Data study · Wikipedia readership in the AI answer era
Desktop Wikipedia Reading Is Down 9.9% Since 2022, While Mobile Web Reading Is Down 7.1%
English Wikipedia's desktop site lost 9.9% of its page views between 2022 and the past 12 months, against a 7.1% drop on mobile web. Measured from the year before AI Overviews launched, the pattern flips: mobile is down 19.6% and desktop 4.5%.
Analysis of 165.5 billion English Wikipedia desktop and mobile web page views across 2022 and October 2025 to September 2026 · Wikimedia pageviews via BigQuery, October 2026
Key findings
- 1
English Wikipedia's desktop site had 28.24 billion page views in the past 12 months, down 9.9% from 31.34 billion in 2022.
- 2
The mobile web site had 51.00 billion page views in the past 12 months, down 7.1% from 54.88 billion in 2022.
- 3
Since the 12 months before AI Overviews launched in the US, mobile web views are down 19.6% and desktop views are down 4.5%.
- 4
Desktop's share of English Wikipedia views went from 36.4% in 2022 to a low of 32.2% in 2023, then back to 35.6% in the past 12 months.
- 5
On weekdays, desktop views between 10am and 11am US Eastern time fell 11.1% from 2022, the largest drop of any hour on either site.
- 6
Mobile web views on weekday evenings barely moved: views in the 7pm Eastern hour were down 1.2%.
Summary
Picture an accountant who used to see a bump of desktop visitors every weekday morning, people at work looking up depreciation rules or payroll terms. Lately that morning bump is smaller. Wikipedia shows the same pattern at a much larger scale, and it lines up with when people sit at a computer at work.
We split English Wikipedia's page views into its desktop site and its mobile web site. Between 2022 and the latest 12 months (October 2025 to September 2026), desktop views fell 9.9% and mobile web views fell 7.1%.
The picture changes when you start from the year before AI Overviews launched. Mobile web views had climbed to 63.42 billion in that year and have since dropped 19.6%, while desktop is down only 4.5% from that point. Part of that mobile swing is likely automated traffic that Wikimedia filtered more strictly from 2025.
What we measured
We used Wikimedia's public pageview logs in BigQuery, summed to monthly totals for en (desktop) and en.m (mobile web), excluding the Main Page and non-article pages. Mobile app traffic is not part of these logs.
For time of day, we used hour-of-week totals and shifted UTC to US Eastern time with a fixed 5-hour offset. English Wikipedia is read worldwide, so hours are a rough proxy for the US workday.
Desktop lost a larger share of readers than mobile since 2022
Both sites shrank between the 2022 baseline and the latest 12 months. Desktop shrank more in percentage terms.
Views (billions)
| Period | Desktop | Mobile web | Desktop share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 31.3 | 54.9 | 36.4% |
| 2023 | 29.4 | 61.8 | 32.2% |
| 2024 | 29.5 | 61.1 | 32.6% |
| 2025 | 28.5 | 58.3 | 32.8% |
| Oct 2025 to Sep 2026 | 28.2 | 51 | 35.6% |
Source: aisearchoptimization.net analysis of 165.5 billion English Wikipedia desktop and mobile web page views across 2022 and October 2025 to September 2026 · Wikimedia pageviews via BigQuery, October 2026
Desktop drifted down, apart from a small rise in 2024. Mobile web jumped in 2023 and 2024, then fell back below its 2022 level. Desktop's share recovered to 35.6% only because mobile fell so far in the past year.
Since AI Overviews launched, mobile has dropped hardest
Starting from May 2023 to April 2024 gives a different read.
| Site | vs 2022 | vs 12 months before ChatGPT | vs 12 months before AI Overviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop (en) | -9.9% | -9.8% | -4.5% |
| Mobile web (en.m) | -7.1% | -5.1% | -19.6% |
| Total | -8.1% | -6.8% | -14.8% |
Source: aisearchoptimization.net analysis of 165.5 billion English Wikipedia desktop and mobile web page views across 2022 and October 2025 to September 2026 · Wikimedia pageviews via BigQuery, October 2026
AI Overviews appear on Google's mobile results as well as desktop, so a mobile drop after May 2024 fits the timing. The mobile peak in 2023 and 2024 likely included automated traffic, so we treat 2022 as the cleaner baseline and report both.
