Wikipedia:Traffic

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

See Wikipedia:Statistics and Wikipedia:Milestones.

A proper explanation of hits vs. files served vs. pages served needs to go here. The effect of the new page-caching code on measured traffic should also be explained.

Alexa.com independently compiles traffic ranking figures. For regular tracking of this information, see Wikipedia:Awareness statistics.



Some late 2002 / early 2003 daily traffic figures for the English-language Wikipedia in hits/day:

  • note the apparent 7-day cycle, as well as
  • the one-off boost on September 11, 2002, the anniversary of the New York terrorist attacks, when many queries were made regarding topics related to the attacks.
  • traffic in January 2003 was well down on previous traffic, due to a problem with robots.txt causing Google to lose most Wikipedia pages from its index; this problem has now been fixed, and the Google index should start to pick up new pages as the site is spidered

Traffic data is measured in hits per day for each 24-hour period, from 00:00:00 UTC to 23:59:99 UTC.

Data set for the graph above:

2003 traffic data

2003 Jan 01, 153536
2003 Jan 02, 199442
2003 Jan 03, 215752
2003 Jan 04, 119583
2003 Jan 06, 130032
2003 Jan 07, 151027
2003 Jan 08, 180543
2003 Jan 09, 188562
2003 Jan 10, 141881
2003 Jan 11, 210633
2003 Feb 19, 183900
2003 Feb 20, 198233
2003 Feb 21, 209976
2003 Feb 22, 164776
2003 Feb 23, 169201
2003 Feb 24, 199651
2003 Feb 25, 238234
2003 Feb 26, 230582
2003 Feb 27, 213807
2003 Feb 28, 193870
2003 Mar 01, 170235
2003 Mar 04, 206824
2003 Mar 05, 178290
2003 Mar 06, 178856
2003 Mar 07, 195111
2003 Mar 08, 169019
2003 Mar 09, 179610
2003 Mar 10, 246672
2003 Mar 11, 286787,  big slowdown on this day
2003 Mar 12, 316539,  back to over 300k, problems with timeouts
2003 Mar 13, 302237,  traffic is way back up again!

Average hits per hour in the period Aug 25 2002 - Sep 20 2002

Data for this graph:

hours, avg hits/hour
00, 8680
01, 8278
02, 8169
03, 7902
04, 7730
05, 7221
06, 7763
07, 7413
08, 7804
09, 8080
10, 7948
11, 7851
12, 8743
13, 9743
14, 9998
15, 10125
16, 10317
17, 10950
18, 10778
19, 10084
20, 9676
21, 9010
22, 8806
22, 8806
23, 8637

Notes

September 4, 2002: Server load average is currently running at between 5 and 6.

7:00am  up 55 days, 24 min,  2 users,  load average: 4.46, 5.64, 5.85

September 11, 2002:

On the first anniversary of the WTC attacks, the server was running at 13786 hits/hour in the period 20020911 20:00 to 20:59. If running continuously at this rate, this would equate to a daily hit rate of 330000 hits/day. (Note that the actual whole-day traffic for this day was only 260034 hits.) The server struggled to keep pace with the load on this day.

A few representative "uptime" results for September 11, 2002:

 9:25pm  up 5 days, 17:48,  1 user,  load average: 4.60, 9.68, 13.22
 9:34pm  up 5 days, 17:56,  2 users,  load average: 9.57, 8.64, 10.83
 9:34pm  up 5 days, 17:57,  2 users,  load average: 12.76, 9.38, 11.02
 9:34pm  up 5 days, 17:57,  2 users,  load average: 18.07, 10.80, 11.44
 9:35pm  up 5 days, 17:58,  2 users,  load average: 19.50, 12.29, 11.93
 9:40pm  up 5 days, 18:03,  2 users,  load average: 3.80, 7.92, 10.22
 9:41pm  up 5 days, 18:04,  2 users,  load average: 4.96, 7.74, 10.06

In the minute 20020911 20:35, the server served 305 hits, a rate of just over 5 hits per second sustained, equivalent to a sustained rate of just under 440,000 hits/day. It did this at a loadav of around 19, rather than the typical loadav of 5 or 6.

