List of most-viewed YouTube videos
YouTube is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. The site indicates view counts of each uploaded video, making it possible to keep track of the most viewed, many of which continue to exist while others are no longer available on the site. Although the most-viewed were initially viral videos uploaded by amateur content creators, such as "Evolution of Dance" and "Charlie Bit My Finger", they have increasingly become music videos produced on behalf of professional recording artists. Since Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" in 2009, every video that has reached the top of the "most-viewed YouTube videos" list has been a music video.
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
In November 2005, a Nike advertisement featuring Brazilian football player Ronaldinho became the first video to reach 1,000,000 views.[1] The billion-view mark was first passed by Gangnam Style in December 2012. On January 13, 2022, Pinkfong's "Baby Shark" became the first video to hit 10,000,000,000 views.[2]
Views represent how many times a video is watched. To ensure that traffic is coming from actual humans and not scripts or other deceptive methods, YouTube has a secret algorithm to separate legitimate views from illegitimate ones, and only legitimate views are included in the view count.[3] Specifically, to count as a legitimate view, a user must intentionally initiate the playback of the video and play at least 30 seconds of the video (or the entire video for shorter videos). Additionally, while replays count as views, there is a limit of 4 or 5 views per IP address during a 24-hour period, after which point, no further views from that IP are counted until the 24-hour period expires.[4][5]
An early metric of a video's popularity was the so-called Billion-View Club, denoting videos which had succeeded in reaching over 1 billion views since their initial upload.[56]
In December 2012, "Gangnam Style" became the first video to reach one billion views.[33] By June 2015, only "Baby" had also managed to pass this threshold, but, by October 2015, a total of ten videos had done so,[56] and the number grew further to over 400 in 2024.[57]
Older videos that pre-dated the launch of YouTube in 2005 but were added later to pass a billion views are as follow:
With numerous videos readily clearing one billion views by 2018, more interest has been on two- and three-billion-views-and-higher metrics. In May 2014, "Gangnam Style" became the first video to exceed two billion views.[34] "Despacito" became the first video to reach three billion views in August 2017,[12] four billion in October 2017,[13] five billion in April 2018,[14] six billion in February 2019,[15] and seven billion in October 2020.[16] "Baby Shark Dance" became the first video to reach eight billion views in February 2021, nine billion views in July 2021, and ten billion views in January 2022.[8] As of March 2024, it has more than fourteen billion views.
As of May 2023, thirteen videos have exceeded four billion views, eight of which exceed five billion views, five of which exceed six billion views, and two of which exceed eight billion views. "See You Again" became the second video to reach three billion views in August 2017,[26] followed by "Gangnam Style" in November 2017.[35] "Shape of You" became the second video to reach four billion views in January 2019,[21] followed by "See You Again" in February 2019.[27] "Baby Shark Dance" became the second video to reach five billion views in April 2020,[62] followed by "Shape of You" in October 2020. "Baby Shark Dance" became the second video to reach six billion views in July 2020, and seven billion views in October 2020.
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 "Johnny Johnny Yes Papa" from children's stations LooLoo Kids and ChuChu TV.[63] Various versions of the song "Baby Shark" in total amassed more than five billion views by January 2019, with the original version posted by Pinkfong having exceeded two billion views previously.[64] The original video by Pinkfong is now the most viewed video on the site. On October 29, 2020, Baby Shark surpassed 7 billion views, and on November 2, 2020, it passed Despacito to become the most viewed video on YouTube. On February 23, 2021, Baby Shark surpassed 8 billion views, becoming the first video to do so. On July 20, 2021, Baby Shark surpassed 9 billion views, becoming the first (and currently only) video to do so. On January 13, 2022, Baby Shark became the first (and currently only) video to surpass 10 billion views.[8]
On July 14, 2022, YouTube made a special playlist and video celebrating the 317 music videos to have hit 1 billion views and joined the "Billion Views Club".[65][66]
On April 1, 2024, the communications app Discord incorporated a short trailer video into their in-app April Fools' Day prank regarding loot boxes. The video automatically looped for anyone with Discord open, even if the notification had not been opened yet. This had the inadvertent effect of massively increasing the trailer's view count, causing it to reach a billion views in less than 24 hours. This video became the most-viewed video in 24 hours on the platform, surpassing Grand Theft Auto VI's trailer, which gained over 90 million views in 24 hours.[67][68] The video later had its view count adjusted to the low millions.