TV, movies and celebs: Wikipedia’s top searches of 2013

By David Nield January 11, 2014

tv movies celebs wikipedias top searches 2013 wikipedia — Image used with permission by copyright holder

For many of us, Wikipedia is the first place to turn for information, whether it’s on the latest Hollywood blockbuster or an advanced medical procedure. The top searches for 2013 on the English version of the site have just been revealed, giving an insight into the story of the year and the topics of note over the last 12 months.

Hit television shows are all over the top end of the results list: Breaking Bad (3rd place), The Walking Dead (11), Game Of Thrones (12) and The Big Bang Theory (17) were among those that featured. Movies were less popular: Man Of Steel was the highest at 42, with XXX, Argo, Iron Man 3 and Django Unchained also making the top 100.

Plenty of people turned to Wikipedia for the lowdown on their favorite celebrity. Jennifer Lawrence appears at number 22, with the late Paul Walker at 32. Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Dwayne Johnson and Mila Kunis also appear. In politics and history, Nelson Mandela (16), Abraham Lincoln (29) and Adolf Hitler (39) feature in the list. The handy List of Presidents of the United States page reached number 91 in the charts for 2013.

Be honest though: how many of you are confusing Wikipedia with Google and using the front page as a search box? Facebook came in at the number 1 slot, with Google at 5, YouTube at 8 and Wikipedia itself at 19. Tech-related entries in the list include Java, IPv6, Bitcoin and Android.

Elsewhere in the top 10, deaths in 2013 took 2nd place, with World War II at 6, Wiki at 7, the list of Bollywood films of 2013 at 9 and the United States at 10. Can anyone explain G-force at number 4, with a substantial 17 million views? Other popular topics in the top 50 included India, sex and the humble backslash.

The list was put together by software engineer Johan Gunnarsson using the tools available at Wikimedia Tool Labs. You can see the full rundown here, as well as lists for Wikipedia in other languages.

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