Data study · Wikipedia readership in the AI answer era

The Median Wikipedia Page for a Common Prescription Drug Lost 46.3% of Its Readers Since 2022; Only Psychiatric Medicines and GLP-1 Drugs Held Up

KGWritten by Kriszta GrenyoPublished October 20263 min read

296 English Wikipedia articles on commonly prescribed drugs, listed by generic name, drew 62.8 million views in the past 12 months, down 40.8% from 106.1 million in 2022. Antibiotic and antiviral pages fell 49.2%; psychiatric and neurological drug pages fell 27.4%.

Analysis of 296 commonly prescribed drug articles (generic names) on English Wikipedia, 2022 vs October 2025 to September 2026 · Wikimedia pageviews via BigQuery, October 2026

Key findings

1
The median prescription drug article lost 46.3% of its views between 2022 and the past 12 months, across 296 articles.
2
Total views fell 40.8%, from 106.11 million to 62.80 million.
3
Antibiotic and antiviral pages fell 49.2% (35 articles), pain, anti-inflammatory and steroid pages 50.1% (37), and gastrointestinal, respiratory and allergy pages 45.3% (40).
4
Psychiatric and neurological drug pages fell the least, 27.4% across 62 articles.
5
Five GLP-1 diabetes and weight-loss drug pages were nearly flat (down 1.4%), while the other 20 diabetes and thyroid drug pages fell 48.3%.
6
Mobile web views fell 44.1% and desktop views 30.6%.

Summary

Picture a pharmacist at an independent pharmacy who notices fewer customers asking basic questions about new prescriptions. When she asks, several say they already checked with an AI assistant. A shift like that shows up in what people read online about common medicines.

We tracked Wikipedia articles for 296 commonly prescribed drugs, from metformin to amoxicillin to sertraline, using generic names only. The typical drug page lost 46.3% of its readers between 2022 and the past 12 months. The metformin article alone went from 928,673 views to 520,175, a 44.0% drop.

Two groups bucked the trend. Pages for psychiatric and neurological drugs fell much less than the rest, and pages for the GLP-1 drugs used for diabetes and weight loss held almost steady, likely kept up by heavy news coverage.

What we measured

We built a seed list of commonly prescribed generic medicines, grouped them into seven drug classes, and matched each to its English Wikipedia title. We summed desktop and mobile web views and compared calendar year 2022 with October 2025 to September 2026.

We report reading trends only. We make no claims about the safety or effectiveness of any medicine or about the accuracy of any health information source.

Every drug class lost readers, but not equally

-46.3%median change per drug article, 2022 vs past 12 months

Change in total views by drug class:

Change in Wikipedia views by drug class, 2022 vs Oct 2025 to Sep 2026

2022 viewsPast 12 months

Hormones, urology, bone, skin and other

9,537,893

4,688,236

Pain, anti-inflammatory and steroids

21,152,205

10,551,226

Antibiotics and antivirals

13,096,424

6,655,948

Gastrointestinal, respiratory and allergy

13,440,240

7,350,025

Cardiovascular

12,998,404

7,760,367

Diabetes and thyroid

4,294,914

2,867,338

Psychiatric and neurological

31,585,669

22,925,904

All drugs

106,105,749

62,799,044

% change

Drug class	Articles (N)	2022 views	Past 12 months	% change	Median article change
Hormones, urology, bone, skin and other	41	9,537,893	4,688,236	-50.8	-52.5
Pain, anti-inflammatory and steroids	37	21,152,205	10,551,226	-50.1	-49.5
Antibiotics and antivirals	35	13,096,424	6,655,948	-49.2	-50.6
Gastrointestinal, respiratory and allergy	40	13,440,240	7,350,025	-45.3	-54.5
Cardiovascular	56	12,998,404	7,760,367	-40.3	-44.1
Diabetes and thyroid	25	4,294,914	2,867,338	-33.2	-56.5
Psychiatric and neurological	62	31,585,669	22,925,904	-27.4	-31.2
All drugs	296	106,105,749	62,799,044	-40.8	-46.3

Source: aisearchoptimization.net analysis of 296 commonly prescribed drug articles (generic names) on English Wikipedia, 2022 vs October 2025 to September 2026 · Wikimedia pageviews via BigQuery, October 2026

Antibiotic and allergy questions are quick and practical: what is this for, how long do I take it. Psychiatric drugs tend to involve longer, more personal research, and that reading fell least.

