Trending Explorers — all time
The 100 most-viewed explorers on Wikipedia, all time. Ranked by real-world attention. Top: Richard E. Grant. Data as of 25 October 2026.
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- Wikipedia pageviews — complete hourly data from Wikimedia (CC0)
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- all time · Data as of 25 October 2026
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- 100 explorers — drawn from 12,192,386 articles Wikipedia recorded views for in this window
This counts a Wikipedia language edition, not a country's residents. Nothing here is capped or sampled: it is every view Wikipedia published for these articles in the window. Rows carrying a 📰 badge add news coverage from GDELT; entity names and types come from Wikidata. Looking for what one country read? That is what the world reads — a different, capped measurement.
Where this data comes from ›100
Ranked
5,847,206
Total Views (all time)
Country
🌍 Global
1
Richard E. Grant
British-Swazi actor
815,041
views
views
2
Christopher Columbus
Italian navigator, explorer, and colonist (1451–1506)
477,107
views
views
3
Karl Bushby
British pedestrian circumnavigator of the globe
376,060
views
views
4
Tenzing Norgay
Nepalese Indian Sherpa mountaineer (1914-1986)
222,083
views
views
5
Edmund Hillary
New Zealand mountaineer and philanthropist (1919–2008)
171,247
views
views
6
Theodore Roosevelt
26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909 (1858–1919)
164,109
views
views
7
Leif Erikson
norse explorer (c. 970 – c. 1020)
146,375
views
views
8
Michael Rockefeller
American anthropologist and art collector (1938–1961)
122,489
views
views
9
Charles Darwin
English naturalist and biologist (1809–1882)
115,253
views
views
10
James Cameron
Canadian filmmaker and explorer (born 1954)
112,860
views
views
11
Steve Irwin
Australian zookeeper, conservationist and TV personality (1962-2006)
96,561
views
views
12
Walton Goggins
American actor (born 1971)
89,093
views
views
13
Ulysses S. Grant
president of the United States from 1869 to 1877
86,185
views
views
14
Amerigo Vespucci
Florentine explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer
85,281
views
views
15
Marco Polo
Venetian explorer and merchant who travelled through Asia (1254–1324)
84,304
views
views
16
Yuri Gagarin
Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, first human in space (1934–1968)
83,948
views
views
17
Fridtjof Nansen
Norwegian polar explorer (1861–1930)
83,293
views
views
18
Reinhold Messner
Italian mountaineer, adventurer and explorer (born 1944)
81,050
views
views
19
Hernán Cortés
Spanish conquistador
76,794
views
views
20
Ferdinand Magellan
Portuguese explorer in the service of Spain
74,862
views
views
21
Bear Grylls
English adventurer, writer and television presenter (born 1974)
69,410
views
views
22
John Hurt
British actor (1940–2017)
69,409
views
views
23
Vasco da Gama
Portuguese explorer (c. 1460s – 1524)
68,883
views
views
24
James Cook
British explorer, cartographer and naval officer (1728–1779)
64,863
views
views
25
T. E. Lawrence
British archaeologist, army officer and diplomat (1888–1935)
63,743
views
views
26
Ranulph Fiennes
British explorer (born 1944)
57,092
views
views
27
George Mallory
English mountaineer (1886-1924)
48,722
views
views
28
Arthur Rimbaud
French poet (1854-1891)
47,173
views
views
29
Arthur C. Clarke
British science fiction writer, inventor, and futurist (1917–2008)
47,136
views
views
30
Francis Drake
English sailor and privateer (c. 1540 – 1596)
46,146
views
views
31
Ash Dykes
Welsh adventurer
42,607
views
views
32
Jamling Tenzing Norgay
Indian-Nepalese mountaineer (born 1965)
41,940
views
views
33
Harald III of Norway
King of Norway from 1046 to 1066
40,662
views
views
34
Davy Crockett
American frontiersman and politician (1786–1836)
38,141
views
views
35
George P. Putnam
American publisher, author, and explorer (1887-1950)
38,123
views
views
36
Wild Bill Hickok
American folk hero and lawman (1837–1876)
37,753
views
views
37
Peter Cushing
British actor (1913–1994)
36,378
views
views
38
Cecil John Rhodes
British businessman, mining magnate and politician in South Africa (1853-1902)
36,186
views
views
39
Jacques Cousteau
French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author (1910-1997)
35,450
views
views
40
Christopher Eccleston
English actor (born 1964)
35,083
views
views
41
Christopher McCandless
American hiker and explorer (1968–1992)
34,971
views
views
42
Heinrich Harrer
Austrian mountaineer and author (1912–2006)
34,420
views
views
43
Ernest Shackleton
Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer (1874–1922)
34,234
views
views
44
