The Wikipedia philosophy phenomenon, sometimes called the "Philosophy Game", is the tendency that English Wikipedia articles' first hyperlink, when clicked in a chain, will end in a loop at the article "Philosophy". The concept was discovered by Wikipedian Mark J.
The phenomenon first received widespread attention from a "fun fact" in the xkcd webcomic on 25 May 2011, which led to University of Vermont researchers Mark Ibrahim, Christopher Danforth, and Peter Sheridan Dodds publishing a paper on the matter. The research found that the first link generalises the topic and eventually leads to "Philosophy":
<blockquote>So while a great many [First Link Network] paths flow to "Philosophy" [...], the accumulation is not the result of many articles directly referencing "Philosophy." Instead, first links flow towards "Philosophy" as the ultimate anchor, by generalizing from specific to broad.</blockquote>
In 2011, more than 93% of English Wikipedia articles led to "Philosophy". In 2016, this was true for 97% of articles.
Some other language Wikipedias, like the German, French and Russian editions, also led to "Philosophy" like the English Wikipedia. Others, like the Dutch and Japanese editions, did not. The concepts with highest centrality to first link networks in European language Wikipedias are sciences, such as "Psychology" for Italian Wikipedia, while East Asian languages are connected by concepts such as humans or Earth.