Top traffic sources

A snapshot of the top 100 of who is sending traffic to Wikipedia. This is for about a week, ending September 6, 2002:

  49816 www.google.com
  17809 google.yahoo.com
   7098 search.msn.com
   3178 aolsearch.aol.com
   3154 www.google.ca
   2096 auto.search.msn.com
   1938 www.altavista.com
   1703 www.bomis.com
   1576 www.google.co.uk
   1247 www.google.de
   1236 search.netscape.com
    902 images.google.com
    747 www.askjeeves.com
    679 search.yahoo.com
    651 www.ask.com
    588 www.google.fr
    535 www.google.it
    493 www.google.nl
    442 www.necrohiphop.com
    438 search.ninemsn.com.au
    391 www.google.co.nz
    381 srd.yahoo.com
    381 uk.google.yahoo.com
    308 216.239.51.100
    296 216.239.35.120
    291 search.aol.com
    278 websearch.cs.com
    278 216.239.39.120
    265 www.google.com.br
    253 www.google.co.jp
    246 www.google.be
    244 search.earthlink.net
    233 search.dogpile.com
    224 hotbot.lycos.com
    219 www.google.ch
    216 search2.cometsystems.com
    197 www.neopets.com
    195 aolsearch.aol.co.uk
    194 www.flavatown.com
    177 search.metacrawler.com
    177 ca.google.yahoo.com
    176 216.239.33.100
    170 216.239.39.100
    168 search.iwon.com
    168 www.ask.co.uk
    164 216.239.35.100
    162 search.xtramsn.co.nz
    162 askjeeves.com
    156 ask.com
    151 wikipedia.org
    146 au.google.yahoo.com
    144 search.t1msn.com.mx
    143 www.google.co.kr
    143 216.239.37.100
    142 search.sli.sympatico.ca
    138 pub116.ezboard.com
    134 pub6.ezboard.com
    134 www.ifind.freeserve.com
    133 www.nicenet.org
    132 altavista.com
    130 notizie.virgilio.it
    127 www.google.com.pl
    124 www.overture.com
    123 www.pcworld.dk
    120 216.239.53.100
    115 search.msn.co.uk
    109 www.google.cl
    105 search.msn.de
    105 www.google.at
    105 search.virgilio.it
    102 www.elderscrolls.com
    101 search.msn.ca
     99 dir.yahoo.com
     99 www.aj.com
     99 search.cometsystems.com
     97 uk.search.msn.com
     97 carbon.cudenver.edu
     97 www.google.ie
     89 www.google.com.ar
     87 webferret.search.com
     87 search.lycos.com
     85 partners.search.msn.com
     80 www.elmundo.es
     78 uk.altavista.com
     74 ww.google.com
     72 pub124.ezboard.com
     71 au.altavista.com
     71 www.bbc.co.uk
     71 synd-uk.looksmart.co.uk
     70 www.alltheweb.com
     69 ask.directhit.com
     68 www.looksmart.com
     64 www.kuro5hin.org
     60 directory.google.com
     58 www.09-11-01.com
     58 www.eduseek.com
     57 www.attbi.com
     57 images.google.de
     57 ref.spoof.org
     57 au.search.yahoo.com
     56 www.elbnet.com
     56 pub70.ezboard.com
     52 www.customcivics.com
     51 search.about.com
     48 srch.overture.com
     47 www.asianavenue.com
     47 s.teoma.com
     47 www.att.net
     46 courses.cmsu.edu
     46 pub69.ezboard.com
     45 sg.google.yahoo.com
     44 www.foxnews.com
     43 www.search.com
     40 vivisimo.com
     40 www.coping.org
     40 nice.purrsia.com
     39 edis.win.tue.nl
     38 www.salon.com
     38 search.msn.es
     37 it.altavista.com
     37 www.maxheadroom.com
     36 dmoz.org
     36 www.searchalot.com
     36 slashdot.org
     35 radaruol.uol.com.br
     34 www.beepworld.de
     34 www.hackles.org
     33 search.msn.com.br
