← Fame through time2021
2021
Who the world actually read about in 2021 - readers across every language edition we measure, whoever they were and whenever they lived.
Most read
Who people actually looked up in 2021, across every language edition we measure.
- 1
Elizabeth II28.3M - 2
Elon Musk27.6M - 3
Cristiano Ronaldo23M - 4
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh21.8M - 5
Joe Biden18.7M - 6
Donald Trump17.7M - 7
Lionel Messi17M - 8
Tom Brady13.5M - 9
Kamala Harris11.8M - 10
Diana, Princess of Wales11.8M - 11
Charles IIInot measured11.8M - 12
Dwayne Johnson11.3M - 13
Freddie Mercury11.2M - 14
Richard Ramireznot measured11.1M - 15
Zendaya10.8M - 16
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon10.7M - 17
Keanu Reeves10.5M - 18
Jeff Bezos10.4M - 19
Adolf Hitler10.3M - 20
Scarlett Johansson10.3M - 21
George VI10M - 22
Olivia Rodrigonot measured10M - 23
Michael Jackson9.7M - 24
Britney Spears9.7M - 25
Betty White9.6M
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in 2021, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Lady Gaga1 decades - 2
Rafael Nadal2 decades - 3
Megan Fox1 decades - 4
Robert Pattinson1 decades - 5
Shia LaBeouf0 decades - 6
Drakenot measured- - 7
Emilia Clarke0 decades - 8
Lindsay Lohan2 decades - 9
Emmy Rossum0 decades - 10
MrBeastnot measured- - 11
Sergio Ramos4 decades - 12
Amber Heard0 decades - 13
Alexandra Daddario0 decades - 14
Manuel Neuer1 decades - 15
Usain Bolt1 decades - 16
Olivier Giroud0 decades - 17
Deepika Padukone0 decades - 18
Kit Harington0 decades - 19
Irina Shayk0 decades - 20
Kat Dennings0 decades - 21
Leighton Meester0 decades - 22
Amanda Bynes0 decades - 23
Edin Džeko0 decades - 24
Vincent Kompany0 decades - 25
Gabriel Boric0 decades
How to read these rankings
- Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
- Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
- Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.