3 Reasons Why r/WallStreetBets Needed Wikipedia to Boost GameStop Stock

GameStop (NYSE: GME), the video game retail store, was fairly unknown outside the GameStop fandom made of video game enthusiasts. Reddit, the discussion and social media platform, garnered a lot of attention because the discussion thread r/WallStreetBets posted a list of stocks being shorted by hedge fund managers. The news cycle was dominated by stories about GameStop, Reddit, and the phenomenon known as a short squeeze. The underreported byproducts are the surge of traffic going to Wikipedia, the influence of Wikipedia content on forming an opinion, and the trustworthiness of that content. Nearly 8 million people members of r/WallStreetBets, 800,000 active daily users on the thread, and many others needed more than just Google and an online discussion forum to learn more about GameStop and short squeeze. They needed a trustworthy source that presented a well-sourced and unbiased perspective.

People Went to Wikipedia to Research GameStop

People sought information about GameStop on Google. And since Wikipedia articles are at the top of search results naturally people rushed to learn more about GameStop. Since 2004, the GameStop Wikipedia article has been underdeveloped. It lacked context about the company’s history and financials. But that all changed this week. For example, the GameStop Wikipedia article attracted nearly 400,000 visitors. To put it into perspective, the GameStop Wikipedia article's annual visitors for the past three years is equivalent to the number of visitors this week.

GameStop Company Story on Wikipedia Skyrocketed (in 5 days)

GameStop is most known to video game enthusiasts. But as the r/WallStreetBets GameStop short squeeze event gained more popularity, as did the company's Wikipedia article. In 2020, the GameStop Wikipedia article was 62,000 bytes of content, written by 63 people. In the past five days, the content expanded to nearly 90,000 bytes, written and edited by 2,186 people.

GameStop Turnaround Strategy on Wikipedia Boosted Investor Confidence

Filtering misinformation about GameStop was challenging especially for novice retail investors. But since the company's history and turnaround strategy was added to the Wikipedia article, the Wikipedia article was the go-to website to filter the signal from the noise. The 145 secondary sources of references assured readers the information was reliable. On January 27, 2021, the creation of the GameStop Short Squeeze Wikipedia article gave over 200,000 readers an account of the event. And since all content on Wikipedia is organic, the story about GameStop will continue to evolve.

The Information Source You Can Put Bet On

Visitors to the GameStop, short squeeze, and GameStop Short Squeeze Wikipedia articles were curious to get a better understanding of why the GameStop stock price continued to "go to the moon". The information on those Wikipedia articles was easy-to-read and comprehend. If you are curious about all the frenzy and want to hassle yourself with scrolling through the endless discussion thread, visit r/WallStreetBets. But if you want to make it easier on yourself, go directly to Wikipedia.