Wikipedia:Top 25 Report

The Top 25 Report

Don't forget to read the 2025 annual top 50 report

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (January 25 to 31, 2026)

Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, CAWylie, and Vestrian24Bio.

The month ends with entertainment, political chaos, and 2026's first article with 5 million weekly views in a popular actress dying.

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Catherine O'Hara	5,921,550	A Canadian actress and comedian best known for playing the mother in Home Alone, Beetlejuice and Schitt's Creek (the last one giving her an Emmy), but who outside that had a varied array of roles over 50 years such as being a regular in Christopher Guest's mockumentaries and providing the voice of Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas. On January 30 she was taken to a hospital in serious condition, and was later declared dead at 71.
2	Ajit Pawar	3,759,893	Maharashtra's longest-serving deputy chief minister, a position Pawar had held since 2010, died on January 28 at age 66.
3	Killing of Alex Pretti	2,084,659	On January 24 in Minneapolis, Pretti, a nurse with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs was protesting ICE's lingering presence in the town, when he saw agents manhandling a woman. Pretti put himself between her and the agents, which was perceived as a threat to them. He was wrestled to the ground and his firearm, which he was legally allowed to carry, was found and taken from his person. Two agents then shot him 10 times, and he died moments later. The incidences in the city has divided US politicians on ICE's presence there, known as Operation Metro Surge.
4	Border 2	1,806,493	This sequel to the 1997 film Border, co-written and directed by Anurag Singh, was released last week coinciding with the Indian Republic Day. The film depicts the India–Pakistan war of 1971 which led to the creation of Bangladesh. The film has received positive reviews from critics and has so far grossed ₹404 crore (US$48 million) against a budget of ₹275 crore (US$33 million). A sequel titled Border 3 is currently in development. (and in other news regarding India and Bangladesh, the latter were kicked out of the T20 Cricket World Cup to be held in India for refusing to play there)
5	Royal Rumble (2026)	1,781,802	In the first-ever Royal Rumble not held in the U.S. (this one in Riyadh), 60 WWE wrestlers battled each other, with the victors earning a championship match at WrestleMania 42 in April. Roman Reigns won the men's match, and Liv Morgan was the last woman standing, respectively. Singles matches were also held. With his 28-year career on the line, AJ Styles lost via submission to Gunther.
6	Elena Rybakina	1,282,113	Four years after her first Grand Slam title in Wimbledon, this Kazakhstani tennis player managed to add another winning the Australian Open, adequately 3 years after losing that exact tournament to the same player of the decision (#13), who Rybakina also beat in the 2025 WTA Finals 2 months ago.
7	Gregory Bovino	1,236,819	Following the events leading up to #3 and Bovino's erroneous comments about Pretti's actions therein, the commander of the ICE forces was relieved of duty in Minneapolis, though Homeland Security denied Bovino had also been ousted from his role as commander-at-large of the United States Border Patrol.
8	Alex Honnold	1,036,852	On January 25, this American climber scaled the 508 m (1,667 ft), 101-story Taipei 101 without the use of ropes. The event was broadcast live (well, with a slight delay, just in case something went wrong) on Netflix.
9	Deaths in 2026	1,031,431	In 2013, #1 said "I would love to die laughing, surrounded by my old grandchildren, who are telling me to 'let go, already, Grandma!'"
10	Sam Darnold	873,918	This Seattle Seahawks quarterback will lead his team against #23 and his New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX on February 8.
11	Dhurandhar	848,475	The biggest Indian film of 2025 has finished its theatrical run and is now available on Netflix worldwide, even entering the top 10 in other countries. Although the film faced criticism and controversies for historical inaccuracies and islamophobic propaganda; it managed to gross ₹1,347 crore (US$160 million) against a budget of ₹475 crore (US$56 million) to emerge the highest-grossing Indian film of 2025, the 2nd highest-grossing Bollywood film of all-time, the 4th highest-grossing Indian film of all-time and one of the only nine Indian movies to gross over ₹1,000 crore (US$120 million). The sequel titled Dhurandhar: The Revenge will release theatrically on 19 March 2026.
12	Kevin Warsh	840,995	On January 30, this American financier was nominated by Donald Trump to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve. Warsh will succeed Jerome Powell, who has been a member of Trump's cabinet since his first term until their falling out last year.
13	Aryna Sabalenka	834,255	The female 2023 Australian Open final was a reminder of the then-recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, given it involved a Russian who plays for Kazakhstan (#6) being beaten by a player from one of Putin's biggest allies Belarus. 3 years later and with the war still raging, the decision was again up to those two players, and the Belarusian who rose to the top of the WTA Rankings (Sabalenka won 10 other titles since that championship, including a repeat in Melbourne and two U.S. Opens) and became the first player since Martina Hingis in 2000 to reach fourth straight Australian Open finals could not get on top this time around in a hard fought match.
