Views of the Queen's Wikipedia page soared last year - and it's all down to Netflix's lavish period drama, The Crown, which sees Claire Foy take on the role of a young Elizabeth II. The monarch was the website's third most read page in 2017 with over 19 million page views, compared to 16 million the previous year. Prince Harry's fiancée, Meghan Markle, was the fifth most-viewed with nearly 17 million page views.
The Queen's Wikipedia page is one of the most-viewed pages of 2017
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On Wednesday, spokesman for Wikipedia attributed the high page views to "the terrific power of Netflix", suggesting that The Crown had a heavy influence on web searches. The Queen's late sister Princess Margaret and Prince Philip's pages also increased. Wikipedia said that this year's rankings "speaks to the power that entertainment now holds over us". Meanwhile, the website's page on Queen Victoria also attracted lots of attention after episodes of ITV's Victoria aired; the late monarch was the 13th most viewed article with more than 14 million hits.
Wikipedia has attributed the high page views to Netflix drama The Crown
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Deaths in 2017 was the most viewed page with over 37 million, while Donald Trump was second with over 29 million hits. Game Of Thrones (season 7) came fourth in the rankings, while the main page for Game Of Thrones came sixth. Television clearly had a huge influence on web searches, with Wikipedia tweeting: "It's abundantly clear that @wikipedia has become a second-screen experience for many TV viewers. 2017's top traffic-getters relate to popular movies and TV shows."