Weekday morning desktop reading fell the most
Breaking weekday views out by hour shows where the loss is concentrated.
% change
| Hour | Desktop | Mobile web |
|---|---|---|
| 6am | -8.5 | -8.1 |
| 8am | -9.1 | -7 |
| 10am | -11.1 | -9.1 |
| 11am | -10.9 | -8.9 |
| 12pm | -10.3 | -8.5 |
| 2pm | -9.4 | -4.7 |
| 4pm | -9.3 | -2.9 |
| 6pm | -6.6 | -2.3 |
| 7pm | -4.1 | -1.2 |
| 8pm | -3.9 | -2.1 |
| 10pm | -4.8 | -5.2 |
Source: aisearchoptimization.net analysis of 165.5 billion English Wikipedia desktop and mobile web page views across 2022 and October 2025 to September 2026 · Wikimedia pageviews via BigQuery, October 2026
Desktop's share of weekday work-hour views (9am to 5pm Eastern) slipped from 41.5% in 2022 to 40.5% in the past 12 months. Desktop losses run between 9% and 11% across the whole workday, then ease in the evening.
What this means
If your buyers research on a work computer, as most B2B buyers do, the desktop numbers are the ones to watch. Desktop reading of a neutral reference site is down about one in ten since 2022, and the biggest hourly drop is in the middle of the US workday, when many people may have AI tools open in another tab.
Check your own analytics by device and hour. If weekday desktop sessions to your guides are falling while branded visits hold, buyers are likely getting answers somewhere else first. Book a free AI visibility audit to learn whether those answers mention you, or talk to an AI SEO consultant about what the drop in your own numbers means.
Limits
Wikimedia pageview counts include some automated traffic that its filters do not catch, and Wikimedia changed how it detects bots in 2025, which lowers counted views from that point on. Some of the change in any period may reflect better bot filtering rather than fewer human readers.
We count views of titles that had at least 5 views in a given month on a given site, which drops a very small tail of rarely read pages.
Mobile app views are not in this dataset, so mobile here means the mobile web site only.
Hours are converted with a fixed 5-hour offset and English Wikipedia readers are spread across many time zones, so time-of-day results are approximate.
Embed this research
Add the charts from this study to your page. The embed links back here.
<iframe src="https://aisearchoptimization.net/embed/data-studies/desktop-vs-mobile-wikipedia-reading" title="Desktop vs Mobile Wikipedia: Desktop Views Down 9.9%" width="100%" height="720" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>
Cite this study
APA
Grenyo, K. (2026). Desktop vs Mobile Wikipedia: Desktop Views Down 9.9%. AI Search Optimization. https://aisearchoptimization.net/resources/data-studies/desktop-vs-mobile-wikipedia-reading
Plain link
Desktop vs Mobile Wikipedia: Desktop Views Down 9.9% - AI Search Optimization - https://aisearchoptimization.net/resources/data-studies/desktop-vs-mobile-wikipedia-reading
Frequently asked questions
Is desktop Wikipedia use declining?
Yes. English Wikipedia's desktop site had 28.24 billion page views from October 2025 to September 2026, down 9.9% from 31.34 billion in 2022.
What share of Wikipedia reading happens on desktop?
In the past 12 months, desktop accounted for 35.6% of English Wikipedia web page views. It was 36.4% in 2022 and dipped to 32.2% in 2023.
Has mobile Wikipedia traffic dropped too?
Mobile web views fell 7.1% from 2022 to the past 12 months, from 54.88 billion to 51.00 billion. Against the 12 months before AI Overviews launched, mobile web views are down 19.6%.
When during the day did Wikipedia lose the most desktop readers?
Weekday mornings. Desktop views in the 10am Eastern hour fell 11.1% between 2022 and the past 12 months, while the 7pm hour fell 4.1%.
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