The international top 20 books includes: Bible, The Eyes of Darkness, BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense., The Decameron, The Plague, 1984, Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu, Love in the Time of Cholera, KonoSuba, Sword Art Online, The Witcher, James Bond, Les Misérables, Don Quixote, Revelation of John, The Stand, Romeo and Juliet, The Lord of the Rings, Doom and Little Women.

Briefly about the methodology

Wikipedia currently has over 52 million articles in over 300 languages. Despite the impressive number of articles, not all topics can be written in this free encyclopedia. At the same time, the community of each language version has the ability to decide which topic can be described in the encyclopedia, and which is not (for example, article must be notable). In addition, each language version can describe the same topic in its own way – it all depends on the quantity and quality of the authors (Wikipedia users who edit articles).

Almost every Wikipedia article has an aligment to certain categories. Additionally, based on the content, you can specify the subject of the article – for this you can, for example, use semantic relations in Wikidata or DBpedia. More details on the automatic article classification process can be found in various scientific works (e.g. Multilingual Ranking of Wikipedia Articles with Quality and Popularity Assessment in Different Topics).

This article selected the most-developed language versions of Wikipedia with over 1 million articles, including English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Polish and other. After the classification of articles, only those that are dedicated to individual books. As a result for English Wikipedia 58048 articles about books were found, French – 24363 books, Italian – 15803 books, German – 13181 books, Spanish – 11755 books, Russian – 8148 books, Portuguese – 7316 books, Polish – 6876 books, Arabic – 6683 books, Japanese – 6102 books and Chinese – 5055 books.

As mentioned earlier, every Wikipedia article can have different language versions, so we can find out different names of the same object (book). Using open data on Wikipedia article views we can find out how many times a given article has been viewed on specific days. After collecting data for viewing all Wikipedia articles on books in the appropriate language versions March 2020 ranking of the most readable was made. First, the positions of books in the ranking are shown, which were obtained by adding up the page views from different language versions for a given book. Later, the most popular books are shown for only one language version of Wikipedia.

1st place – Bible

Bible – collection of sacred books in Judaism and Christianity, in March 2020 the book was on the 1st place in English, on the 2nd place in Spanish, Portuguese, on the 12th place in Italian, Polish, on the 14th place in Russian, on the 15th place in Arabic, on the 18th place in German, on the 23rd place in French, on the 97th place in Chinese and on the 191st place in Japanese Wikipedia.

2nd place – The Eyes of Darkness

The Eyes of Darkness – American thriller novel by Dean Koontz, in March 2020 the book was on the 1st place in Arabic, German, on the 2nd place in English, on the 3rd place in French, on the 22nd place in Spanish and Italian Wikipedia.

3rd place – BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense.

BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense. – Japanese light novel series, in March 2020 the book was on the 1st place in Japanese, Chinese, on the 7th place in English, on the 120th place in Spanish and on the 263rd place in Italian Wikipedia.

4th place – The Decameron

The Decameron – 14th-century medieval allegory by Giovanni Boccaccio, in March 2020 the book was on the 1st place in Italian, on the 3rd place in Spanish, on the 6th place in German, on the 8th place in Polish, Russian, on the 13th place in English, on the 15th place in French, on the 21st place in Portuguese, on the 32nd place in Japanese, on the 65th place in Chinese and on the 321st place in Arabic Wikipedia.

5th place – The Plague

The Plague – French novel by Albert Camus, in March 2020 the book was on the 1st place in French, Polish, on the 4th place in German, Italian, on the 5th place in Spanish, on the 16th place in English, on the 17th place in Japanese, on the 28th place in Russian, on the 42nd place in Arabic, on the 44th place in Portuguese and on the 303rd place in Chinese Wikipedia.

6th place – 1984

1984 – dystopian novel written by George Orwell, in March 2020 the book was on the 5th place in English, French, Russian, on the 7th place in Spanish, Italian, on the 8th place in Portuguese, on the 10th place in German, on the 21st place in Polish, on the 32nd place in Arabic, Chinese and on the 46th place in Japanese Wikipedia.

7th place – Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu

Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu – Japanese light novel series, in March 2020 the book was on the 2nd place in Japanese, on the 4th place in Chinese, on the 24th place in Portuguese, on the 36th place in English, on the 51st place in Spanish, on the 78th place in French, on the 121st place in Russian, on the 156th place in Italian, on the 186th place in Arabic, on the 224th place in German and on the 253rd place in Polish Wikipedia.

8th place – Love in the Time of Cholera

Love in the Time of Cholera – novel by Colombian Nobel prize winning author Gabriel García Márquez, in March 2020 the book was on the 3rd place in Polish, on the 4th place in Arabic, on the 6th place in English, Italian, on the 7th place in German, on the 12th place in Spanish, on the 40th place in French, on the 76th place in Chinese, on the 118th place in Portuguese, on the 136th place in Russian and on the 865th place in Japanese Wikipedia.

