Queen Elizabeth's sad passing last week was one of those breaking news stories that you might remember where you were when you heard it.
Indeed, global interest in the monarch's passing was remarkable, with more than 8 million hits to the Wikipedia article for Elizabeth II last Thursday. That's the most traffic any Wikipedia article has received on any single day this year, per data from Pageviews.
A year of news
Intrigued by the Wikipedia data, we collated the pageviews for the most viewed English-language articles on any given day. Perhaps predictably — and sadly — traffic for the online encyclopedia tends to spike for the passing away of notable people. Articles on hollywood stars Anne Heche and Bob Saget, drummer Taylor Hawkins and former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe have been among the most-viewed — all of whom have passed away this year.
Outside of obituaries, articles on Roe v. Wade, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Jada Pinkett Smith and Amber Heard have been among the most read.Go deeper: check out the full list of the most read articles on Wikipedia for last year or 2020.
