Public interest
Wikipedia page views (human users) give an indicator of public curiosity about QAnon, in several languages.
"QAnon" article, English Wikipedia
Weekly views. Triangles mark timeline events.
International spread
Weekly views of the "QAnon" article by language edition (each language on its own scale).
Which events trigger curiosity?
Views of the English "QAnon" article in the 7 days after the event ÷ the 7 days before.
| Date | Event | 7 d before | 7 d after | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 31, 2018 | First widely covered "Q" signs at a Trump rally in Tampa | 27,817 | 370,730 | 13.33 |
| Jan 6, 2021 | Attack on the US Capitol | 173,964 | 1,947,493 | 11.19 |
| Aug 11, 2020 | QAnon sympathiser Marjorie Taylor Greene wins Georgia GOP runoff | 350,106 | 1,549,865 | 4.43 |
| Oct 15, 2020 | Trump declines to disavow QAnon at an NBC town hall | 376,865 | 1,284,285 | 3.41 |
| Jan 8, 2021 | Twitter permanently suspends @realDonaldTrump | 598,254 | 1,871,605 | 3.13 |
| Oct 2, 2020 | House condemns QAnon (H.Res. 1154, 371–18) | 264,722 | 696,496 | 2.63 |
| Nov 3, 2020 | US presidential election | 306,323 | 669,036 | 2.18 |
| Oct 6, 2020 | Facebook and Instagram ban QAnon | 368,037 | 660,672 | 1.80 |
| Aug 23, 2018 | Trump hosts QAnon promoter Lionel Lebron in the Oval Office | 71,794 | 109,306 | 1.52 |
| Mar 13, 2019 | Murder of Frank Cali by a QAnon adherent | 41,552 | 63,113 | 1.52 |
| Sep 12, 2018 | Reddit bans r/GreatAwakening (71,000 subscribers) and other QAnon forums | 53,322 | 78,495 | 1.47 |
| Aug 5, 2019 | 8chan taken offline after the El Paso shooting | 82,490 | 117,409 | 1.42 |
| Jun 24, 2022 | Q returns on 8kun after 18 months | 40,386 | 54,246 | 1.34 |
| Nov 2, 2019 | Q returns on 8kun, 8chan's successor, after three months of silence | 26,722 | 35,251 | 1.32 |
| Nov 6, 2018 | US midterm elections | 36,260 | 45,985 | 1.27 |
| Feb 19, 2022 | NYT: two stylometric analyses attribute drops to Paul Furber, then Ron Watkins | 62,154 | 77,535 | 1.25 |
| Jun 15, 2018 | Armed man blocks the road at Hoover Dam, demanding a report cited by Q | 17,901 | 22,286 | 1.24 |
| Jul 21, 2020 | Twitter suspends thousands of QAnon accounts | 760,956 | 821,641 | 1.08 |
| Mar 4, 2021 | Movement-predicted Trump "inauguration" (did not happen) | 209,149 | 220,113 | 1.05 |
| May 30, 2019 | FBI (Phoenix) bulletin cites QAnon as a domestic terrorism threat | 17,636 | 18,026 | 1.02 |
| Aug 19, 2020 | Trump on QAnon: "they like me very much" | 1,509,329 | 1,522,795 | 1.01 |
| Mar 23, 2020 | First drop about the pandemic ("China virus") | 374,639 | 348,644 | 0.93 |
| Dec 8, 2020 | Last drop before an 18-month silence | 153,075 | 132,309 | 0.86 |
| Apr 18, 2019 | Redacted Mueller report released | 27,055 | 22,322 | 0.83 |
| Jan 20, 2021 | Joe Biden's inauguration (the predicted "trap" did not happen) | 1,210,010 | 923,652 | 0.76 |
| Mar 22, 2019 | Mueller report delivered to the Attorney General | 75,459 | 49,695 | 0.66 |
Q and public curiosity
Rank correlation (Spearman) between weekly drops and English article views, lagged (a positive lag means views follow Q). 141 weeks, 2018-2020.
| Lag (weeks) | ρ |
|---|---|
| -4 | 0.02 |
| -3 | 0.01 |
| -2 | 0.01 |
| -1 | 0.09 |
| +0 | 0.14 |
| +1 | 0.17 |
| +2 | 0.16 |
| +3 | 0.11 |
| +4 | 0.03 |
Tracked articles
The first day with views gives, within a few days, the article's creation date in each language, which marks QAnon's international spread. Related English articles existed before the period (October 1, 2017 = start of the series).
| Article | Total views | Peak | Peak day | First view (≈ creation) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| en:QAnon | 38,549,646 | 519,347 | Oct 16, 2020 | Mar 26, 2018 |
| en:Pizzagate_conspiracy_theory | 17,823,834 | 208,206 | Jun 21, 2020 | Oct 1, 2017 |
| en:Adrenochrome | 9,113,030 | 77,888 | Apr 5, 2020 | Oct 1, 2017 |
| en:8chan | 8,245,767 | 349,857 | Aug 5, 2019 | Oct 1, 2017 |
| en:Deep_state_in_the_United_States | 4,503,024 | 50,481 | Mar 21, 2020 | Oct 1, 2017 |
| de:QAnon | 4,261,102 | 50,649 | Jan 7, 2021 | May 6, 2018 |
| fr:QAnon | 1,723,237 | 36,335 | Jan 7, 2021 | Aug 7, 2018 |
| ja:Qアノン | 1,709,327 | 23,438 | Jan 27, 2021 | Nov 10, 2018 |
| it:QAnon | 1,202,710 | 118,020 | Jan 7, 2021 | May 7, 2020 |
| es:QAnon | 1,200,683 | 52,672 | Jan 7, 2021 | May 6, 2020 |
| nl:QAnon | 623,188 | 19,759 | Jan 7, 2021 | Aug 3, 2018 |
| ru:QAnon | 579,484 | 9,809 | Jan 11, 2021 | Feb 24, 2020 |
| pt:QAnon | 514,511 | 8,018 | Jan 7, 2021 | Apr 17, 2020 |
| pl:QAnon | 424,288 | 13,682 | Jan 7, 2021 | Jun 29, 2018 |
| sv:QAnon | 161,851 | 10,001 | Jan 7, 2021 | Jul 1, 2020 |