# The Wikipedia Game
> The Wikipedia Game is a 2005 competitive browsing game where players race through Wikipedia articles by clicking internal hyperlinks to reach a target article in the fewest clicks.
The Wikipedia Game is a competitive browsing game where players race through Wikipedia, clicking only internal hyperlinks to navigate from one article to another in the fewest clicks or shortest time. First documented in 2005 by a group of high school students, the game draws on the same logic as Six Degrees of Separation, treating Wikipedia's millions of articles as a massive interconnected graph. It picked up a slew of alternate names over the years, from WikiRace to WikiWars, and saw a major visibility boost when the Gregory Brothers turned it into spectator entertainment in 2012.
## Origin
On April 9, 2005, a Wikipedia editor going by "Deceased" created an article titled "Wikirace" that laid out the basic concept and rules. According to the page, a group of high school students had invented the game that same year[5]. The initial ruleset required all players to be in the same room, banned hub articles like disambiguation pages, and prohibited the search function or Ctrl+F to locate links on a page.
The core idea built on older concepts. Six Degrees of Separation, the theory that any two people on Earth are connected through roughly six social links, dates back to a 1929 short story by Hungarian author Frigyes Karinthy[5]. That concept had already spawned Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon in 1994, a parlor game where players connect any actor to Kevin Bacon through shared film credits in as few steps as possible. The Wikipedia Game applied the same network-navigation logic to an encyclopedia instead of Hollywood.
Even before the 2005 documentation, Wikipedia editors were thinking along these lines. A page titled "Six Degrees of Wikipedia" appeared on the site as early as April 18, 2003, cataloging the shortest and longest link chains between articles[5].
- **Platform:** Wikipedia
- **Creator:** Unknown (attributed to unnamed high school students, documented by Wikipedia editor "Deceased")
- **Date:** 2005
## Overview
The Wikipedia Game poses a deceptively simple question: how few clicks does it take to get from one Wikipedia article to a completely unrelated one? Players start on the same page, usually chosen at random, and must navigate to a pre-selected target article by clicking only the blue hyperlinks within each article's body text[8]. No searching, no sidebar links, no browser back button. Just reading, thinking, and clicking.
The game works because Wikipedia is an enormously dense network. With millions of articles cross-linking to each other, there's almost always a path between any two pages, and usually a surprisingly short one[1]. The challenge blends speed, general knowledge, and an intuition for how topics connect. One player described it as relying on "a sort of relational knowledge that people have," where deep expertise in a subject matters less than a feel for how information branches and converges[9].
Players typically compete head-to-head, either counting clicks (fewer is better) or racing against the clock[6]. Some versions combine both, with first to arrive winning and click count serving as a tiebreaker. A round can be played on a single computer with players taking turns or on separate machines in a live race[8].
## How It Spread
The game spread slowly at first, mostly through word of mouth in schools, dorm rooms, and library computer labs. Definitions started appearing on Urban Dictionary in January 2007 under names like "Wikipedia Game," "Wiki Racing," and "WikiWar"[1]. YouTube explainer videos followed in 2008 and 2009, and a Michigan fraternity newsletter ran an article on "Wikipedia Racing" in October 2008.
In 2010, designer Christopher de Beer launched a dedicated WikiRace website where players could track game history and keep score with friends. Another single-serving site that assigned random Wikipedia starting pages went live later that year[1].
The game's biggest moment came on June 15, 2012, when the Gregory Brothers uploaded a video they called "WikiWars"[2]. The comedy troupe, famous for Auto-Tune the News and the "Bed Intruder Song," filmed Evan and Michael Gregory completing three rounds of competitive Wikipedia navigation while their teammates provided play-by-play commentary styled after esports broadcasts[3]. "Victory requires mental focus, precise clicking, a surprisingly large need for a knowledge of geography, and the ability to not start hyperventilating," they wrote in the video description[7].
The video landed hard. Coverage poured in from the Los Angeles Times, Mashable, Neatorama, Reddit, Yahoo News, and The Blaze[2]. "If you're young enough that Wikipedia existed while you were in high school, you've probably played WikiWars in a library computer lab," wrote Geekosystem's Eric Limer, as quoted in the LA Times[2]. The Gregory Brothers reintroduced the game to a massive audience and pulled in players who'd never heard of it.
## How to Use
Playing the Wikipedia Game takes about 30 seconds to set up:
1. Open Wikipedia and click "Random article" in the sidebar to get your starting page
2. Click "Random article" again, or have someone else choose a page, to set your destination
3. Navigate from start to destination by clicking only the blue hyperlinks within article body text
4. Track your number of clicks, your time, or both
## Cultural Impact
The Wikipedia Game crossed from dorm-room time-killer to mainstream awareness through several waves. The Gregory Brothers' 2012 WikiWars video brought it to a broad audience, with the Los Angeles Times and Mashable covering it as both entertainment and a new form of competitive sport[2][3].
The academic community studied the game as a window into human information-navigation behavior. Stephen Dolan's Six Degrees of Wikipedia project at Trinity College Dublin mapped the entire link structure of English Wikipedia, identifying which articles function as network hubs and how quickly any two pages can be connected[4]. The Wikispeedia platform collected real player data for researchers studying how people traverse knowledge networks.
