These are the Top 10 most-cited research papers of all time
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01124-w?linkId=13991623
Exclusive: the most-cited papers of the twenty-first century
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01125-9?linkId=13991630
Interesting list.
One thing I have observed in academia is that once a paper or book reaches "escape velocity," it has to be cited in every study that is on a related topic, whether the authors of the new study have read the original paper/book or not.
It's sort of a compound interest effect.