheimer (film), 28,348,248

The sport articles people kept clicking

In 2023, it seemed people couldn’t get enough cricket, with the 2023 Cricket World Cup coming in third overall for article reads and the Indian Premier League coming in fourth.

It is the first time since Wikipedia started publishing these lists that articles related to cricket have made the cut.

“In 2023, cricket comprised a full 16 per cent of English Wikipedia’s top-25 articles,” the Wikipedia Foundation said.

“The third most-viewed article in our annual list is about the 2023 Cricket World Cup, which received 304 per cent more interest this year versus its last edition. That included over 1.25 million views on the day of the tournament final.”

Oppenheimer dominates Wikipedia

Barbie may have come out on top at the box office amid the Barbenheimer fever, but on Wikipedia, Oppenheimer was the most searched movie article.

Christopher Nolan’s movie was the fifth-most-read article this year and the article about the inventor of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer, was No.7.

Greta Gerwig’s film sits in 13th place on the list this year but movies beyond Hollywood also made the list.

Barbenheimer fever took over when Barbie and Oppenheimer were released. Photo: TND

“Pathaan and Jawan became two of the highest-grossing Hindi-language films of all time. Pathaan was released first in January 2023, and broke several box office records,” the Wikimedia Foundation said.

“Those accomplishments were short-lived, as Jawan surpassed them after its release in September. Both films featured Shah Rukh Khan as the main lead actor. Around their release dates, both films peaked at over one million views in a single day on English Wikipedia alone.”

Another win for Taylor Swift

Is it really surprising that Taylor Swift was the celebrity with the most Wikipedia page views for 2023? No.

The 2023 Time Person of the Year, Spotify’s Top Global Artist and Apple Music’s Artist of the Year sits at No.12 on the Wikipedia list overall.

The Eras Tour helped boost her standing on the platform and her high-profile relationship with Travis Kelce saw his article getting about 11 million views this year.

Matthew Perry and Lisa Marie Presley also made it on the list. They both unexpectedly died in 2023.

Elon Musk made an appearance on the list this year as well, sitting at No.19 (last year his article came in at No.6).

Taylor Swift’s Wikipedia article was among the top articles on the site. Photo: Getty

The top 25 most-read Wikipedia articles for 2023

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