This is a draft of a potential Signpost article, and should not be interpreted as a finished piece. Its content is subject to review by the editorial team and ultimately by JPxG, the editor in chief. Please do not link to this draft as it is unfinished and the URL will change upon publication. If you would like to contribute and are familiar with the requirements of a Signpost article, feel free to be bold in making improvements!
| |||||
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eurovision Song Contest 2026 | 1,330,803 | It's official. Europe hates Britain. I mean, it's not surprising. We basically gave them the collective middle finger a decade ago, and they've been punishing us ever since. Back in 2022, when Sam Ryder's "Space Man" managed to grab 466 points despite the UK receiving the dreaded nil points the previous year, it seemed maybe we were on a path to redemption, but no. Since then, we've only managed to accumulate 159 points- total. As for this year? We didn't get points. We got a point. Bulgaria won, with Dara's "Bangaranga" (which sounds like it should have been by Italy), though the results were skewed because, in a traditional bout of Eurovision politics, five countries boycotted due to the participation of Israel, in protest of the Gaza genocide. | ||
| 2 | Vijay (actor) | 1,266,241 | From Kollywood to Fort St. George. One month after his final movie Jana Nayagan (he's to the left with his co-star Pooja Hegde) leaked online, Vijay was elected Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. | ||
| 3 | Brandon Clarke | 1,064,220 | This NBA player, who has been since 2019 part of the Memphis Grizzlies, had not played since December, when in April he was arrested for both speeding and drug possession. While he was released on a $25,000 bond, Clarke was scheduled to appear at an arraignment hearing, but tragedy struck first, as he died at just 29 of a possible overdose. | ||
| 4 | Michael Jackson | 1,035,240 | In June, it will be 17 years since the King of Pop died before he could start a farewell concert residency. Given he's currently chronicled in a blockbuster (see below) and subsequently "Billie Jean" shot up on both the Billboard and Spotify charts, it's fair to say MJ will be kept alive by his followers. | ||
| 5 | Deaths in 2026 | 908,910 | There's a ghost down in the hall There's a ghoul upon the bed... | ||
| 6 | Michael (2026 film) | 725,843 | In its third week, the movie with Jaafar Jackson playing his legendary uncle retook the top of the box office from The Devil Wears Prada 2, and has passed $700 million worldwide. A follow-up telling more about HIStory is already confirmed. | ||
| 7 | Orthohantavirus | 709,534 | Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius was going from Argentina to Antarctica, when passengers started showing symptoms of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, culminating in one dying, forcing the ship to cancel its scheduled journey and change course back home. While people have been evacuated and quarantined, there have been nine confirmed cases and three deaths related to the Andes virus (the one hantavirus that infects humans). | ||
| 8 | Wade Wilson (criminal) | 691,655 | Netflix boosting views of a man in prison, nothing new. This time it's the "Deadpool Killer" (as he has the same name as Marvel's Merc with a Mouth) currently in the death row in Florida for among other things strangling two women. A would-be third that managed to survive a choking attempt recalls her abusive relationship with Wilson in an episode of the show Worst Ex Ever. | ||
| 9 | Obsession (2025 film) | 677,923 | The latest comedian who decided to become a horror writer/director is Curry Barker, part of the sketch comedy duo "that's a bad idea". After his directorial debut Milk & Serial cost only $800, Barker raised $1 million and inspired by watching The Simpsons' take on "The Monkey's Paw", made his own "wish goes horribly wrong" story, about a guy regretting wishing that his crush love him. Hailed by critics as an absolutely frightening production, Obsession opened well at the box office with $17 million in North America, behind #6 and the now absent The Devil Wears Prada 2, and right above Mortal Kombat II. | ||
| 10 | Andy Burnham | 655,602 | The 2026 United Kingdom local elections saw the traditional main parties (Labour and the Conservatives) lose a combined 2051 council seats, with Labour losing the lion's share and most picked up by Reform UK, the MAGA-aligned far right party. Needless to say, this caused a fracas, with rakestepping charisma black hole Keir Starmer facing calls to resign as Prime Minister. Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester and the only major politician in the country with a net-positive approval rating, is a favourite to succeed him, except for the minor problem that he isn't an MP. No problem. He resigned as mayor, MP Josh Simons graciously gave up his own seat, and now all Burnham has to do is run for it. In a constituency just stampeded by Reform. Good luck mate. Additionally, health secretary Wes Streeting also resigned to throw his hat into the ring, claiming he no longer had confidence in the Prime Minister. Let the Thunderdome begin. |
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kyle Busch | 2,348,477 | In this NASCAR driver's 25 year career, he ranked 9th all time for NASCAR Cup Series wins and first in overall wins between the top three divisions, with 3 national titles. Kyle's brother Kurt is famous in his own right as a driver. Busch died on May 23 as a result of pneumonia, he was 41. | ||
| 2 | Murder of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan | 1,447,296 | This 2022 double-murder case has everything that morbid true crime zombies love: it takes place in Nowheresville, Midwestern America, involves a teen social media influencer who fancied herself as Regina George, toxic teen relationships and things you didn't know were physically possible with a Toyota Camry. I guess that's why the vultures in the media have tried to wring every dollar and view they can out of the story, with at least three documentaries currently streaming, including one on Netflix which released on May 15. | ||