GLP-1 drug pages held steady while other diabetes drugs fell

-1.4%change in views for five GLP-1 drug pages, 2022 vs past 12 months

The diabetes and thyroid class splits into two very different trends.

Diabetes and thyroid drug pages, 2022 vs past 12 months

Group	Articles (N)	2022 views	Past 12 months	% change
GLP-1 and GIP drugs (semaglutide, tirzepatide, liraglutide, dulaglutide, exenatide)	5	1,382,416	1,362,527	-1.4
Other diabetes and thyroid drugs	20	2,912,498	1,504,811	-48.3
Tirzepatide alone	1	262,914	525,080	99.7
Metformin alone	1	928,673	520,175	-44

Tirzepatide doubled its readers. Interest in these drugs has been driven by news and public debate, which keeps people reading even as routine drug questions appear to move elsewhere.

Drug readers left mobile faster than desktop

-44.1%change in mobile web views of drug pages

Drug questions are often asked on a phone, at the pharmacy counter or at home.

Prescription drug article views, indexed to 2022 = 100

Index

Period	All drug pages
2022	100
2023	100.1
2024	105.3
2025	81
Oct 2025 to Sep 2026	59.2

Views were flat or slightly up through 2024, then fell sharply. Mobile web views fell 44.1% and desktop views 30.6%. Only 4 of the 296 articles gained readers; 127 (42.9%) lost more than half.

What this means

Pharmacies, clinics and telehealth providers have relied on medication explainers to meet patients online. Those routine questions appear to be moving into AI assistants, and the drop in reading accelerated in 2025. Pages that simply restate what a drug is for will see fewer visitors. An AI search optimization agency would steer a pharmacy toward what only it can say: hours, services, accepted insurance and who answers the phone.

What AI tools still need from you is local and practical: which pharmacy carries a medicine, whether you take a given insurance, how to transfer a prescription, how fast a telehealth visit can happen. Publish that clearly. To measure your AI brand visibility with patients, start with a free AI visibility audit that checks whether you are named when they ask.

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.

The seed list is hand-built from commonly prescribed US medicines and is close to, but not the same as, any official top-300 ranking.

Drugs in the news (for example GLP-1 medicines) can gain readers for reasons unrelated to AI.

We report reading trends only and make no claims about drug safety or effectiveness.

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<iframe src="https://aisearchoptimization.net/embed/data-studies/prescription-drug-wikipedia-pages-decline" title="Common Prescription Drug Pages: Median Reader Drop of 46.3%" width="100%" height="720" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>

Cite this study

APA

Grenyo, K. (2026). Common Prescription Drug Pages: Median Reader Drop of 46.3%. AI Search Optimization. https://aisearchoptimization.net/resources/data-studies/prescription-drug-wikipedia-pages-decline

Plain link

Common Prescription Drug Pages: Median Reader Drop of 46.3% - AI Search Optimization - https://aisearchoptimization.net/resources/data-studies/prescription-drug-wikipedia-pages-decline

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Frequently asked questions

Are fewer people looking up medications on Wikipedia?

Yes. 296 commonly prescribed drug articles drew 62.80 million views in the past 12 months, down 40.8% from 106.11 million in 2022. The median article fell 46.3%.

Which drug classes lost the most readers?

Hormone, urology, bone and skin drugs fell 50.8%, pain and steroid drugs 50.1% and antibiotics and antivirals 49.2%.

Did any medication pages gain readers?

Only 4 of 296 gained views. Tirzepatide rose 99.7%, and the five GLP-1 drug pages together were nearly flat at minus 1.4%.

When did drug page views start falling?

They held at or above 2022 levels through 2024 (index 105.3), then fell to 81.0 in 2025 and 59.2 in the past 12 months.

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