Wikipedia Live Edits Screensaver
The Wikipedia Live Edits screensaver streams real edits to Wikipedia as they happen, flowing up the screen with each page's title, the editor, and how many bytes were added or removed. It connects straight to Wikimedia's public EventStreams — no key needed. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
How the Wikipedia Live Edits screensaver works
The saver opens a Server-Sent Events connection to Wikimedia's public EventStreams endpoint — a live firehose of every change made across Wikipedia and its sister projects.
Each message describes one edit: the wiki (such as 'en' or 'de'), the page title, the user, whether it was a bot, and the old and new page sizes — from which the saver computes the byte change.
New edits drop in at the bottom and float upward, fading as they go, like a live activity log. A green '+' means bytes were added, a red '−' means removed, and brand-new pages are flagged with a star.
By default it shows only Wikipedia edits (you can include every Wikimedia wiki), and a running total counts how many edits have streamed by since you started watching.
A worked example
On a busy moment you'll see rows like EN Climate change Jimbo123 +148 appearing several times a second, with the occasional ✦ marking a freshly created article and a 🤖 next to bot edits. Turn on Hide bot edits to see only human changes, or switch off Wikipedia only to add Commons, Wikidata and every other project to the flow.
Settings & tips
- Wikipedia only filters out the sister projects; turn it off for the full Wikimedia firehose.
- Hide bot edits shows only human edits.
- Scroll speed sets how fast the stream rises up the screen.
Frequently asked questions
- Are these real Wikipedia edits?
- Yes. They come live from Wikimedia's public EventStreams, the same real-time feed Wikipedia itself publishes, so you're watching actual edits as they're saved.
- What do the green and red numbers mean?
- They're the byte change for that edit: green '+' means content was added, red '−' means content was removed. It's a quick sense of how big each edit was.
- Can I hide bots, or see other languages?
- Yes. There's a toggle to hide bot edits, and one to include every Wikimedia wiki (Commons, Wikidata and all languages) rather than just Wikipedia.
- Does it need an internet connection?
- Yes, it streams live data. Offline, it shows a short notice instead of the flow.
- Is this Wikipedia screensaver free?
- Yes, free and browser-based with no key or download. Run it fullscreen and press ESC to exit.