| 3 | Obsession (2025 film) | 1,333,310 | A cheap and really scary horror movie about a man (Michael Johnston) wishing for his co-worker (Inde Navarrette) to love him, resulting in her becoming absolutely unhinged. After a good opening weekend, Obsession managed to perform even better in the second, making more money and climbing to runner-up behind The Mandalorian and Grogu and above Michael. It also ranks as one of the most profitable movies ever reaching $80 million costing just $1 million! This certainly raises expectations for its writer/director Curry Barker being hired to a new Texas Chainsaw Massacre. | ||
| 4 | Aaron Rai | 1,185,545 | This English golfer won the 2026 PGA Championship on May 17, the first of which since Jim Barnes won it in 1919. | ||
| 5 | Cockroach Janta Party | 1,109,697 | Joke political parties have existed for decades, from the Rhinoceros Party in Canada to Die PARTEI in Germany. Now India has one too! Founded on May 16, the Cockroach Janta Party was formed. Formed in response to Surya Kant's statement that unemployed youth were cockroaches and parodying the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the party has already attracted 350,000 members and the interest of a couple Members of the Lok Sabha looking to cross the floor. | ||
| 6 | Eurovision Song Contest 2026 | 972,849 | Vienna received the Old Continent's (plus Israel and Australia) annual music extravaganza, marked by Bulgaria winning with the song "Bangaranga" — not an homage to Skrillex's "Bangarang", but an expression of its singer Dara's experiences with ADHD, with the title being Jamaican Patois for "mischief". | ||
| 7 | Deaths in 2026 | 928,352 | Said that I was fine, said it from the coffin Remember how I died when you started walking? That's my life, that's my life... | ||
| 8 | Karuppu (film) | 823,870 | From the same film industry where new politician Vijay made his name is this fantasy action drama where a guardian deity disguises himself as a lawyer, which in one weekend became Kollywood's highest-grossing film of the year. | ||
| 9 | The Boys season 5 | 809,542 | Prime Video finished the show about a resistance against jerk superheroes, in an episode without the involvement of series creator Eric Kripke, who has moved onto prequel show Vought Rising (that released its first trailer during the week and will come out next year). Like many series finales fan reception was all over the place due to what the episode didn't do and the payoff to certain plot points of the final season, but those who liked it appreciated the just desserts given to the two men who had the show's central conflict and how there wasn't that much suffering inflicted onto the main characters (aside from keeping one death from the penultimate episode instead of finding a way to revive the character). | ||
| 10 | Off Campus | 800,973 | The first season of this American romantic drama series premiered on Amazon Prime on May 13. Based on the book series by Elle Kennedy, it follows two college students (Belmont Cameli, pictured, as Garrett and Ella Bright as Hannah) who pretend to be in a relationship together yet ultimately fall in love. The show was approved for a second season months before its premiere. |
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Obsession (2025 film) | 1,605,298 | It's been a big decade for horror films, and a great indicator is seeing two of those atop this list. First it's a movie that's been growing its audience and generating incredible profits (at the cost of just $1 million has already earned nine digits worldwide), where a man wishes that his coworker would love him, and her behavior change is as disturbing as possible. After it, an adaptation of a popular internet scary story (and more specifically a web series based on that, with its director even being brought to direct the movie at the ripe age of 20!) whose big opening of $117,9 million has already outgrossed Obsession in a single weekend, and has Chiwetel Ejiofor starting thinking "take me to your Backrooms now!" once he discovers a seemingly unlimited liminal space at the basement of his store. | ||
| 2 | Backrooms (film) | 1,316,044 | |||
| 3 | Deaths in 2026 | 923,335 | We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields. | ||
| 4 | Claude Lemieux | 880,377 | An ice hockey player that combined skills (he won 4 Stanley Cups with 3 different teams, even being chosen finals MVP in 1995) with an ability to be an agitator (his violence against the Detroit Red Wings as a player of the Colorado Avalanche helped spark a vicious rivalry), Lemieux attended one game of the current Conference Finals between the Montreal Canadiens where he won his first Cup and the Carolina Hurricanes whose goaltender Frederik Andersen is one of the clients of Lemieux's sports agency 4sports Hockey, and three days later was found dead at the age of 60 on the property of a furniture store Lemieux owned in Lake Park, Florida. His death turned out to be a suicide. A moment of silence for him was held the following day before a heavy-hearted Andersen helped the Hurricanes punch their ticket to the Final (the adversary are the Vegas Golden Knights). | ||
| 5 | 2026 FIFA World Cup | 820,338 | Rosters have been announced ahead of the tournament's start on June 11. For all the money that is being spent by football fans in things like the sticker album, the first game of the USMNT is shaping up to have thousands of empty seats. | ||