14	Bo Welch	818,005	#1's widower, with whom she had two children, is a prolific production designer known for many collaborations with Tim Burton (in fact, he and O'Hara met on the set of Beetlejuice) plus the Men in Black series, scoring five Academy Award nominations and two Emmy ones along the way.
15	Kristi Noem	774,608	The current United States Secretary of Homeland Security, nicknamed by detractors as "ICE Barbie" given her role in the anti-immigrant crusade, including frequent photo ops with ICE agents. Noem is no stranger to controversy, from whatever what did or said as representative and later governor of South Dakota, to revealing in her autobiography she shot a dog and a goat in the same day.
16	Elizabeth Smart	658,470	Surviving her 2002 kidnapping at age 14, Smart has since been an activist in child safety. Her life and abduction have been the subject of numerous non-fiction books and films, including a Netflix documentary released in January.
17	Melania (film)	657,728	Like predecessor Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the United States Melania Trump went into audiovisual production, producing a documentary on her life during the 20 days prior to her husband (#25) returning to the White House last year, funded by Amazon and directed by the same Brett Ratner of a few blockbusters. Being released in theaters as the government is not having its best days (see #3 et. al) is not helping Melania, nor are scathing reviews deeming it a shallow propaganda piece. Nonetheless it opened at third in the North American box office with $7 million, behind #19 and...
18	Send Help	636,037	A man and a woman ending up on a deserted island seems like a romantic comedy setup, but in the hands of Sam Raimi and the writers of the last two movies featuring Jason Voorhees, it's actually a thriller with dark comedic overtones, where Rachel McAdams is a meek and awkward accountant who thrives in the new environment with her survivalist skills, tormenting her stuck-up boss (played by Dylan O'Brien) who constantly belittled her in her old life. Critics had a very positive reaction and the movie won its opening weekend with $20 million domestically, right above...
19	Iron Lung (film)	569,078	A lack of oxygen, from my life support, My Iron Lung... Sorry. Popular YouTuber Markiplier made a name for himself with Let's Plays of horror games, including 2022's Iron Lung, where a submarine pilot explores an ocean of blood on a desolate moon, with the developer retributing with a cheat code replacing many textures with Markiplier's face, and then hiring him to adapt Iron Lung into a film. Filmed back in 2023 and featuring Markiplier as writer, director, editor and lead actor, the film was self-distributed into theaters, overcoming the same mixed reviews most game adaptations get to make back its modest $3 million budget many times over with just the $17.8 million opening weekend.
20	Sinners (2025 film)	563,991	After causing a big impact in 2025, Ryan Coogler's movie with a supernatural horror crashing a blues musical expectedly hit the awards circuit, highlighted by a record-breaking 16 nominations at the Academy Awards (basically every category it could enter except Best Actress, given Hailee Steinfeld was submitted to Supporting) last week and 13 at the BAFTAs (only one behind One Battle After Another) in this.
21	Jarrett Stidham	553,954	For most of his NFL career and until the AFC championship game in January, Stidham has been a backup quarterback. In that game, he fumbled the ball, giving #23 and the New England Patriots (his former team) good field position to score and win the game.
22	A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (TV series)	549,987	This prequel series to Game of Thrones and third in the A Song of Ice and Fire franchise is set between the events of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon adapting George R. R. Martin's three novellas in the Tales of Dunk and Egg series. It follows the titular hedge knight Dunk who will become the legendary knight Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg or rather Agg short for Aegon V Targaryen who will become the future king "Aegon The Unlikely". The first season adapts the first novella, while a second season adapting the second novella is under production and will premiere in 2027.
23	Drake Maye	549,080	This second-year quarterback of the New England Patriots scored the only touchdown in the AFC championship game against #21 and the Denver Broncos. They advanced to play #10 and the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX on February 8.
24	Wonder Man (miniseries)	534,677	The first Marvel Cinematic Universe project of the year, which released all its episodes at once, is a slightly unorthodox affair, where instead of Simon Williams being the superhero Wonder Man, he is a struggling actor (played by former DC supervillain Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) trying to get the leading role in a remake of a Wonder Man movie that is a childhood favorite of his, while hiding he has superpowers of his own. The Hollywood setting brings back Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery, previously seen in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, by the same Destin Daniel Cretton that co-created the Wonder Man show.
25	Donald Trump	529,714	Along with all the bad news in Minneapolis (#3), the release of the rest of the Epstein files showing his name was all over them, and his missus releasing her movie (#17), this guy seemingly can't let some things go, seizing some material from the 2020 election still claiming there was fraud.

Exclusions

This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish.