# QA-confirmed top-10 list with methodology appendix

## Final QA validation and methodology appendix

### Validation outcome
- Source match: The top-10 items and raw counts exactly match the Popular Science article (Jan 15, 2026) that cites the Wikimedia Foundation’s aggregate.
- Sanity check: Pew Research (Jan 13, 2026) states Donald Trump’s article is the most-viewed English Wikipedia page with nearly 300M pageviews, aligning with the PopSci figure (~325M).
- Canonical titles/URLs: All 10 items map to canonical English Wikipedia articles (checked for redirects/disambiguation). No anomalies found.

### Top 10 most popular English Wikipedia articles of all time by page views
Ordered from most to least viewed, with approximate counts:

1. Lists of deaths by year — ~647 million
2. United States — ~329 million
3. Donald Trump — ~325 million
4. Elizabeth II — ~253 million
5. India — ~211 million
6. Cristiano Ronaldo — ~209 million
7. Barack Obama — ~201 million
8. Elon Musk — ~198 million
9. World War II — ~196 million
10. United Kingdom — ~181 million

### Citations
- Popular Science, “Wikipedia’s 25 most popular entries of all time” (Jan 15, 2026): https://www.popsci.com/technology/most-popular-wikipedia-entries/
- Pew Research, “Wikipedia at 25: What the data tells us” (Jan 13, 2026): https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/01/13/wikipedia-at-25-what-the-data-tells-us/

### Methodology appendix
- Coverage window: PopSci reports the Wikimedia Foundation’s aggregate goes back to 2008; pre-2008 views are not included.
- Pageviews API vs. aggregates: The public Pageviews API typically covers July 2015 onward; it cannot on its own reproduce PopSci’s full “all-time” figures that include 2008–2015. Toolforge Topviews can show long-range rankings but is subject to false positives and excludes pages like the Main Page.
- Exclusions and caveats: Standard practice excludes the Main Page from “most-viewed articles.” Bot/spider traffic is reduced but not guaranteed fully excluded; PopSci’s list reflects WMF’s processed aggregates.

### Conclusion
The delivered top-10 list is accurate, correctly ordered, and supported by the cited sources. Given current public data constraints, this is the best available "all-time" view count ranking for English Wikipedia articles.