So what's this WikiPop thing?

It's a proxy for what's going on in the world seen through the lens of Wikipedia. WikiPop compiles the most popular Wikipedia article each day and keeps an archive of it. There's a daily email and an RSS feed.

Wouldn't there be repeat articles some days?

Yeah, that can happen. To keep things interesting, an article won't be featured if it was already the top article in the last 30 days.

Do you store this data in a database?

Actually, no! WikiPop runs entirely off a flat JSON file, a cron job, and static HTML.

Are you associated with Wikipedia?

No, but I'm an everyday user of it and a donor.

What Wikipedia page was everyone looking at yesterday?

Comic illustration of a woman with glasses

The Devil Wears Prada 2

2026 film by David Frankel

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a 2026 American comedy drama film directed by David Frankel and written by Aline Brosh McKenna. A sequel to the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, it sees Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci reprising their roles, with Justin Theroux and Kenneth Branagh joining as new additions.

Read on Wikipedia →

209,431 views yesterday

OBSCURE WIKIPEDIA ENTRY OF THE DAY Fordlândia

Fordlândia is a district and adjacent area of 14,268 square kilometres (5,509 sq mi) in the city of Aveiro, Pará, Brazil. It is located on the east banks of the Tapajós river roughly 300 kilometres (190 mi) south of the city of Santarém. Continue reading

WIKIPOPs BY DAY

Date	Article	Category	Views
Apr 30	David Allan Coe ·day	American country musician (1939–2026)	427,150
Apr 29	2026 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election ·day	Election to the 18th Legislative Assembly of the Indian state of West Bengal	283,555
Apr 28	Sabethes cyaneus ·day	Species of mosquito	167,497
Apr 27	Jaafar Jackson ·day	American singer and actor (born 1996)	229,845
Apr 26	Michael Jackson ·day	American singer (1958–2009)	339,354
Apr 25	Michael (2026 film) ·day	Biographical film by Antoine Fuqua	316,184
Apr 24	2026 NFL draft ·day	2026 American football draft	366,855
Apr 23	2026 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election ·day	Election to the legislative assembly of Tamil Nadu	355,438
Apr 22	Dave Mason ·day	English musician (1946–2026)	202,462
Apr 21	John Ternus ·day	American business executive and engineer (born 1975)	413,418

View full archive (474 articles) →

FAQ

So what's this WikiPop thing?: It’s a proxy for what's going on in the world seen through the lens of Wikipedia. WikiPop compiles the most popular Wikipedia article each day and keeps an archive of it. There’s a daily email and an RSS feed.
Who made this?: Josh Sowin made this, inspired by Hatnote and LonelyWiki. I have a newsletter called Rabbitholes which explore more obscure things (including obscure Wikipedia articles) but I was also interested in what was trending on Wikipedia because I rarely have a pulse on it. Read more about the behind the scenes creation of Wikipop here (link coming soon).
Wouldn't there be repeat articles some days?: Yeah, that can happen. To keep things interesting, an article won't be featured if it was already the top article in the last 30 days.
Do you store this data in a database?: Actually, no! I started this with the goal of making an auto-updated feed of popular Wikipedia articles WITHOUT a database. I could have used Firebase or Supabase but I’ve already done that before; what I haven’t done is make a website that is dynamically generated without one.
How do you get the data?: From the Wikimedia REST API.
How does it update and keep an archive without a database?: I ended up using two main methods: JSON and GitHub Actions. The site runs off a flat JSON file, a cron job, and static HTML. Every day, a GitHub Action fetches the top articles from the Wikimedia REST API, stores the result in a JSON file, compiles the static pages, and commits them back to the repo. GitHub Pages serves it from there. What a world.
This design feels familiar in some way?: Yes, it should! I wanted to make the design less “every current boring website on the internet” and more “fun internet of the past” … as I was thinking about this, I was looking at my art studio mural and saw Image Duplicator by Lichtenstein and started playing in that direction. The background dots were done in pure CSS and adjusted to perfection using WikiPop’s Background Adjuster created for this singular purpose.
Why did you remove the .xxx page?: Because .xxx is, surprisingly, often the most popular page on Wikipedia. My best guess is that people are searching for "xxx" on Google, and either they're not paying attention to the results or get nerd-sniped that there's a whole top-level domain dedicated to that. Either way, it's not interesting on a daily basis because it's always up there, so I filtered it out.
Are you associated with Wikipedia?: No, but I’m an everyday user of it and a donor, and they would love for you to be, too! Back when it first started I thought “there is no way this could work” but somehow it does and that’s very encouraging. It’s a free wealth of knowledge available to the world without ads. Incredible. Nothing like this has ever been created or available in human history.