List of most-viewed YouTube videos
is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was founded by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim in February 2005, and the first video was "Me at the zoo" uploaded by Karim on his channel in April 2005. Although the most-viewed videos were initially viral videos, such as "Evolution of Dance" and "Charlie Bit My Finger", the most-viewed videos were increasingly related to music videos. In fact, since Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance", every video that has reached the top of the "most-viewed YouTube videos" list has been a music video. Although some of the previously most-viewed videos are no longer listed on the site, reaching the top of the list is still considered a tremendous feat.
In November 2005, a Nike advertisement featuring Brazilian football player Ronaldinho became the first video to reach one million views.
Billion View Club
An early metric of a video's popularity was the so-called Billion View Club, videos which had succeeded in reaching over 1 billion views since their initial upload.In December 2012, "Gangnam Style" became the first video to reach one billion views. By June 2015, only "Baby" had also managed to pass this threshold; but, by October 2015, a total of ten videos had done so, and the number grew further to 100 in February 2018. Considering older videos that pre-dated YouTube's creation in 2005 but were added later:
- "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses became the first video made prior to YouTube's creation to reach this threshold by July 2018.
- "Numb" by Linkin Park was the first 2000s video predating YouTube to reach 1 billion views in November 2018.
- "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen was the first 1970s video to reach 1 billion views in July 2019.
- Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine" was the first 1980s video to reach 1 billion views in October 2019.
, fourteen videos have exceeded three billion views, five of which exceed four billion views, two of which exceed five and six billion views. "See You Again" became the second video to reach three billion views in August 2017, followed by "Gangnam Style" in November 2017. "Shape of You" became the second video to reach four billion views in January 2019, followed by "See You Again" in February 2019. "Baby Shark Dance" became the second video to reach five billion views in April 2020, and the second video to reach six billion views in July 2020.
, the fastest videos to reach one billion views are "Hello", "Despacito" and "Shape of You" ; the fastest videos to reach two billion views are "Despacito", "Shape of You" and "Girls Like You" ; the fastest videos to reach three billion views are "Despacito" and "Shape of You" ; the fastest videos to reach four billion views are "Despacito" and "Shape of You".
The majority of these videos in the Billion View Club have been commercial music videos by popular artists, but the list has included oddities, typically programs aimed at children. Such videos include two episodes of the Russian animated cartoon Masha and the Bear, a version of "The Wheels on the Bus" by the British animation studio Little Baby Bum, and "Johny Johny Yes Papa" from Indian children's' stations LooLoo Kids and ChuChu TV. Various versions of the song "Baby Shark" in total have amassed more than five billion views by January 2019, with the original version posted by Pinkfong having exceeded two billion views previously.
Top videos
The following table lists the top 30 most-viewed videos on YouTube, with each total rounded to the nearest 10 million views, uploader and upload date.By year of release
The following table lists the current top 5 most viewed YouTube videos uploaded in each year, with each total rounded to the nearest 10 million views, uploader and upload date.Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber have the most appearances on the list with three each. icanrockyourworld, Linkin Park, Queen, Guns N' Roses, Ed Sheeran and Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes have two videos in the top 5 of a single year, with the English and Spanish versions of Gummibär's The Gummy Bear Song being in the top five videos of 2007.
Historical most-viewed videos
The following table lists the videos that became YouTube's most-viewed video, from April 2005 to the present.Timeline of most viewed videos
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from: 09/01/2006 till: 21/01/2006 color:Viewed text:
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from: 15/03/2008 till: 17/07/2008 color:Viewed text:
from: 17/07/2008 till: 02/05/2009 color:On text:
from: 02/05/2009 till: 25/10/2009 color:Viewed text:
from: 25/10/2009 till: end color:On text:"Evolution of Dance "
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from: 09/04/2007 till: 29/02/2008 color:On text:
from: 29/02/2008 till: 15/03/2008 color:Viewed text:
from: 15/03/2008 till: end color:Removed text:"Music Is My Hot Sex"
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from: 27/02/2007 till: 17/07/2008 color:On text:
from: 17/07/2008 till: 02/05/2009 color:Viewed text:
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from: 22/05/2007 till: 25/10/2009 color:On text:
from: 25/10/2009 till: 14/04/2010 color:Viewed text:
from: 14/04/2010 till: end color:On text:"Charlie Bit My Finger"
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from: 23/11/2009 till: 14/04/2010 color:On text:
from: 14/04/2010 till: 16/07/2010 color:Viewed text:
from: 16/07/2010 till: end color:On text:"Bad Romance"
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from: 19/02/2010 till: 16/07/2010 color:On text:
from: 16/07/2010 till: 24/11/2012 color:Viewed text:
from: 24/11/2012 till: end color:On text:"Baby"
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from: 15/07/2012 till: 24/11/2012 color:On text:
from: 24/11/2012 till: 10/07/2017 color:Viewed text:
from: 10/07/2017 till: end color:On text:"Gangnam Style"
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from: 06/04/2015 till: 10/07/2017 color:On text:
from: 10/07/2017 till: 04/08/2017 color:Viewed text:
from: 04/08/2017 till: end color:On text:"See You Again"
bar:Despacito
from: 12/01/2017 till: 04/08/2017 color:On text:
from: 04/08/2017 till: end color:Viewed text:"Despacito"
No. 1 most viewed video
No. 1 most viewed video
No. 1 most viewed video
No. 1 most viewed video