All hail the queen — and Netflix.
In a statistical report posted Wednesday by the Wikipedia editorial team, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Harry’s fiancee Meghan Markle ranked in the top five of the website’s top 25 most-read articles.
The website described some of last year’s popular pages as ones following an “Anglophile” theme, i.e. “a person who greatly admires or favors England and things English.” Aware of the rising British trend on their site, Wikipedia editor Stormy Clouds attributed the high views to “the terrific power of Netflix,” suggesting that the streaming service’s historical drama series on the British royal family, The Crown, influenced web searches. Queen Elizabeth II became the website’s “third-highest view count of the year” (19,290,956 views), which, Clouds explained, “should act to dispel the myth that no one cares about the monarchy.”
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Wikipedia’s page on Queen Victoria also had visitor boosts each week after episodes of the ITV and PBS series Victoria aired, which vaulted the monarch into 13th place (14,164,451 views) for the year. And due to Prince Harry’s announced engagement to Suits actress Markle, the royal family’s soon-to-be newest member ranked fifth for the top searched topics, with 16,944,130 views.
Despite only releasing the top 25 most-viewed pages, the report also revealed that Queen Elizabeth’s sister Princess Margaret came in 37th and Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip, ranked 44th, both of whom are also featured on The Crown.
Also making the list are Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why and Stranger Things, Donald Trump, Gal Gadot, Riverdale, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Elon Musk.
