Wikipedia loses 8% of human traffic as generative AI and social platforms change user habits

The free online encyclopedia tool, Wikipedia, has reported an 8 per cent decline in human pageviews compared with the same period in 2024, as generative AI, search engines, and social media platforms increasingly provide answers without directing users to the site. The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates the online data platform, highlighted in a blog post on 17 October that evolving internet trends and sophisticated bot traffic are reshaping how people access information globally.

Human traffic reassessed

The Foundation explained that its algorithms…