     33 enciclopedia.us.es
     33 msxml.excite.com
     32 ca.search.msn.com
     31 query.nytimes.com
     30 rr.looksmart.com
     30 www.worldnet.att.net
     30 www.google.com.
     30 ixquick.com
     30 swww.ee.uwa.edu.au
     29 altavista.onet.pl
     29 search.msn.it
     28 aolsearch.aol.ca
     27 www.google.lt
     27 search.latam.yupimsn.com
     26 pub65.ezboard.com
     26 search.rediff.com
     26 din-timelines.com
     26 directory.mozilla.org
     26 www.abisource.com
     26 aj.com
     25 www.geocities.com
     25 www.bonzi.com
     25 www.cu2.nl
     25 www.google.co.il
     25 www.google.com.ru
     25 www.why-is-the-sky-blue.org
     25 www.jdmuniverse.com
     24 babelfish.altavista.com
     23 www.cs.okstate.edu
     23 barrapunto.com
     23 search.lycos.co.uk
     23 search.msn.dk
     23 www.nupedia.com
     23 de.altavista.com
     22 fr.altavista.com
     22 www.levenez.com
     22 casagato.net
     22 www.voicesofsept11.org
     22 eps.new.search.new.net
     22 WWW.GOOGLE.COM
     21 science.slashdot.org
     21 web.toile.com
     21 search.msn.no
     21 foxnews.com
     21 jeays.net
     20 www.osnews.com
     20 forum.fok.nl
     20 library.trinity.wa.edu.au
     20 www.s-cc.de
     19 sasd.k12.pa.us
     19 www.profusion.com
     19 search.msn.se
     19 translate.google.com
     19 szukaj.wp.pl
     18 f17.parsimony.net
     18 cnn.looksmart.com
     18 www.leifang.com
     18 www.tldp.org
     18 www.tolearnenglish.com
     18 www.gnu.org
     18 images.google.cl
     18 lawcrawler.findlaw.com
     17 ces.oingo.com
     17 meta.wikipedia.com
     17 kosmoi.com
     17 search.msn.fr
     17 www.partypeeps2000.com
     17 misshoover.si.umich.edu
     17 babel.altavista.com
     17 www.sasd.k12.pa.us
     17 groups.google.com
     17 bomis.com
     16 www.mars.dti.ne.jp
     16 www.Wikipedia.com
     16 search.evreka.passagen.se
     15 groups.yahoo.com
     15 ie.altavista.com
     15 www.concatenum.com
     15 amuzulo.babil.komputilo.org
     15 www.freesticky.com
     15 216.239.35.206
     14 susning.nu
     14 images.google.it
     14 se.altavista.com
     14 144.16.75.84
     14 www.3apes.com
     14 search.msn.nl
     14 www.whatreallyhappened.com
     14 facstaff.buffalostate.edu
     13 www.surviveanuclearattack.com
     13 search.aol.co.uk
     13 www.objectivism.addr.com
     13 dpxml.webcrawler.com
     13 localhost
     12 www.iaea.org
     12 alltheweb.com
     12 search.megaspider.com
     12 www.agnitum.com)
     12 wikipedia.com
     12 www.sudanforum.net
     12 newssearch.bbc.co.uk
     12 www.geometry.net
     12 click.lycos.com
     12 foros.realidadalternativa.com
     12 www.marsearthconnection.com
     11 64.4.16.250
     11 www.freesoftware.fsf.org
     11 c2.com
     11 search1-2.free.fr
     11 images.google.ca
     11 search.supereva.it
     11 www.zpub.com
     11 search.msn.co.in
     11 www.abc.se
     11 forum.mokkels.nl
     10 nbsearch.blueyonder.co.uk
     10 pub112.ezboard.com
     10 hackles.org
     10 www.dslreports.com
     10 www.personal.psu.edu
     10 130.94.122.197:80
     10 www.usemod.com
     10 www.sn.azmm
     10 www.mansioningles.com
     10 ocn.amikai.com
     10 www.google.co.cr
     10 us.f404.mail.yahoo.com
 

See also

  • Wikipedia:List of articles frequently visited through Google