YouTube is the go-to place for videos the world over. In developed country with ease of access to the internet, videos are watched on video more than on conventional TV. YouTube currently scores 1 billion unique users visit each month and over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube—that’s almost an hour for every person on Earth! Here are the YouTube videos that have gotten the most views ever.
10. Roar, Katy Perry
Roar which was the leading single off Katy’s third album was a definite hit. The song was a commercial success, becoming Perry’s eighth non-consecutive number one song on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and, also peaked at number one in various charts. It has currently netted a huge 718 million views on Youtube.
9. Wrecking Ball, Miley Cyrus
Wrecking Ball confirmed that the Disney princess Hannah Montana was dead as Miley Cyrus stripped down completely and swung on a wrecking ball in this video. Wrecking Ball became the subject of a wide controversy and the butt of many jokes. It also became a point of no return for Miley as she continued to be as controversial as ever. The stunt definitely worked as she hit 727 million views on YouTube.
8. Gentleman, Psy
Gentleman was Psy’s follow-up single to Gangnam Style. Though it was near a hit as Gangnam Style, it rode on the success of Gangnam Style. The video features Psy performing ungentlemanly pranks on various people until he meets a girl who pulls unmannerly pranks on him and it has so far netted about 762 million views on YouTube.
7. Love The Way You Lie, Eminem (feat. Rihanna)
Love The Way You Lie is the second single off Eminem’s seventh album, Recovery. Recovery was a crucial album for Eminem as the previous album Relapse performed poorly among critics in 2009. In 2010, Eminem made a comeback with Not Afraid which performed excellently and restored people’s hopes in the rapper. Love The Way You Lie followed after and it was a guaranteed hit having the superstar Rihanna who was just got out of an abusive relationship with Chris Brown. The video shows Eminem and Rihanna singing in front of a burning house and it netted 775 million views.
6. Waka Waka (This Time for Africa), Shakira
For the first time, The World Cup was going to be held in Africa. It was 2010 and the destination was South Africa. Shakira was chosen as the one to do the theme song for the global competition and she delivered. She features South African band Freshlyground in an adaptation of Cameroonian band Golden Sounds’ 1986 song “Zangaléwa”. The song initially generated a long of controversy over FIFA’s decision of not choosing an African but the video still went ahead to get about 777 million hits on YouTube.
5. Party Rock Anthem, LMFAO (feat. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock)
Party Rock Anthem was released on March 8, 2011 and was produced by the two members of LMFAO, Redfoo and Sky Blu, with the assistance of Shinzu Ai. The video’s opening caption says Redfoo and Sky Blu fell into a coma due to excessive party rocking and that their single was released the next day. After the caption “28 DAYS LATER” is seen, Redfoo and Sky Blu are shown in a deserted hospital, waking up from their coma into a city abandoned. A man is seen shuffling to their song and another grabs them and tells them that their single is causing the word to ‘shuffle’. Long story short, the video is full of crazy dances and rocking. It became a big hit in the Western party circuit and netted more than 781 million views on YouTube.
4. On the Floor, Jennifer Lopez (feat. Pitbull)
After being absent from music for about two years, J. Lo made a comeback with On The Floor with help from Pitbull. The video featured a sultry Lopez dropping some sensual moves On The (dance) Floor. With the kind of fanbase of J. Lo’s music and body, this video was a guaranteed hit as well and wracked 975 million views.
3. Charlie bit my finger – again!, HDCYT
Charlie bit my finger – again is the only non-music video on this list. This is probably the first video to go really viral as it came on in 2007, just when YouTube was becoming mainstream. It was formerly the most viewed YouTube video till September 2011 when it was surpassed by Jennifer Lopez’s On The Floor…but it has surpassed On The Floor with 805 million views.
The 55-second-long video, features two English brothers, Harry Davies-Carr (aged three) and Charlie Davies-Carr (aged one). The two are seen sitting in a chair when Harry puts his finger into Charlie’s mouth and gets bitten. “Charlie bit me,” he observes and puts his finger back into Charlie’s mouth, which gets it bitten harder. Harry, who is hurt, says “Ouch” repeatedly and his brother begins to giggle. Afterwards, Harry smiles and repeats “Charlie bit me”.
2. Baby, Justin Bieber (feat. Ludacris)
Believe it or not, there was a time that Justin Bieber used to be a cute adorable kid. Just an angelic voice, beautiful face, no tattoos and no misdemeanours. Baby was the YouTube’s sensation’s break out single, and it melted the hearts of teen girls all over the world. The accompanying music video takes place in a mall/bowling-alley setting. The video features several cameos such as Drake, Lil Twist and Tinashe, in which Bieber chases after a girl. In July 2010, the video became the most viewed video in YouTube history until it was surpassed by Psy’s hit single, “Gangnam Style“, in November 2012. On March 5, 2014, “Baby” became the second video, after “Gangnam Style”, to receive 1 billion views on YouTube, and remains the second-most-viewed video on the site. Despite this, the video has nearly more than twice as many dislikes as it has likes. Although the song received 2.1 million likes, the song also received over 4 million dislikes. It currently has about 1.117 billion views.
1. Gangnam Style, Psy
The most viral video ever on YouTube. Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ shows Psy performing a comical horse-riding dance which was the source of the virality of the video. Celebrities all around the world did their own version of the dance and put it online as well.On December 21, 2012, “Gangnam Style” became the first YouTube video to reach one billion views. The song’s music video has been viewed over 2.15 billion times on YouTube, and has been YouTube’s most watched video since November 24, 2012, when it passed the music video for “Baby“. On December 1, 2014, YouTube announced that the song had broken the YouTube counter at 2,147,483,647 views, prompting the company to rewrite its software to handle larger numbers.
