The 2012 Royal Rumble was the 25th annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It took place on January 29, 2012, at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 2012 event, the winner received their choice to challenge for either the WWE Championship or World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XXVIII. It was the first Royal Rumble held since the end of the first brand extension in August 2011.

Six professional wrestling matches were featured at the event. The main event was the 2012 Royal Rumble match. Sheamus - the 22nd entrant - won the match by last eliminating Chris Jericho, the 29th entrant. Two title matches were featured: a WWE Championship match with CM Punk defending against Dolph Ziggler, which Punk won to retain the title, and a Triple Threat Steel Cage match for the World Heavyweight Championship between the reigning champion Daniel Bryan, Big Show, and Mark Henry, which Bryan won to retain the championship. Incidentally, this event is also noted as Mick Foley's last night as an active wrestler as he would compete in the Royal Rumble match.

The event received 443,000 pay-per-view buys, slightly down from 446,000 buys the previous year's event had received.