| 6 | Spider-Noir | 766,512 | One of the six Spider-People in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was Spider-Man Noir, the Webhead as a monochrome hardboiled detective during the heyday of film noir, voiced by the incomparable Nicolas Cage. Cage himself is the star of a live-action adaptation just released on Prime Video, though there he's Ben Reilly rather than Peter Parker. | ||
| 7 | Murder of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan | 757,293 | Yet another documentary has arisen about this 2022 vehicular homicide. Nothing new, other than announcing parole was denied again. Trying again in 2037. | ||
| 8 | The Mandalorian and Grogu | 731,063 | In 2019, Star Wars started its live-action shows with The Mandalorian while unknowingly having its last theatrical release in The Rise of Skywalker, given the following years had many film projects die in development hell. This changes exactly by continuing the story of that show, with Din Djarin and his adorable adoptive son once known as "Baby Yoda" being promoted from Disney+ to theaters, trying to help the New Republic (represented by Sigourney Weaver as a high-ranking officer) get remnants of the Empire in a plot featuring heavily the slug-like gangsters Hutts - including Jeremy Allen White as Jabba's son Rotta, also seen in another television-related Star Wars movie. Reviewers were mixed on how the movie feels like an extra-long episode of the show, but audiences wanting exactly that led to a big opening of $165 million worldwide. | ||
| 9 | The Boroughs | 683,040 | Being hailed as Stranger Things: The Elders by some critics (The Duffer Brothers produce it), the latest Netflix sci-fi series follows an engineering widower (played by Alfred Molina, pictured) who moves into a retirement community that is soon beset by an otherworldly threat. | ||
| 10 | Michael Jackson | 633,688 | One of the games promoted by Sega in the "Genesis Does What Nintendon't" campaign was Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. Well, 2026 has Nintendo and Jackson competing in theaters rather than video games, and while The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is an unquestionable winner inching closer to $1 billion worldwide, the biopic of the King of Pop is also striking like a Smooth Criminal with $857 million. |
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Backrooms (film) | 1,986,202 | Two of the most discussed and profitable movies of the year (one cost $10 million, the other didn't even get a 7 digit budget, yet they're in both the domestic and global top 10 of the year, and this weekend even made more money in theaters than a Star Wars movie) are horror movies made by filmmakers originated from web video. Kane Pixels adapted his own web series inspired by a famous creepypasta about a seemingly endless liminal space where weird and misshappen things can be found. Curry Barker, who has a sketch channel online, did his take at The Monkey's Paw (inspired by when The Simpsons did said story!) where a guy (Michael Johnston) wishing to be loved by his friend (Inde Navarette, pictured), leads to her becoming "freaky" and an overall liability. | ||
| 2 | Obsession (2025 film) | 1,879,722 | |||
| 3 | Murder of Henry Nowak | 1,684,308 | On 28 May, 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa was convicted of the murder of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old university student, in Southampton, England; Digwa had fatally stabbed Nowak on 3 December 2025. When officers from Hampshire Police arrived, Digwa, a Sikh, falsely accused Nowak of racial assault, which resulted in police arresting Nowak despite his repeated pleas that he had been stabbed. The polices' response led to accusations of two-tier policing and protests, including disorder at a Southampton protest on 2 June following the release of the police body cam footage at the scene. The murder also started calls to ban the kirpan, a ceremonial knife carried by Sikhs which Digwa was carrying at the time of the stabbing. | ||
| 4 | Anthony Head | 1,371,113 | This English actor died on 1 June from complications of pneumonia aged 72, with his death announced publicly on Friday. Head was best known for his roles in shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Little Britain and Ted Lasso. His film performances include The Iron Lady and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. | ||
| 5 | 2026 FIFA World Cup | 1,351,312 | Are you ready for some futbol?! This quadrennial competition in soccer begins June 11. With games being held in Canada, Mexico and the United States, the games have provided more controversy than seat sales, due in part to dynamic pricing for the tickets, the War in Iran, and American visa policies for national teams. | ||
| 6 | Victor Wembanyama | 1,115,578 | After being the Western Conference Finals MVP carrying the San Antonio Spurs to its first championship series in 12 years, the Frenchman known as "Alien" continued to play incredibly but couldn't stop two New York Knicks wins – in fact, missing a last second attempt in game 2 made Wemby very disappointed. | ||
| 7 | Deaths in 2026 | 943,109 | Listen to me I took your nice words of advice About how you think I'm gonna die lucky if I turned thirty-three... | ||
| 8 | James Handy | 831,419 | This American character actor was killed in a domestic disturbance on June 3 at the age of 81. The son of Handy's girlfriend was arrested after calling the police and telling them he had stabbed Handy in the chest. | ||
| 9 | Callum Turner | 827,387 | This British actor, known for his roles in the Fantastic Beasts movies, now has a new role: husband of Dua Lipa. | ||
| 10 | Euphoria (American TV series) | 811,321 | May 31 saw the final episode of this HBO series. Based on the Israeli miniseries of the same name, Euphoria won nine of its 25 Emmy nominations, two of which went to the leading lady, Zendaya. |
Discuss this story
(This allows for greater visibility of discussions, makes archiving easier, and prevents discussions becoming disconnected from articles during the publication process)