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Most-Searched Cities on Wikipedia

Wikipedia has created a ranking of the most-viewed pages between December 1, 2007 and January 1, 2020. Can you guess the 30 cities the Wikipedia community has searched the most?
excluding the Luxembourgish town of Angelsberg, which somehow managed to get 44 million views
Quiz by Gassu
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Last updated: May 6, 2020
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First submittedApril 13, 2018
Times taken30,446
Average score65.6%
Rating4.37
5:00
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Views
Location
City
75 mil
North America
New York City
63 mil
Southeast Asia
Singapore
61 mil
Europe
London
50 mil
Far East
Hong Kong
44 mil
Middle East
Dubai
40 mil
North America
Los Angeles
37 mil
Europe
Paris
36 mil
North America
Chicago
35 mil
North America
Washington, D.C.
30 mil
South Asia
Mumbai
30 mil
North America
San Francisco
28 mil
Europe
Rome
26 mil
North America
Philadelphia
26 mil
North America
Toronto
25 mil
South America - ancient
Machu Picchu
25 mil
Europe
Monaco
Views
Location
City
25 mil
Far East
Tokyo
23 mil
Europe
Amsterdam
23 mil
Europe
Barcelona
23 mil
North America
Boston
22 mil
Europe
Berlin
22 mil
North America
Seattle
21 mil
Europe / Asia
Istanbul
21 mil
Middle East
Jerusalem
21 mil
Europe - ancient
Pompeii
21 mil
Europe
Venice
20 mil
Far East
Macau
20 mil
South America
Rio de Janeiro
20 mil
Far East
Shanghai
20 mil
Europe - ancient
Sparta
20 mil
North America
Vancouver
20 mil
Europe
Vatican City
45 Comments
+13
Level 74
Apr 19, 2018
Far East? Never heard of that term before!
+32
Level 85
Apr 19, 2018
That's pretty surprising. Where did you go to school?
+58
Level 59
Apr 19, 2018
East Asia should be a more appropriate term
+18
Level 89
Jun 17, 2018
Whatever happened to the Orient so it's "offensive"? It means east, which the Orient is east of everything except the 12 people in an ocean that spans half the globe.
+1
Level 68
May 21, 2023
Because someone campaigned for it to be deemed offensive.

We just ride the euphemism treadmill powered by our smooth, smooth brains

+16
Level 82
May 10, 2020
Well here on the east coast of Australia it's more like the Moderately Distant North-Northwest.
+4
Level 83
Sep 11, 2022
@IsleAuHaulte offensiveness isn't based on strict etymology but on historical context and usage, and many people consider the origins of the term during a period of intense colonialism and racism as enough reason to ditch it
+6
Level 77
Apr 20, 2018
It's so far east that I have to go west across the Pacific to get there . . .
+8
Level 62
Apr 23, 2018
Far East was formerly a very common term, but some now consider it archaic and Eurocentric.
+22
Level 89
Jun 17, 2018
How??? One ocean covers nearly ½ the distance around the Earth. As you look at human settlement, the Orient is east, Europe and the Americas are west. Sorry if that's not being Midway Island centric enough.
+18
Level 81
Oct 14, 2018
It's Eurocentric, but so what?
+10
Level 82
May 10, 2020
Well given the proximity of East Asia to the global centre of population (which is somewhere around eastern Kazakhstan or western Xinjiang, China - the latter actually being in East Asia, technically), I'd say the term 'Far' doesn't have much applicability to most humans alive today. For me, living in Australia, the 'Far East' is actually northwest and much closer than Europe or North America. In fact, some of the population of Indonesia, most of the population of Japan and Australia, all of the population PNG and New Zealand and most of the Pacific Island countries are east of China's easternmost point, as well as parts of Russia. Thus I think East Asia (or Northeast Asia, to match with Southeast Asia) is a better term, as it doesn't privilege any particular frame of reference, merely pointing to where the region sits in its continent.
+1
Level 68
May 21, 2023
The wonders of modern civilization are also Eurocentric (or Northeast Orient)
+3
Level 61
Apr 19, 2018
great quiz, id love to see more based on wiki stats
+2
Level 77
Apr 19, 2018
Fascinating that Hong Kong is so high.
+6
Level 82
Apr 22, 2018
Not really, it is one if the world's most significant global cities (https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.citylab.com/amp/article/386315/) and virtually it's own country (no surprises that Singapore, which is actually its own country ranks even higher). More noteworthy that Tokyo is so low.
+23
Level 85
Jun 22, 2018
I love this bullet point at the bottom of the list in the source:

"Angelsberg is a Luxemburg town of some 300 people. Somehow it logged 37.0 million views in two months in 2015. That year it was second only to the Main page in the number of views"

+3
Level 95
Oct 14, 2018
thanks for noting that. i find it hilarious and i'm currently wondering why it could happen
+8
Level 70
Oct 14, 2018
Presumably one publicity stunt. I think it should be filled in already but out between three and four. Or you should have to guess it and it could be a way to tell how many people are cheating.

