YouTube has been going strong for 15 years. There has been an increase in the number of subscribers on the website every day. YouTube first joined the internet in 2005, with its first video upload named ‘Met at the Zoo’ on 25th April. Till today, approximately 1.3 billion people have joined YouTube with their respective accounts for uploading, streaming and downloading videos. It was calculated that people upload 300 hours’ worth of videos each minute on the website and 5 billion videos are watched daily. According to another research in 2016 by Pexeso, it was observed that YouTube comprises only 4.3% of music accounts yet 11% of views of the entire website are made through these accounts. Continue reading to find out about the most viewed video on YouTube.
Pewdiepie, an influencer, who has the record for the most subscribers on YouTube (108m presently), has a highest of 4.4 million views on his ‘Jabba the Hutt’ video. Observing it out on a larger scale, it is nothing special in Pewdiepie’s case. However, Pewdiepie has consistent numbers in millions who watch his videos, something artists do not always have. The same goes with all other Youtubers who make a living by uploading content on the website. Music videos, on the other hand, attract viewership and likes based on that particular video alone and the fame of the artist. Let’s dig into the details of the most viewed video on Youtube right away.
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Find out the most viewed video on YouTube
Here is a list of the top 20 most viewed videos on YouTube:
20. Blank Space – Taylor Swift (2,684,914,360 views)
Taylor Swift’s Blank Space was released in November 2014 and three weeks after its release, the song landed itself on the Billboard top 100. The song skewed Taylor Swift’s other song ‘Shake it off’ to gain that position. This made her the first female artist in history to beat her own song to get to the top fn the Billboard top 100.
The director of the music video, Joseph Kahn, helped Taylor portray herself as the villain of the video, incoherent to her reputation in terms of her long list of exes and relationships. It was partly inspired by “A Clockwork Orange”.
19. Faded – Alan Walker (2,929,502,766 views)
Faded was released on December 3 2015. The vocals for the soundtrack were provided by Norwegian recording artist, Iselin Solheim. The video currently has over 2.4 billion views, 21 million likes, and 570 thousand dislikes on YouTube.
The video stares Shahab Salehi as the protagonist. He is shown in black clothing with a hood, backpack and a mask. He walks the streets at night with a picture of his home in his hand. The viewers can see rumble of abandoned buildings and streets with no one else in the area. At the end, the man succeeds in locating his home but finds it in ruins.
It topped Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish singles’ charts, as well as entered the top 3 in the Danish singles’ chart. It also charted well in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
18. Let Her Go-Passenger (2,857,901,076 views)
English singer/songwriter, Mike Rosenberg, wrote and recorded the delightful Let Her Go and released it in July 2012 as the second single from Passenger’s fourth album, “All the Little Lights”. It was directed and produced by Australian video artists, Dave Jensen and Tavic. The video is as simplistic as it gets, with the singer and the band getting ready for a Passenger concert.
The song got quite famous in the Netherlands after Dave, a Dutch fan, e-mailed Passenger expressing his wish to introduce the song to some Dutch radio stations. Soon after, it did manage to become quite a hit with the Dutch people. The song topped the charts in many countries. It has sold over one million digital copies in the UK, and over four million in the US.
17. Hello – Adele (2,757,671,989 views)
Adele released the song on October 25th 2015. The song peaked in numerous countries including the US and the UK.
The music video, which stars Adele and Tristan Wilds, was directed by Xavier Dolan. The video shows Adele in a happy past relationship and her present tormented self after the breakup. The video is shot in a vintage frame and it’s just soothing to watch alongside the powerful voice of Adele.
The music video has the record for reaching one billion views in the shortest time; 88 days. It currently has over 16 million likes, making it the fifth most liked video on YouTube.
16. Dark Horse – Katy Perry ft Juicy J (2,925,274,959 views)
Katy recorded Dark Horse with rapper Juicy J, releasing the song in September 2013. It combines the genres of trap and hip-hop. Dark Horse sold 13.2 million units and was the second-best-selling song of 2014.