Schools picked up the game as an educational tool. It appeared as an event at TechOlympics and earned recommendations from publications like The Seattle Times as a worthwhile activity for young people[6]. Teachers found it useful for developing research skills and sparking curiosity about topics students might never otherwise explore.
## Fun Facts
- The "center" of English Wikipedia, the article reachable from any other page in the fewest average clicks, is "United Kingdom" at 3.67 clicks. "Billie Jean King" comes in second at 3.68[4].
- Some of the longest documented chains in Wikipedia require eight links to reach obscure beetle species articles like "Sybra fuscotriangularis" or "Paranicomia similis"[8].
- The Gregory Brothers named their version "WikiWars" without knowing the game had already existed under that name and many others for seven years[2].
- Kevin Payravi, the 2023 Wikiracing champion, said the game simply channels the natural Wikipedia rabbit-hole experience toward a clear competitive goal[6].
- One early player tried navigating from a random page to "Laser" and noted that the best strategy was to "pick something relevant, or at least orthogonal, and move to a very general page and then back to the specific page"[9].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is The Wikipedia Game?
The Wikipedia Game is a competitive browsing game where players navigate from one Wikipedia article to another using only internal hyperlinks, aiming to reach the destination in the fewest clicks or fastest time. No searching or back button allowed[1].
### Where did The Wikipedia Game come from?
It was first documented on April 9, 2005, when Wikipedia editor "Deceased" created a "Wikirace" page describing a game invented by a group of high school students that year[5].
### What does The Wikipedia Game mean?
It refers to the challenge of finding connections between seemingly unrelated topics by clicking through Wikipedia's hyperlinked articles. The game tests general knowledge, lateral thinking, and speed[1].
### How do you use The Wikipedia Game?
Click "Random article" on Wikipedia for a start and destination page, then navigate between them using only body text links. No search, no back button, no sidebar. The player with the fewest clicks or fastest time wins[1].
### Is The Wikipedia Game still popular?
The game has maintained steady participation since 2005, with organized competitions, dedicated websites, and classroom use. The 2023 Wikiracing championship produced recognized winners[6].
### What are the standard rules?
Core rules include: only click links within the article body text, no search bar or Ctrl+F, no browser back button, and no category links or year pages. Some variants allow one "lifeline" category click per round[8].
### Who are the Gregory Brothers and what's their connection?
The Gregory Brothers, a comedy troupe known for Auto-Tune the News, uploaded a "WikiWars" video on June 15, 2012, with esports-style commentary that drew media coverage from the LA Times and Mashable and brought the game to a broad audience[2][3].
### What is the center of Wikipedia?
According to research by Stephen Dolan at Trinity College Dublin, the "United Kingdom" article is the center of English Wikipedia, reachable from any other page in an average of 3.67 clicks[4].
### What is 5-Clicks-to-Jesus?
A golf-style variant where players start from a random article and try to reach the Jesus page in five clicks or fewer. Reaching it in five is "par," with fewer clicks counted as "birdies" and more as "bogeys"[8].
### Is The Wikipedia Game connected to Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon?
Both are inspired by the Six Degrees of Separation concept. Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon connects actors through shared film roles, while The Wikipedia Game connects encyclopedia articles through hyperlinks[5].
### Can you play The Wikipedia Game in a classroom?
Yes. The Seattle Times recommended it for children, and it became a TechOlympics event. Teachers use it as a brain break that builds research skills and encourages exploration of new topics[6].
### Where can you play The Wikipedia Game online?
Several dedicated sites host the game, including TheWikiGame.com (multiplayer with daily challenges and leaderboards), Wiki Speedrun (speed-focused single player), and various Six Degrees of Wikipedia tools[1].
## References
1. [Wikiracing | Kanonical]()
2. [Have You Played the Wikipedia Game?]()
3. [WikiWars - Neatorama]()
4. [The Wikipedia Game - Know Your Meme]()
5. [The Game (mind game)]()
6. [The Wikipedia Game - Urban Dictionary]()
7. [Wikipedia:Wiki Game]()
8. [Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon]()
9. [Six degrees of separation]()
10. [Wikipedia:Six degrees of Wikipedia]()
11. [Wikipedia:Wikington Crescent]()
12. [Wikipedia:Wiki-Link Game]()
13. [Wikipedia:Six degrees of Wikipedia - Wikipedia]()
14. [Urban Dictionary: wikipedia game]()
15. [Wikipedia:Wiki Game - Wikipedia]()
16. [Wikiracing - Wikipedia]()
17. [Wikipedia:Wikington Crescent - Wikipedia]()
18. [Wikipedia:Wiki Game - Wikipedia]()
19. [Wikipedia:Wiki-Link Game - Wikipedia]()
20. [Urban Dictionary: Wiki-Racing]()
21. [Urban Dictionary: Wikiwar]()
22. [WikiWars turns Wikipedia searches into a competitive sport - Los Angeles Times]()
23. [Wired Campus: 6 Degrees of Wikipedia]()
24. [Wiki Wars: The Ultimate Web Scavenger Hunt [VIDEO] | Mashable]()
25. [What Are Some Variations of the Wikipedia Game?]()
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