Pablo Escobar

About Pablo Escobar

Pablo Escobar (1949–1993) was a Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist whose organization, the Medellín Cartel, controlled the cocaine trade into the United States and other nations during the 1970s and 1980s. His ruthless tactics and vast wealth made him one of the most powerful and infamous criminals in modern history, securing his place as the 429th most historically important figure according to MIT's Historical Popularity Index (HPI) due to his profound global impact on law enforcement, politics, and illicit economies.

Despite this significant historical ranking, Escobar captures a disproportionate amount of modern digital attention, showing an "overattention" factor of +9x when compared to his HPI rank. In 2025, his Wikipedia page drew an annualized 3.7 million views, far exceeding the attention given to more historically impactful figures from the same modern era, such as Bob Dylan (#736 importance), who garnered 12.7 million views, but is also an interesting comparison given Dylan's higher view count, or significantly more important figures like Caravaggio (#223 importance) who received under a million views. This suggests a strong contemporary fascination that outpaces his historical gravity in our current research metric.

This high level of interest shows a slight softening online, as his pageviews have decreased by 17.0% year-over-year, and his momentum from Q1 to Q3 in 2025 dropped by 5%, indicating that while attention remains high, the peak surge may be receding.