9th place – KonoSuba

KonoSuba – Japanese light novel series, in March 2020 the book was on the 3rd place in Japanese, on the 5th place in Chinese, on the 21st place in English, on the 24th place in Spanish, on the 47th place in Portuguese, on the 53rd place in Russian, on the 133rd place in French, on the 255th place in German and on the 300th place in Italian Wikipedia.

10th place – Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online – Japanese light novel series, in March 2020 the book was on the 3rd place in Chinese, on the 6th place in Japanese, on the 15th place in Portuguese, on the 27th place in Spanish, French, on the 34th place in English, on the 50th place in German, on the 53rd place in Italian, on the 60th place in Russian, on the 125th place in Polish and on the 185th place in Arabic Wikipedia.

11th place – The Witcher

The Witcher – series of fantasy novels and short stories by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, in March 2020 the book was on the 2nd place in Russian, on the 5th place in Polish, on the 10th place in English, on the 13th place in German, on the 40th place in Italian, on the 45th place in French, on the 48th place in Spanish, on the 82nd place in Portuguese, on the 195th place in Chinese, on the 309th place in Arabic and on the 431st place in Japanese Wikipedia.

12th place – James Bond

James Bond – media franchise about a British spy, in March 2020 the book was on the 3rd place in Russian, on the 8th place in English, on the 12th place in Japanese, on the 31st place in Arabic, on the 33rd place in Chinese, on the 494th place in Portuguese and on the 1343rd place in Spanish Wikipedia.

13th place – Les Misérables

Les Misérables – 1862 Victor Hugo novel, in March 2020 the book was on the 4th place in Japanese, on the 9th place in French, on the 13th place in Arabic, on the 25th place in Spanish, Portuguese, on the 38th place in Chinese, on the 44th place in English, on the 78th place in Polish, on the 84th place in Russian, on the 109th place in Italian and on the 194th place in German Wikipedia.

14th place – Don Quixote

Don Quixote – novel by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, in March 2020 the book was on the 1st place in Spanish, on the 6th place in Portuguese, on the 12th place in French, on the 27th place in German, on the 31st place in Italian, on the 37th place in Arabic, English, on the 56th place in Chinese, on the 64th place in Polish, on the 81st place in Japanese and on the 118th place in Russian Wikipedia.

15th place – Revelation of John

Revelation of John – Final book of the New Testament, in March 2020 the book was on the 4th place in Portuguese, on the 8th place in Spanish, on the 12th place in German, on the 14th place in Polish, on the 17th place in French, on the 23rd place in Japanese, on the 26th place in Italian, on the 29th place in Russian, on the 30th place in English, on the 72nd place in Arabic and on the 111th place in Chinese Wikipedia.

16th place – The Stand

The Stand – novel by Stephen King, in March 2020 the book was on the 3rd place in English, on the 19th place in German, on the 59th place in Italian, on the 72nd place in French, on the 92nd place in Polish, on the 175th place in Spanish, on the 196th place in Portuguese, on the 672nd place in Japanese, on the 865th place in Arabic and on the 985th place in Chinese Wikipedia.

17th place – Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet – tragedy by William Shakespeare, in March 2020 the book was on the 7th place in French, on the 11th place in Spanish, on the 14th place in Portuguese, on the 16th place in Italian, on the 20th place in Polish, on the 24th place in German, on the 26th place in English, on the 37th place in Russian, on the 38th place in Arabic, on the 82nd place in Chinese and on the 98th place in Japanese Wikipedia.

18th place – The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings – 1954–1955 fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, in March 2020 the book was on the 10th place in Spanish, on the 15th place in Polish, on the 16th place in Portuguese, Russian, on the 18th place in English, on the 21st place in Italian, on the 26th place in German, on the 62nd place in French, on the 68th place in Chinese, on the 84th place in Arabic and on the 166th place in Japanese Wikipedia.

19th place – Doom

Doom – series of video games and other media, in March 2020 the book was on the 4th place in Russian, on the 11th place in English, on the 14th place in German, on the 26th place in French, on the 45th place in Chinese, on the 65th place in Polish, on the 113th place in Portuguese, on the 218th place in Spanish and on the 291st place in Italian Wikipedia.

20th place – Little Women

Little Women – novel by Louisa May Alcott, in March 2020 the book was on the 9th place in Arabic, on the 10th place in Russian, on the 12th place in English, on the 18th place in Spanish, on the 34th place in French, on the 35th place in Italian, on the 43rd place in Chinese, on the 89th place in Polish, on the 140th place in German and on the 179th place in Japanese Wikipedia.

The most popular books in Arabic Wikipedia

The most popular books in Chinese Wikipedia

The most popular books in English Wikipedia

The most popular books in French Wikipedia

The most popular books in German Wikipedia

The most popular books in Italian Wikipedia

The most popular books in Japanese Wikipedia

The most popular books in Polish Wikipedia

The most popular books in Portuguese Wikipedia

The most popular books in Russian Wikipedia

The most popular books in Spanish Wikipedia

The most popular books in recent days presented on WikiRank