Wikipedia Most Read Screensaver
The Most Read screensaver is a live leaderboard of the most-read articles on Wikipedia, with their view counts, from the key-less Wikimedia API — a window onto what the world is reading. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
How the Most Read screensaver works
The saver queries the Wikimedia REST API's “most read” feed for the chosen language edition — a public, key-less ranking of the day's most-viewed articles.
It draws the top dozen articles as horizontal bars whose length is proportional to their view count.
Each bar shows the rank, the article title and a compact view count like 1.3M or 295K.
Bars grow in on load and re-tween smoothly when the ranking refreshes.
A worked example
The board fills with whatever the world is reading — a breaking-news figure, a film, a sports event — each as a bar scaled to its views, like 1 2026 FIFA World Cup 1.37M. Switch the language to see what readers of another Wikipedia are drawn to.
Settings & tips
- Wikipedia chooses the language edition (English, Spanish, German, French, Japanese).
- Accent recolours the bars.
- Background sets the panel backdrop.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the ranking live?
- Yes. It's the Wikimedia “most read” feed, which ranks the most-viewed articles for the latest available day, refreshed while the saver runs.
- Why might it show yesterday's date?
- Wikimedia compiles the most-read ranking once a day, so the freshest complete list is usually the previous day's.
- Does it need a key?
- No. The Wikimedia REST API is free and key-less; the saver only needs an internet connection.
- How does this relate to Wikipedia Live Edits?
- Live Edits shows the real-time stream of edits; Most Read shows which finished articles people are viewing most.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.