The music video shows Katy Perry playing the role of Katy Patra which was her version of the Egyptian queen Cleopetra. The video is set in Egypt as well. There was some controversial talk going on about the music video as some believed that it hinted at being slightly Illuminati.
Despite the controversial remarks, Dark Horse was the first video from a female artist to receive 1 billion views on YouTube. The video also led Katy Perry to stand next to Taylor Swift. Pepsi also used this song in a promotion. Fans voted on Twitter whether they wanted this song or Walking on Air to be released as the first single from the album, “Prism”.
15. Lean On – Major Lazer and DJ Snake ft. MØ (2,937,075,870 views)
The music video was released on March 23rd 2015 and has over 2.9 billion views on YouTube as of December 2020. It was produced by Major Lazer and DJ Snake. Lean On comes from Major Lazer’s third album, “Peace is the Mission”.
The music video for Lean On was directed by Tim Erem and filmed in India. It shows a sequence of Major Lazer, MØ, and DJ Snake performing dance sequences in various places. It became the most-streamed song of all time on Spotify in November 2015. Although Drake’s One Dance overtook it the following year.
14. Bailando – Enrique Iglesias ft. Descemer Bueno and Gente De Zona (2,940,479,326 views)
Spanish singer, Enrique Iglesias, recorded Bailando for his tenth studio album, “Sex and Love” in 2014. It is another worldwide music video hit. The Spanish version has more than 2.4 million views and the Spanglish version has 250 million views.
There are a few versions of the song, the original being the Spanish one. The Spanish version includes the vocals by Cubans, Descemer Bueno, and Gente de Zona. A Spanglish version features vocals by Jamaican singer, Sean Paul. Enrique Iglesias also recorded two versions in Portuguese (with different people doing the additional vocals) for different markets.
The original version of the song is also the theme song for opera Reina de Corazones. While there were four other music videos recorded for the different versions of this song. They filmed the videos for the Spanish and Spanglish version of the song in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
13. Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran (3,138,194,995 views)
English singer/songwriter, Ed Sheeran, recorded Thinking Out Loud in 2014 for his second studio album, “×”. The video currently has 3.1 billion views. It spent 19 weeks within the Top 40 in the UK before peaking at number one in early November 2014 (Sheeran’s second number-one single there). The song also became a hit in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and South Africa. The song has the record to be the first to be streamed over 500 million times on Spotify in 2015. In the same year, Thinking Out Loud became the first single to spend a full year in the UK Top 40.
The music video for the song was shot in the Crystal Ballroom at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, California, continuously using a 16 mm film camera. The video has the singer dancing exuberantly with Brittany Cherry, a contestant from the American dance competition, “So You Think You Can Dance.”
12. Counting Stars – One Republic (3,134,712,091 views)
One Republic has numerous songs for which they are worldwide known for. The song Counting Stars was released in 2014 for the band’s third studio album, “Native”. It became a major hit worldwide. It became the first music video by a group in history to reach 1 billion views.
The music video for the song was filmed on May 10 2013, in New Orleans, Louisiana. It shows the band performing the song in the basement of some building with a gloomy attire and hanging lightbulbs in coherence with certain religious people in the upper level, dancing along with the song. The video ends as one of the people is shown falling through the floor and crashing into the band.
11. Shake it Off – Taylor Swift (2,997,083,684 views)
It was released on YouTube on August 18, 2014. Taylor Swift wrote this song for her album ‘1989’. Shake it Off is Taylor Swift’s most successful Billboard Hot 100 song, to date. It stayed on the chart for 50 consecutive weeks. This video also holds the record for the most views on a video by a female artist, excluding the cartoon Masha from Masha and the Bear.
Mark Romanek directed it and the dances were choreographed by Tyce Diorio. It incorporates dancing in the styles of hip-hop, lyrical, ballet, jazz, and cheerleader.
