US EditionWikipedia Reports Traffic Decline as A.I. Changes How Users Seek Information
The Wikimedia Foundation reports an 8% drop in human pageviews after updating bot detection to exclude AI-related bot traffic scraping content for training.
- Between March and August this year, reclassified data showed human pageviews on Wikipedia declined roughly 8% year-on-year, Marshall Miller wrote on the Wikimedia Foundation blog.
- Search engines and social platforms increasingly use generative AI to provide answers rather than linking to sites like Wikipedia, which remains a major source for OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude.
- After spotting anomalous visits, the Foundation updated bot-detection systems as data-scraping bots strained Wikimedia's resources and raised hosting costs.
- Falling site visits could lead to fewer volunteers creating content and fewer individual donors supporting upkeep, Wikimedia warned, urging AI firms and digital platforms to be more transparent and encourage visits.
- Many major news sites reported AI-generated summaries reduce clicks and revenue, with some publishers seeing declines up to 25%, while Digital Content Next found Google referrals down 10% last month.
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AI answers are taking a bite of Wikipedia's traffic. Should we be worried for the site?
Wikipedia's traffic is down 8%, in part because of AI.Illustration by Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesWikipedia says its traffic is down 8% in the last few months when compared to the same time last year.AI summaries and chatbots are using its data, but aren't bringing tons of people to its site or app.So is Wikipedia in trouble? It says no — because it's making deals to get paid for its data.Let's say you were scanning the r…
Wikipedia Reports Traffic Decline as A.I. Changes How Users Seek Information
It’s hard to imagine a world without Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that for a quarter of a century has stood as one of the enduring staples of the Internet. In recent months, however, the site’s foundation has been shaken by the rise of generative A.I., with Wikipedia attributing an 8 percent decline in human visitors this year to the proliferation of A.I.-generated content. “These changes are not unexpected,” said Marshall Miller, senior d…
Wikipedia Faces Drop in Human Traffic as AI and Social Video Change Search Habits
Wikipedia, once a central stop for online information, is now confronting a quieter but significant shift in how people explore the web. Recent figures from the Wikimedia Foundation reveal an eight-percent year-over-year decline in human visits to the encyclopedia, a change linked to the growing role of generative AI and the rise of social video as preferred sources for quick knowledge. Hidden Traffic and Bot Reclassification Earlier this year, …
Wikipedia loses 8% of human traffic as generative AI and social platforms change user habits
Wikipedia reports an 8% drop in human pageviews in 2025 as AI, search engines, and social media provide direct answers. The Wikimedia Foundation attributes this to bot traffic and changing user habits, and is responding with new tools, mobile improvements, and outreach to younger audiences.
The encyclopedia counts fewer and fewer pages seen by humans because of the rise in power of artificial intelligence and social networks.
TechCrunch
Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video
Looks like Wikipedia isn't immune to broader online trends.
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