diff --git a/RELEASE-NOTES-1.25 b/RELEASE-NOTES-1.25
index e322007b3f1..a21b684c1ab 100644
--- a/RELEASE-NOTES-1.25
+++ b/RELEASE-NOTES-1.25
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ MediaWiki 1.25 is an alpha-quality branch and is not recommended for use in
 production.
 
 === Configuration changes in 1.25 ===
+* $wgPageShowWatchingUsers was removed.
 
 === New features in 1.25 ===
 * (bug 58139) ResourceLoaderFileModule now supports language fallback
diff --git a/includes/DefaultSettings.php b/includes/DefaultSettings.php
index 78091df5a04..510c1dd71c5 100644
--- a/includes/DefaultSettings.php
+++ b/includes/DefaultSettings.php
@@ -5880,11 +5880,6 @@ $wgAdvertisedFeedTypes = array( 'atom' );
  */
 $wgRCShowWatchingUsers = false; # UPO
 
-/**
- * Show watching users in Page views
- */
-$wgPageShowWatchingUsers = false;
-
 /**
  * Show the amount of changed characters in recent changes
  */
diff --git a/includes/skins/SkinTemplate.php b/includes/skins/SkinTemplate.php
index 64ad816ac14..c1db302dedd 100644
--- a/includes/skins/SkinTemplate.php
+++ b/includes/skins/SkinTemplate.php
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ class SkinTemplate extends Skin {
 	protected function prepareQuickTemplate() {
 		global $wgContLang, $wgScript, $wgStylePath, $wgMimeType, $wgJsMimeType,
 			$wgDisableCounters, $wgSitename, $wgLogo, $wgMaxCredits,
-			$wgShowCreditsIfMax, $wgPageShowWatchingUsers, $wgArticlePath,
+			$wgShowCreditsIfMax, $wgArticlePath,
 			$wgScriptPath, $wgServer;
 
 		wfProfileIn( __METHOD__ );
@@ -386,19 +386,6 @@ class SkinTemplate extends Skin {
 					}
 				}
 
-				if ( $wgPageShowWatchingUsers ) {
-					$dbr = wfGetDB( DB_SLAVE );
-					$num = $dbr->selectField( 'watchlist', 'COUNT(*)',
-						array( 'wl_title' => $title->getDBkey(), 'wl_namespace' => $title->getNamespace() ),
-						__METHOD__
-					);
-					if ( $num > 0 ) {
-						$tpl->set( 'numberofwatchingusers',
-							$this->msg( 'number_of_watching_users_pageview' )->numParams( $num )->parse()
-						);
-					}
-				}
-
 				if ( $wgMaxCredits != 0 ) {
 					$tpl->set( 'credits', Action::factory( 'credits', $this->getWikiPage(),
 						$this->getContext() )->getCredits( $wgMaxCredits, $wgShowCreditsIfMax ) );