The prevalence of COVID-19 worldwide and the length of the global lockdown period deeply affected students' academic study. This unexpected scenario posed a challenge to a considerable number of academic institutions around the world to formally adopt a new education system based on e-learning platforms. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether Malaysian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) undergraduates' incidental exposure to online platforms during the pandemic might have helped to arouse their interest in reading extensively on the internet. To help explore the issue, a quantitative approach using a descriptive survey design was implemented. Data were collected through a structured online questionnaire administered to 255 undergraduate EFL students majoring in a range of academic disciplines at the University Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) to express their interest in the research topic. To analyze the data, a two-tailed Pearson Correlation coefficient was undertaken and the researchers administered the standard multiple regression analysis to test its impact using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) (Version 25). The obtained findings indicated that the relationship between incidental exposure to e-learning and students' interest in online extensive reading during the COVID-19 pandemic was found to be high, positive, and statistically significant. Therefore, EFL undergraduates who had incidental exposure to e-learning classes also developed a significant interest in extensive reading on the internet. Moreover, carrying out reading and writing assignments assigned by EFL university teachers was one of the central reasons behind the Malaysian undergraduates' engagement with online extensive reading during this period.