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Over 15 million people viewed Charlie Kirk’s page on the day after the right-wing podcaster’s death
Owen ScottTuesday 02 December 2025 16:42 GMTComments
CloseCharlie Kirk's final words before fatal shooting
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The Wikipedia page for Charlie Kirk was the most-read article on the internet’s encyclopedia in 2025, with Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani also making the top ten.
Over 45 million people read the Turning Point USA founder’s page, with interest in the podcaster surging after his assassination on September 10, 2025.
Figures released by the Wikimedia Foundation found that 40 percent of viewership of Kirk’s article came from users outside the United States and that 15 million of his page’s views occurred the day after his death.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s Wikipedia article reached the top four, with 25.1 million people reading the president’s profile. The article about New York City’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani racked up 20.1 million views.
open image in galleryWikipedia has revealed that Charlie Kirk’s article was the most-read page on the internet’s encyclopedia (Getty Images)Last year, Trump’s Wikipedia page also reached fourth place with 27 million views, but was narrowly beaten by Kamala Harris, whose page was read 29 million times.
Harris, who was defeated in the 2024 Presidential Election, did not feature in this year’s list. Meanwhile, Trump has appeared on the list eight times, though he was not included in 2022 or 2023.
J.D. Vance’s page, which was the 16th most-read page this year, came in 7th place last year.
Beating Trump and Mamdani to the second-place spot was the general Deaths in 2025 page, which was viewed 42.5 million times. The death page is updated daily by a large team of editors. It has never ranked lower than third on the list since the Wikimedia Foundation began collecting data on its viewership.
Other celebrity deaths this year, in addition to Kirk, including Ozzy Osbourne and Pope Francis, made the list, too.
Pope Leo XIV, the incumbent leader of the Catholic Church, also featured on the list.
open image in galleryDonald Trump’s Wikipedia page stayed stable at fourth place, but saw a dip in viewership (Reuters)Bizarrely, Ed Gein, a serial killer who was active in the 1950s, took the number three spot with 31.2 million people looking at his page.
The surge of interest in Gein has primarily been driven by Netflix’s Monsters series, which dramatized his crimes and starred Charlie Hunnam as the depraved killer.
The TV and film industry took seven spots on the list, with the horror film Sinners reaching the 8th spot, beating Superman, Severance, Weapons, Adolescence, Thunderbolts, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
There was also a surge of interest in Elon Musk, with the controversial tech CEO rising from 11th place in 2024 to 6th place.
His high-profile appearances in the White House and botched stewardship of the U.S. Government’s now-dissolved Department of Government Efficiency saw Musk take a larger role in the public eye than ever, driving over 20 million people to his profile.
Soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo and YouTuber MrBeast were left dangling at the end of the list, with the sportster’s page racking up 10.8 million views and the influencer’s page being read 11.4 million times.
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