Hugh Glass
American fur trapper and frontiersman
32,961
views
views
45
Francis Xavier
Spanish Catholic saint and missionary (1506–1552)
32,675
views
views
46
Ibn Battuta
14th century Muslim Maghrebi scholar and explorer
32,267
views
views
47
Calamity Jane
American scout and frontierswoman
31,838
views
views
48
Francisco Pizarro
Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire
31,727
views
views
49
Sacagawea
Native American woman & companion to Lewis and Clark at age 16
30,458
views
views
50
Walter Raleigh
English statesman, soldier and writer (1552–1618)
29,223
views
views
51
Daniel Boone
American pioneer and frontiersman (1734–1820)
28,933
views
views
52
David Livingstone
Scottish missionary and explorer (1813-1873)
28,517
views
views
53
William Somerset Maugham
English playwright and author (1874–1965)
27,758
views
views
54
Shintarō Ishihara
Japanese politician and author, Governor of Tokyo (1932–2022)
27,746
views
views
55
Simon Reeve
British television presenter
27,384
views
views
56
Alexander von Humboldt
Prussian geographer, naturalist and explorer (1769–1859)
26,737
views
views
57
Lara Croft
Tomb Raider protagonist character
26,321
views
views
58
Erik the Red
explorer and founder of the first viking settlement in Greenland
25,976
views
views
59
Alexander Kolchak
Russian admiral and military leader of the White movement (1874-1920)
25,751
views
views
60
Jacques Cartier
Breton maritime explorer of North America (1491–1557)
25,356
views
views
61
Zheng He
Chinese mariner, explorer, and diplomat
24,990
views
views
62
Silver Surfer
fictional character in Marvel Comics
23,956
views
views
63
Roald Amundsen
Norwegian explorer; first person to reach the South Pole (1872–1928)
23,303
views
views
64
Peter Kropotkin
Russian revolutionary socialist and philosopher (1842–1921)
23,072
views
views
65
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
Finnish military leader and statesman (1867–1951)
22,697
views
views
66
Peter Davison
English actor
22,525
views
views
67
Ada Blackjack
Iñupiat explorer (1898–1983)
21,789
views
views
68
Juan Ponce de León
Spanish explorer and conquistador
21,093
views
views
69
Jon Krakauer
American writer and journalist
20,924
views
views
70
John Muir
Scottish-American naturalist (1838–1914)
20,855
views
views
71
Hiroshi Fujioka
actor
20,728
views
views
72
The Doctor
fictional character from the television series Doctor Who
20,692
views
views
73
Hideaki Takizawa
Japanese actor-singer
20,688
views
views
74
Hendrik Coetzee
South African outdoorsman
20,415
views
views
75
William Adams
English navigator who travelled to Japan
19,653
views
views
76
Percy Fawcett
British explorer, anthropologist and archaeologist (1867–1925)
19,037
views
views
77
Stockton Rush
American businessman (1962–2023)
18,989
views
views
78
John Smith
English soldier, explorer, writer (1580–1631)
18,933
views
views
79
James T. Kirk
fictional character from Star Trek
18,085
views
views
80
Robert Falcon Scott
Royal Navy officer and explorer (1868–1912)
17,646
views
views
81
Thor Heyerdahl
Norwegian anthropologist and adventurer (1914-2002)
17,619
views
views
82
Floyd Collins
American cave explorer (1887–1925)
17,385
views
views
83
Henry Hudson
English explorer b1565
16,745
views
views
84
Mister Fantastic
fictional character in Marvel Comics
16,397
views
views
85
Captain Nemo
fictional character created by Jules Verne
16,262
views
views
86
Jim Bridger
American explorer (1804-1881)
15,842
views
views
87
Bartolomeu Dias
Portuguese explorer
15,692
views
views
88
Ben Fogle
English adventurer, broadcaster and writer
15,417
views
views
89
Alexey Leonov
Soviet-Russian pilot and cosmonaut, first human to conduct a spacewalk (1934–2019)
15,257
views
views
90
Thorfinn Karlsefni
Icelandic explorer
14,704
views
views
91
Jessica Meir
American and Swedish astronaut (born 1977)
14,684
views
views
92
Gertrude Bell
British traveller, writer, mountaineer, politician, archaeologist and spy (1868–1926)
14,666
views
views
93
Pytheas
ancient Greek explorer
14,245
views
views
94
Alfred Wegener
German climatologist and geophysicist (1880–1930)
14,208
views
views
95
Xuanzang
7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk and scholar (602–664)
14,076
views
views
96
Samuel de Champlain
16/17th-century French explorer of North America
14,038
views
views
97
Andrew Comyn Irvine
English mountaineer (1902–1924)
14,008
views
views
98
Yoda Benzō
Japanese explorer (1853-1925)
13,932
views
views
99
Scott Fischer
American mountaineer and mountain guide (1955–1996)
13,925
views
views
100
Juan Sebastián Elcano
Castillian Basque sailor, explorer, and circumnavigator with the Magellan Expedition
13,886
views
views