10. Roar – Katy Perry (3,227,164,049 views)
Roar was released in 2013 as a lead single for Katy’s album ‘Prism’. The song was certified as Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), making her the first artist to have three Diamond Awards. When Roar reached 1 billion views on YouTube, in July 2015, Katy Perry became the first artist to have two music videos with that many views on their music videos.
The song is about self-empowerment, providing a feel-good vibe. The video was filmed at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden and is about Katy adapting to the wildlife as she lands there after a plane crash.
9. Sugar – Maroon 5 (3,349,022,285 views)
Sugar was released on January 13th 2015. It was recorded by Maroon 5 for their fifth studio album ‘V’. It peaked at Number 2 on the US Billboard 100. As of December, 2020 the video currently has 3 billion views and 12 million likes on YouTube.
The video shows Maroon 5 showing up at different weddings in Los Angeles and crashing them with their performance of the song. All of the weddings were real and the band made surprise appearances at them. The grooms were told beforehand that a famous band will be crashing their wedding in order to give them a heads up. The producers worked with the wedding organizers to ensure the best possible attire to shoot the video. However, they were afraid if they would be stealing people’s spotlight from their big day and some grooms did in fact had cold feet about the idea. Everybody loved the surprise, however, Adam Levine stated, “It was an out of body experience. I had no idea I would be affected by the overwhelming reactions we received from the couples and guests.”
The video is directed by David Dobkin, who is also the director of the movie ‘Wedding Crashers’. He used the same aspiration for the making of this music video as well.
8. Sorry – Justin Bieber (3,372,654,464 views)
Sorry was written for Bieber’s fourth studio album ‘Purpose’ and was released on October 23rd 2015. The song topped the charts of 13 countries, including seven weeks on the top spot in Bieber’s native Canada. Globally, people bought more than 10 million copies of the song in 2016. It became the fifth fastest YouTube video to reach 1 billion views, and the fourth fastest to reach 2 billion views.
The music video comprises girls dancing in flashy colored clothes in rhythm with the beat and the lyrics of the song. The dance video of the song was made in New Zealand, featuring New Zealand dancers – the ReQuest Dance Crew, and New Zealand choreographer, Parris Goebel. The video was decided to be a lyric one but this just ended up being the official thing.
7. Gangnam Style – PSY (3,890,688,953 views)
Gangnum style hit the internet with such a surprise and people loved it to an extent that the records made seemed impossible to break. Currently, the music video has 4 billion views.
The video has the record of being the first YouTube video to hit a billion views in December 2012, and hence, being the most viewed video on Youtube at first. It reached 2 billion views in June 2014, and 3 billion in January 2018. On November 24th 2012, Gangnam Style overtook Justin Bieber’s then-record of 803,700,000 views to take the number 1 position on YouTube. It stayed in that position for an incredible 1,689 days.
Other records of the music video include the most rated video until February 2017, and the most liked video until August 2016. But then Adele’s Hello got the title on January 18, 2016.
6. Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars (4,034,885,180 views)
Uptown Funk was released on 10th November 2014 and is still as groovy as it was 6 years ago. It was recorded by British record producer, Mark Ronson, along with American singer/songwriter, Bruno Mars. The video currently has over 4 billion views.
It spent 14 consecutive weeks at Number 1 on the US Billboard 100, and also reached Number 1 in the charts in several other countries. The song has won two Grammy Awards, including the record of the Year, and the second-best single, in 2015.
The video comprises Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson dancing around in flashy colored suits and chains in different cities. These cities were all that Bruno was touring in those days.
5. Masha and the Bear: Recipe for Disaster – Get Movies (4,379,207,117 views)
Many of you would be wondering why is this even the most viewed video on Youtube, or one of them? Well, what makes this video unusual out of the bunch mentioned in this list, is the fact that it is not a music video, neither is it an official video. What makes it stranger is that it’s in Russian. This particular video is technically called Маша и Медведь (Masha and The Bear) – Маша плюс каша, as it is a Russian version.
