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Summary: Tough guy competition was the theme this week, as the lead up to theSuper Bowl coincided with the annual appearance of theWWE Royal Rumble, a perennial favourite among our viewers. Wrestling fanDonald Trump, who arguably has appropriated many of the techniques of that art into politics, also featured as the first real competition of the2016 US Presidential race, theIowa Caucus nears into view, alongside his far less theatrical fellow insurgent,Bernie Sanders.

As prepared bySerendipodous, for the week of 24 to 30 January 2016, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of themost viewed pages, were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	Notes
1	Royal Rumble (2016)	N/A	1,557,865		Wikipedians love their wrestling, but none more so than the annualWWE Royal Rumble, which usually finishes either at or near the top of the list in normal weeks (though it wouldn't have stood a chance in the previous few weeks). What is Royal Rumble, you might possibly ask? Well it's when 30 or so guys fight in the same ring until one is left. For the record,Triple H (pictured) was the last man standing, beating previous winnerRoman Reigns.
2	Zika virus		1,354,360		This unassumingflavivirus had, since its discovery in in Uganda in 1947, been seen as a meek also ran when stood among its more formidable cousins, such asDengue,Yellow fever andWest Nile. Whereas those could often prove fatal, Zika symptoms mostly compared to a nasty case of flu. However,its sudden pandemic spread throughout the Americas has triggered a panic in the US, particularly after a potentially related spate ofmicrocephalic childbirths inBrazil.
3	Cam Newton		1,319,633		Super Bowl 50 is due this week, and Wikipedians have once again reduced the game to a duel between quarterbacks. Cam Newton, the quarterback for theCarolina Panthers, has earned substantially more views than his rivalPeyton Manning, below, perhaps due to controversy over his behaviour, which has been described as arrogant, leading to charges of incipient racism.
4	Peyton Manning		947,294		After injury and concerns as to his increasing age, the popular quarterback for theDenver Broncos led his team to their second Super Bowl in three years.
5	Airlift (film)		887,316		An Indian war thriller film released on 22 January.Akshay Kumar stars.
6	The Revenant (2015 film)		807,384		Alejandro González Iñárritu'sWestern survival epic starringLeonardo di Caprio (pictured) continues to be popular in the leadup to the Oscars, having earned nearly $300 million worldwide as of 4 February.
7	Republic Day (India)		801,807		The annual holiday in India celebrating the Constitution of India on 26 January got nearly double the views of last year.
8	Super Bowl 50		758,841		The fiftieth annual clash between theNational Football Conference champions (Carolina Panthers this year) andAmerican Football Conference champions (Denver Broncos this year) will be held on 7 February at theLevis Stadium inSan Francisco (pictured) with the Panthers favourites to win.
9	The X-Files (miniseries)		745,805		Despite "meh" reviews, the brief revival of the 1990s cult hitparanormal investigation series has proven relatively strong in the ratings, leading to speculation that it may make a more permanent return.
10	Steven Avery		713,641		Avery is an American prisoner who is the subject of the popular newNetflix documentary seriesMaking a Murderer which was released on 18 December. (Episode 1 is available free on YouTube.) Avery served 18 years in prison, from 1985–2003, after being framed by the local police for a sexual assault he plainly did not commit. During his subsequent civil lawsuit for compensation, during a period of explosive depositions, he was charged with the murder of a local photographer, and later convicted. The documentary is compelling to watch, and it causing a fair amount of controversy, and thus bringing continuing attention to this article.
11	The X-Files		686,502		See #9
12	Donald Trump		666,806		Trump remains the most discussed US Presidential candidate in the run-up to the2016 Iowa caucuses (this list's time period ends before they were held on 1 February); it will be interesting to see whether, after months of declaring himself a pure winner, his being the second place "loser" in the caucus affects his position on the list next week.
13	List of Super Bowl champions		640,493		This list invariably pops up once a year, as Americans first scramble for facts to determine which team will win, then rush back to see if their dream/nightmare came true.
14	Deaths in 2016		626,562		The annual list of deaths is usually fairly consistent in weekly views, but is up again for third week.
15	Star Wars: The Force Awakens		604,677		The reignition of theStar Wars remains in the Top 25 for another week.
16	Abe Vigoda		572,983		If it is possible for a death by natural causes at the age of 93 to be ironic, then this week's death of beetle-browed actor Abe Vigoda fits the bill. Having flirted with stardom in the 70s, both with a role inThe Godfather and on television as Det.Phil Fish in the TV seriesBarney Miller andFish, he attained a peculiar fame in his later years by simply being not dead. False reports of his death in the media became so common in the last 30 years that he eventually parodied them himself, particularly onLate Night With Conan O'Brien. Well, now, at last and for good, the news can report that Abe Vigoda is, in fact, deceased. Honest.
17	Bernie Sanders		552,517		It seems outsiders are in in the run-up to Iowa, as the two candidates without backing from billionaire donors are the ones with the most Wiki views.
18	John Logie Baird		540,998		The Scottish inventor of the television got aGoogle Doodle on the 90th anniversary of the first televisual broadcast this week.
19	A.J. Styles		540,148		After 12 years withTNA and two years in Japan, this pro wrestler made hisWWE debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble (see #1).
20	Carolina Panthers		529,967		The NFC champions are the current odds-on favourites to win Super Bowl 50 on 7 February.
21	Amrita Sher-Gil		496,723		The influential Indian artist got a Google Doodle on her 103rd birthday on 30 January.
22	Tom Brady		496,415		The quarterback for theNew England Patriots and seven-time Super Bowl entrant was beaten in the lead up to the Super Bowl by Manning and the Broncos 18 – 20 on 24 January.
23	Making a Murderer		485,136		See #10.
24	Space Shuttle Challenger disaster		572,788		The 30th anniversary of the heartrending tragedy, witnessed live by thousands of school children waiting to welcome thefirst teacher into space, fell this week, to sombre reflections.
25	Anti (album)		459,940		The latest album fromRihanna (pictured) released on 28 January. In 2012, after a backbreaking five albums in eight years, Rihanna took a well-deserved break, leading to heightened anticipation.

• This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such asredlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we also exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (~2% or less) or almost all mobile views (~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.

Note: If you came here from theSignpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions tothis article's talk page.

• Wikipedia Top 25 Reports in 2016