Data study · Wikipedia readership in the AI answer era
Wikipedia's Product Category Pages Drew 46.3% Fewer Readers in the 2025 Holiday Season Than in 2022, and the Holiday Bump Disappeared
218 English Wikipedia articles on consumer product categories, from blenders to smartwatches to sunscreen, drew 3.54 million views in November and December 2025, down from 6.59 million in 2022. Holiday months used to beat the rest of the year; in 2025 they fell below it.
Analysis of 218 consumer product category articles on English Wikipedia, 2022 to 2025 holiday seasons · Wikimedia pageviews via BigQuery, October 2026
Key findings
- 1
Product category articles drew 3.54 million views in November and December 2025, down 46.3% from 6.59 million in November and December 2022.
- 2
In 2022, an average holiday month drew 1.06 times the views of an average January to October month. In 2025 it drew 0.87 times, so the holiday bump turned into a dip.
- 3
Electronics pages lost 49.4% of their holiday-season views, kitchen 44.6%, beauty 43.9% and home and outdoor 35.8%.
- 4
Across the full year, the 218 articles fell 51.5%, from 37.81 million views in 2022 to 18.34 million in the past 12 months.
- 5
Only 8 of 218 articles (3.7%) gained views; 83 (38.1%) lost more than half.
Summary
Picture a small kitchenware shop that runs its biggest promotions in November. In past years, shoppers comparing stand mixers and Dutch ovens would land on buying guides and category pages, then click through to stores. Lately more of them ask an AI assistant which mixer to buy and get a short list with no browsing at all.
We tracked 218 Wikipedia articles on everyday product categories and measured how much reading happens during the holiday shopping season. In November and December 2025, those articles drew 46.3% fewer views than in the same months of 2022.
More striking is what happened to the seasonal pattern. In 2022 and 2023, holiday months were busier than the rest of the year. By 2025 they were quieter. The early research that used to swell before the holidays may be happening somewhere else.
What we measured
We built a seed list of product categories in four groups, matched each to its English Wikipedia title, and summed desktop and mobile web views by month.
For each year from 2022 to 2025 we compared the average monthly views in November and December with the average for January to October. We also compared full-year 2022 with October 2025 to September 2026. We excluded articles with fewer than 1,000 views in 2022 or a change of more than 20 times either way.
Holiday months went from a bump to a dip
Holiday views compared with the rest of each year, all 218 articles:
Ratio
| Year | Nov to Dec views | Jan to Oct views | Holiday ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 6,594,163 | 31,218,373 | 1.06 |
| 2023 | 6,353,453 | 30,018,921 | 1.06 |
| 2024 | 5,020,822 | 27,333,405 | 0.92 |
| 2025 | 3,540,093 | 20,318,569 | 0.87 |
Source: aisearchoptimization.net analysis of 218 consumer product category articles on English Wikipedia, 2022 to 2025 holiday seasons · Wikimedia pageviews via BigQuery, October 2026
The bump held in 2023 and flipped in 2024, the first holiday season after Google's AI Overviews launched in the US. Holiday reading fell faster than reading in the rest of the year.
Electronics lost the most holiday readers
Change in November to December views by product group:
% change
| Group | Articles (N) | Nov to Dec 2022 | Nov to Dec 2025 | % change | Holiday ratio 2022 | Holiday ratio 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electronics | 67 | 3,827,155 | 1,935,715 | -49.4 | 1.05 | 0.87 |
| Kitchen | 47 | 994,385 | 550,998 | -44.6 | 1.1 | 0.92 |
| Beauty and personal care | 54 | 1,045,282 | 586,785 | -43.9 | 1.03 | 0.79 |
| Home, furniture and outdoor | 50 | 727,341 | 466,595 | -35.8 | 1.09 | 0.96 |
| All products | 218 | 6,594,163 | 3,540,093 | -46.3 | 1.06 | 0.87 |
Source: aisearchoptimization.net analysis of 218 consumer product category articles on English Wikipedia, 2022 to 2025 holiday seasons · Wikimedia pageviews via BigQuery, October 2026
Electronics is the category where shoppers compare specs, and spec comparisons are exactly what AI shopping answers produce. Beauty saw the biggest swing in seasonality, from a holiday ratio of 1.03 to 0.79.
Most category pages lost close to half their readers
Over the full year, the picture is similar across groups.
| Group | Articles (N) | % change | Median article change | Gained |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electronics | 67 | -54.6% | -48.4% | 3 |
| Kitchen | 47 | -50.1% | -43.9% | 1 |
| Beauty and personal care | 54 | -49.4% | -47.3% | 1 |
| Home, furniture and outdoor | 50 | -39.6% | -37.1% | 3 |
| All products | 218 | -51.5% | -45.4% | 8 |
Source: aisearchoptimization.net analysis of 218 consumer product category articles on English Wikipedia, 2022 to 2025 holiday seasons · Wikimedia pageviews via BigQuery, October 2026
Among larger pages, Calculator fell 74.2%, Computer monitor 69.9%, Mobile phone 68.3% and Blender 65.8%. A few niche categories held up, such as Moka pot (down 5.3%) and Hot tub (down 13.6%).
What this means
For ecommerce brands and retailers, the research phase before a purchase is shrinking on the open web, and the holiday season is where it shrank most. Shoppers increasingly ask an AI assistant for the best option and get a short list. If your products are not in that list, the comparison never reaches your site. An AI SEO consultant will usually start by asking an assistant for the best product in your category and seeing who it names.
Give AI shopping answers what they need: clear product names, specs, prices, stock status and honest comparisons on your own pages, plus reviews on the sites AI tools read. Start before the season. Run a free AI visibility audit in the fall so there is time to act on what it finds, since SEO for AI search changes can take weeks to show up in answers.
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.
Wikipedia articles on product categories are not product listings, so this measures general research interest, not purchase intent.
Some product pages had unusual traffic in 2022 or were restructured later; we excluded the most extreme changes but cannot rule out every rename.
November and December 2025 is the latest complete holiday season in the data.
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<iframe src="https://aisearchoptimization.net/embed/data-studies/product-category-pages-holiday-readers" title="Product Category Pages Lost 46.3% of Holiday Readers" width="100%" height="720" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>
Cite this study
APA
Grenyo, K. (2026). Product Category Pages Lost 46.3% of Holiday Readers. AI Search Optimization. https://aisearchoptimization.net/resources/data-studies/product-category-pages-holiday-readers
Plain link
Product Category Pages Lost 46.3% of Holiday Readers - AI Search Optimization - https://aisearchoptimization.net/resources/data-studies/product-category-pages-holiday-readers
Frequently asked questions
Are fewer people researching products on Wikipedia during the holidays?
Yes. 218 product category articles drew 3.54 million views in November and December 2025, down 46.3% from 6.59 million in the same months of 2022.
Is there still a holiday spike in product research on Wikipedia?
Not anymore. In 2022 a holiday month averaged 1.06 times a normal month. In 2025 it averaged 0.87 times.
Which product categories lost the most holiday readers?
Electronics fell 49.4% in holiday views across 67 articles. Home, furniture and outdoor fell the least, 35.8% across 50 articles.
How much did product category pages lose over a full year?
Total views fell 51.5%, from 37.81 million in 2022 to 18.34 million from October 2025 to September 2026.
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