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 | This page in a nutshell: While popularity alone does not guaranteenotability, popularity may suggest the likelihood that someone will try to create a Wikipedia article about the subject matter. |
Wikipedia contains many topics that are or were seen as "popular", such asThe Beatles, "KPop Demon Hunters",Happy Tree Friends,Thomas & Friends, andThe Amazing Digital Circus. Contrary to popular beliefs, however, a topic ends up on Wikipedia not merely because of its popularity but because ofsignificant coverage from severalreliable,independent, andsecondary sources (i.e.,notability).
In other words,popularity by itself does not guarantee notability; likewise,obscurity does not guarantee thelack of notability. However, a topic's popularity indicates the likelihood that somebody will create an article on the topic, whether or not it is notable.
An article about a seemingly popular topic can be deleted simply because the topic has little to no reliable, independent, and secondary sources. In certain cases where a topic is really popular, some users have made attempts to recreate the said article without any improvements, ignoring the red message box telling users that such an article was already deleted. What often follows is a cycle of deletions and recreations, eventually leading torestrictions on page creation being imposed.
There might come a point when a topic becomes so popular that it is the subject of headlines from several reputable media outlets. At this point, there is a chance that the said topic becomes notable enough to have a permanent Wikipedia article.