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Published August 8th 2023
From humble beginnings, YouTube now boasts billions of users, videos on every topic imaginable, and can take credit for a slew of careers that took their first steps on the platform.
It is now a media giant in its own right, and if a video goes viral, there’s a big chance you watched it on YouTube.
In its 18 years of existence, many different videos have held the coveted “most viewed” title, but which ones currently hold the crown?
Below we’ve listed the 20 most watched YouTube videos on the platform, so you can find out.
To start things off, we have a song by Colombian singer Shakira featuring the South African band Freshlyground. “Waka Waka” was released on May 7, 2010 as the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which was held in South Africa.
Justin Bieber was literally discovered on YouTube, so it’s perfectly natural for him to make the list. While his 2010 track “Baby” was itself a huge hit on YouTube way back when (2.9bn views at the moment of writing this piece), his more recent track “Sorry” has vastly surpassed it.
A classic nursery rhyme, showing just how influential child viewership will be on this list.
Next on our list is a 2013 video from American pop-rock band OneRepublic.
Katy Perry grabbed the #16 spot on our list.
Next up, we have Maroon 5.
A blast from the past for people of a certain age, this song has inexplicably made a comeback in recent years.
This strange and short video is up next. Depicting an alien-type creature dancing to “Dame Tu Cosita” by El Chombo, you would never guess it has over four billion views.
We’ve reached our first non-music video on the list, an educational video for kids. This is an animation that uses anthropomorphized eggs to teach them about colors.
The archetype of viral YouTube videos, one of the oldest ones on this list, is the K-pop megastar Psy with “Gangnam Style.”
While it’s been usurped since it was released, it spent 1,689 days as the most viewed video on YouTube (that’s 4.6 years!). No one else has yet come close to that record.
Now we have some kids’ entertainment again. This Russian video is from the Masha and the Bear series, all about a fatherly bear who looks after said Masha.
Although from 2017, it’s one of the newer videos on this list. Here we have Mark Ronson with his global hit “Uptown Funk”.
Another video on our list aimed at children.
Yet another educational one aimed at kids (and not the last one on our list). In this video, the song is used to help children understand words and the alphabet.
It’s back to music videos for now, with Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again”. Have a watch to transport yourself back to 2015.
Ed Sheeran grabbed the #5 spot on our list of the top 20 most viewed YouTube videos.
Here’s another video aimed at children. This one is simply a kids’ song about taking a bath, with accompanying animation. We suppose this technically makes it a music video. Watch out Bieber.
An animation set to an old nursery rhyme, this video also went viral after it was endlessly memed on Twitter due to its slightly surreal and bizarre nature.
This huge track once held the top spot for 1,186 days and has likely been put on at millions upon millions of parties since it was uploaded.
We reach our journey’s end, and what else could it be but a music video and a video for children? The combo that generates views with ease.
You’ve probably already heard this incredibly catchy song since it went viral worldwide a few years ago. It’s continued to rack up the views since.
Be warned – if you watch, you'll have the song stuck in your head for at least 72 hours.
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