1. Views: 60.4 m. Location: North America. City: New York City

2. Views: 51.0 m. Location: Europe. City: London

3. Views: 48.3 m. Location: Southeast Asia. City: Singapore

4. Views: 44.0 m. Location: Luxembourg, Europe. Village: Anglesberg (if you got this first time you were so cheating)

5. Views: 37.2 m. Location: Far East. CIty: Hong Kong.

+2
Level 83
May 13, 2020
Sounds like a web bot gone crazy.
+5
Level 71
Aug 7, 2020
Yep, that's exactly what it is. I was curious so I looked it up and it seems that bots randomly swarmed that page in views.
+2
Level 72
May 8, 2020
It will skyrocket now, now that it is mentioned as a caveat on jetpunk ! ;)
+3
Level 45
Oct 14, 2018
How did no cities on Africa make the list
+4
Level 93
Jul 13, 2019
presumably because it is not so common to search for them. If you do, congrats you have an uncommon but education hobby. Seriously though its probably because most traffic on wikipedia comes from Europe or North America.
+1
Level 81
Sep 30, 2021
I would guess the figures are so high for the featured cities because they are popular travel destinations for Western tourists, who use Wiki to find advance information on their travel destination.

There is comparatively little tourist traffic in Africa.

Please bear in mind this is a suggestion that I have not researched :)

+1
Level 49
Aug 1, 2022
I personally look up African capital cities
+2
Level 63
Oct 14, 2018
A lot harder than I expected...
+9
Level 71
Oct 14, 2018
I personally was surprised that Pompeii and Sparta made it on this list but not a lot of major world cities today, like Beijing, Seoul, Delhi, Bangkok, or Mexico City.
+6
Level 81
Oct 14, 2018
300 was a better movie than Bangkok Dangerous.
+4
Level 64
Feb 10, 2022
Also that Sparta made the list but Athens didnt surprised me
+7
Level 83
Oct 14, 2018
Canada punching above their weight, surprised there's no Australian cities.
+3
Level 60
Nov 1, 2022
Monaco punching above it's weight
+5
Level 78
Oct 15, 2018
Nice quiz, surprised Sydney wasn't on there, nothing down under at all
+3
Level 67
Oct 16, 2018
Harder than you think
+2
Level 28
Oct 23, 2018
Very predictable. Not surprised Singapore came in at #3. The only surprise was Sparta.
+4
Level 75
May 7, 2020
Macau made the list but Beijing didn't? Wow.
+1
Level 88
May 8, 2020
You can't get filthy rich in Beijing, and Macau has way more unique culture.
+9
Level 87
May 7, 2020
I'll bet if you looked at the last few months, Wuhan might be on the list.
+5
Level 76
May 7, 2020
Macau was very surprising. I also didn't expect Machu Picchu to be on the list, let alone so high.
+1
Level 68
May 21, 2023
It's probably one of the few places worthy of remembering for a layman between the USA and Argentina.

There's well-known cities in Mexico, like Tijuana, but no one wants to go to Mexico. Then.. the Panama Canal, which probably doesn't make most top-ten vacation lists. Unsafe Bogota, overpopulated metropolises/slums in Brazil, failed Argentina, boring Chile.

Machu Picchu looks pretty, safe, and impressive. It's also fun to say / easy to remember. Maybe an argument can be made for Cusco, or Tikal, but they're less familiar, and who cares when there's Machu Picchu.

I guess the Caribbean also comes up, but cities aren't really relevant in such small countries - on a world stage. Aside from maybe Havana, which most people have probably seen on TV, and how many people really want to spend money + time to see 70 year old American cars while rolling the dice on getting diarrhea.

+4
Level 76
May 11, 2020
Macchu Picchu was a small village, with a population of about 750, in an area the size of two football fields. It feels like a stretch to include this as a "city" here.
+1
Level 69
Feb 19, 2023
Isn't Macchu Picchu still a real place and shouldn't be counted as "ancient"?
+1
Level 28
Jul 15, 2023
21/26
+1
Level 69
Sep 10, 2023
Cuzco should work as a type in
+1
Level 70
Jul 29, 2024
Why would you leave out the Luxembourgish town of Angelsberg, which somehow managed to get 44 million views??