Partial view of the beginning of the English Wikipedia article, “Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II”
There are events that resound across the whole planet and consequently in Wikipedia, such as the fire of Notre-Dame in 2019 or the disappearances of people: that of Johnny Hallyday in 2017, admittedly cited in the world press, resounded in the French edition of the free encyclopedia, when that of astrophysicist Stephen Hawking had a more global audience. But the web-shaking yardstick of celebrity death remained until recently the abrupt disappearance of Michael Jackson in 2009 (the English Wikipedia article about the “Thriller” star was viewed 5.9 million in one day , June 26, 2009).
More languages than its ancestor Victoria
Much less unpredictable at 96 than at 50 for the pop singer, but occurring just hours after the announcement of the deterioration of his health, the death of Elizabeth II has aroused enormous worldwide attention. This was once again felt in Wikipedia, where the late Queen of the United Kingdom has an article in 194 languages this Sunday evening (190 languages at the time of her death) – compared to 133 languages for her great-great-grand- mother Victoria.
Thursday, September 8, the day of the announcement of his death, his article in French in the collaborative encyclopedia climbed to 1.107 million page views, against 4,000 to 7,000 approximately the previous days. On Friday and Saturday, it went down to 880,000 page views for the two days together.
In English, the article was viewed 8.4 million times on September 8, 5.131 million the following day (the previous days, it was viewed on average 35,000 times). Her Gracious Majesty’s subjects were far from the only ones to view this article: in Spanish (Isabel II del Reino Unido), it was viewed 2.855 million times on the day of her death (14,000 times a day in previous weeks) .
This surge has been seen in other languages:
For several hours, notes this Oxford scholar, at least 40% of traffic in Wikipedia focused on articles related to that on Elizabeth II. “This event is an absolute supernova for my research on current events, collective attention and memory and Wikipedia,” he notes.
In one day, the article was viewed a total of 19.9 million times in its various languages (58% for languages other than English). What is apparently the largest number of views on a subject in a single day, notes the English Twitter account of the encyclopedia.
This intense curiosity obviously extended to his son and successor: Charles III was, it is true, diligently served by Wikipedians, since he went from an article in 99 languages at the disappearance of his mother to 113 languages less 24 hours later, and 119 that Sunday evening. On September 8, his article in English rose to 4.115 million views on September 8, 3.567 million the next day, 1.623 million on Saturday September 10 (12,000 to 28,000 per day the previous weeks). In French, it rose to 171,619 views, on September 9 to 288,553 and on September 10 to 147,708, against around 1,500 to 6,000 the days before.
Finally, note that an article was created on Thursday September 8, “Death of Elizabeth II”: this September 11 in the evening, it exists in 30 languages. In three days, it was seen 42,000 times in French, 105,000 times in English.
Read also
At the roots of Wikipedia, the culture of free software – March 31, 2021
Coronavirus: epidemic of articles in Wikipedia – March 15, 2020
Life after death on Wikipedia – August 2018 (remarkable work on the impact of celebrity deaths on their pages in the encyclopedia)