Masha and the Bear is a Russian cartoon for kids. It is based on old children’s folk. It currently has four seasons with 68 episodes. You can find a few English episodes of the show on Netflix as well. The episodes have been uploaded on YouTube as well and nearly all of them have exceeded the 1 billion view mark. They have their own channel named, MashaMedvedTV. This particular episode, “Recipe for Disaster,” was originally episode number 17 but it is episode 7.1 on Netflix.
The reason for the success of the show according to some is the fact that Masha is dressed fully covered, with a headscarf and it is recognized as a sense of promotion of moral values amongst Muslim audiences as well.
4. See you Again – Wiz Khalifa ft Charlie Puth (4,873,012,634 views)
See You Again broke the record of Gangnum Style for the most viewed video on YouTube. The record was taken over from July 10 to August 4 2017. However, the honor lasted only 25 days after which Despacito was released and it was ranked number 1. See You Again was the best selling song of 2015.
The possible reason for the utter fame of the soundtrack could be the fact that it was written in tribute to the late Paul Walker and also because it was commissioned as the theme for the movie ‘Furious 7’.
The song spent 12 weeks at the top of the US Billboard 100 and reached number one in a number of other countries and is still the most successful soundtrack for both Charlie Puth and Wiz Khalifa. It also held the record for the most-streamed track in a single day on Spotify in the US, as well as records for the most streams in a week, worldwide.
3. Shape of You – Ed Sheeran
Shape of You was released on 6th January 2017 and it was only the beginning of the singer/songwriter’s successful year. The song was played worldwide, and the artist even managed to land a cameo role in the famous series, ‘Game of Thrones’.
The song was included in Sheeran’s third studio album as well. It made it to Number 1 on the singles’ charts of 44 countries. It topped the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles of 2017. It was nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.
Ed Sheeran released the official video of the song on 30th January 2017 and it became one of the fastest viewed videos on YouTube and crossed the one billion mark on 8th May 2017 which was only 97 days after its release.
The video shows Ed practicing and training for boxing or some martial arts competition with another girl. It also shows their relationship and ends with him losing at different sorts of boxing matches.
2. Despacito – Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee (7,101,635,865)
Nobody ever thought that Gangnam Style’s record could be broken but look at this, now we are standing at 7 billion views. It stands right next to the most viewed video on Youtube.
Despacito, means “Slowly,” in Spanish and is sung in Spanish by Puerto Rican singer, Luis Fonsi and also features Puerto Rican rapper, Daddy Yankee. The music video shows both artists performing the song in La Perla neighborhood of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico and the local bar, La Factoría.
The song topped the charts of 47 countries and entered the Top 10 in ten others. It was the first song to top the Billboard 100 in Spanish in 20 years. Justin Bieber tried to make a remake of this song by singing some of its lines in English. However, he did not find much fame in this as his video did not manage to grasp as many viewership as the original song. Despacito became the first video on YouTube to achieve the honor of having both three and four billion views. It overtook See You Again to take YouTube’s All-time Number 1 spot in August 2017.
1. Most Viewed YouTube Video in 24 Hours: Baby Shark Dance – Pinkfong Kids’ Songs & Stories (7,440,381,161 views)
We finally reach the top of our list and the most viewed video on Youtube, and I am sure it was not what you were expecting. But how were you not? Toddlers are known to re-watch something they like a couple of hundred times before they move on to the next thing. It’s surprising, not more rhymes made it to the list. It has received over 7.4 billion views worldwide. The song broke into the Billboard Hot 100 at #32 during the week of January 7th 2019.
Baby Shark Dance is a catchy nursery rhyme filled with vibrant colors and charismatic dance routines that grasp the attention of little kids all over the world. The song has thought to come from a campfire song or chant. The rhyme now has different versions.
Officials in West Palm Beach, Florida, in July 2019, played a continuous loop of “Baby Shark” throughout the night outside the Waterfront Lake Pavilion to deter vagrants, and people even started social media challenges based on the dance.