List of most-viewed YouTube videos

The list below shows you the current top ten most viewed YouTube videos. On August 4, 2017, "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee surpassed "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth to become the most viewed video on YouTube.

Eight out of the current ten most viewed videos are from VEVO. Get Movies' Masha and the Bear: The Recipe for Disaster is the only non music video on the list and Psy's Officialpsy channel not being owned by VEVO. All the videos on this list have at least 2.1 billion views.

The oldest video on this list is number 6's "Masha and the Bear: Recipe for Disaster", and was uploaded on January 31, 2012 and the youngest being number one's Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's "Despacito " which was uploaded on January 12, 2017. Like these videos below, 63 others have reached 1 Billion views and 6 more have reached 2 Billion. As of August 6, 2017, Despacito and See You Again are the only YouTube videos in the world to have reached 3 billion views.

Canadian pop star Justin Bieber holds the record as having the most videos exceeding 1 billion views which are four. Taylor Swift and Katy Perry hold the tied record as the only people and artists to have 2 videos exceeding 2 billion views. As well Katy was the first female artist to reach 1 billion views on a video with Swift doing the same but with 2 billion views

Top Ten Most Viewed Videos On YouTube
Despacito surpassed current #2 "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth on August 4, 2017.





















Historical Most Viewed Videos On YouTube
Since the YouTube most viewed video charts appeared for the first time on the site on October 29, 2005, fifteen channels have had the previilge of having one of their videos as the most viewed video on YouTube. Since August 4, 2017, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's "Despacito" music video is the most viewed on YouTube with over 4 billion views as of October 13, 2017.

The only video that has been the most viewed video on YouTube more than once is Judson Laipply's "Evolution Of Dance" video which has been the most viewed video three times. Larfus' I/0 Brush video is the YouTube video that has been the most viewed the least amount of time which was only two days back in October 2005. "Gangnam Style" currently holds the record for longest time as the most viewed YouTube video with 1,689 days (4 Years, 7 Months, 2 Weeks, and 1 Day).

Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" video is the first video to become the most viewed which is owned by VEVO, Justin Bieber and Luis Fonsi being the only other artists to have one of his VEVO music videos be the most viewed on YouTube.

Including the ones above, seven music videos have become the most viewed on YouTube with two comedy sketches, two music sketches, one Dance-a-long, one vlog, one digital painting video, and one sports related video which is also the only video to become the most viewed video on YouTube which is a commercial.

A majority of these videos have been from the United States with every video except "Gangnam Style" and "Despacito" being in English. Every channel on the list are active except for Larfus, YouTubedude, mugenized, eggtea, CLARUSBARTEL72, and RCARecords.

Pokemon Theme Music Video
When Ian Hecox's and Anthony Padilla's Smosh's "Pokemon Theme Music Video" became the most viewed video on YouTube, it made the early channel become the most subscribed on May 17 of that year, as well making their channel become the most viewed throughout 2006.

Due to the over exposure and good reception of the video, the Smosh duo, who were 18 at the time, first gained media attention from online news articles such as the New York Times and Times Magazine and being on the evening news in the late summer of 2006 and was inspired to make sketch comedic videos and upload them on their channel, including Pokemon related videos on occasion.

In 2007, YouTube first opened it's adsense program in turn having Smosh paid to make these videos, it since becoming a career rather than a hobby for them.

The Pokemon Theme Video however was deleted somewhere between late 2006 to early 2007 after it receiving over 24.7 million views. On April 1, 2008, as apart of an April Fools joke to their fanbase, Smosh pretended they were getting sued by Nintendo's Pokemon company for copyright infringement (the reason the video was taken down) in a video and on their website, Smosh.com.

In November 2010, as apart of their five year anniversary since joining YouTube, they made a video explaining the whole story behind making the video, it's deletion and how they felt about it in the tune of the Pokemon Theme (to not get infringed like last time). Today, the video has over 30 million views, making it one of the most popular videos on their channel, like other Pokemon related videos they have made since then.

In 2015, Smosh released their first featured film, Smosh: The Movie where Hecox and Padilla go into YouTube to delete an embarrassing video of Padilla horribly singing and then backflipping to the Pocket Slave Theme Song (a parody to the Pokemon Theme Song) in a High School talent show to not only be reminded of at his High School reunion but to live a normal life as the video went viral and to get his crush since High School, Anna to like him.

Smosh has since been one of the most popular and successful YouTube channels of all time, has gotten many actors and actresses to join the channel along with an abundant crew and is currently the 11th most subscribed channel on YouTube with over 22.7 million subscribers, being the most subscribed twice more from April 26, 2007 to September 25, 2008 and January 12, 2013 to August 15, 2013.

Since it's deletion, many copies of the original video have been uploaded to YouTube with the video also being on other websites, some being from Smosh themselves.

Evolution of Dance
When Judson Laipply's "Evolution of Dance" video surpassed Smosh's "Pokemon Theme Music Video" on May 19, 2006, he then surpassed Smosh's channel in subscribers on June 12, 2006 to become the most subscribed person on YouTube.

Although holding the spot for a short time, Judson immediately after the video did interviews, went on television as a guest host or to reenact "Evolution of Dance", and attended YouTube events as one of it's prime guests. This helped his motivational speaking and dancing career be more respected and seen by more people.

For a while, the video was the most liked on YouTube until being surpassed by on. Since then, Judson has uploaded "Evolution of touchdown Dance" and 2 sequels to his "Evolution of Dance" video.

Girlfriend
Arvil Lavinge's "Girlfriend" music video became the first YouTube video ever to reach 100 million views in August 2007, helping her single get many album buys as well as topping charts and lists.

Though the song and music video was very popular amongst the general public, due to ArvilBandAids, a fan site of Lavinge, having a link where the YouTube video would gain a view every fifteen seconds if clicked on, the video was removed by RCARecords in November 2009 to avoid more controversy.

The original video recieved around 130 million views at the time of it's deletion. VEVO channels debuted on May 11, 2009, with her channel being created on September 2, 2009. A month later, the video was uploaded with it now having 390 million views as of July 2017.

Charlie Bit My Finger
When "Charlie Bit My Finger" became the most viewed video on YouTube in late October 2009, the two boys who starred in the video, Harry Davies-Carr and Charlie Davies-Carr along with their parents who uploaded the video had articles written about them and their video, appeared on television as well as news stations.

Due to fans wanting to see more videos of Charlie and Harry, their father, made a schedule for uploading videos on their YouTube channel every six weeks so fans can know more about how Harry and Charlie had grown up. Due to business, eventually stopped the scheduled vlogs.

The Carr brothers were somewhat relieved as they said in interviews that they were shy when the conversation struck against their peers, family, and strangers. The Carr brothers have since said that now the situation is not discussed as much with them and others.

In 2012, Time ranked "Charlie Bit My Finger" as the greatest viral video of all time, beating 49 others. In 2014, the video was named "Motion Video of 2014" by MTV.

In 2017, Charlie said in an interview that he would like to pursue vlogging, however, Harry said he would like to move on to other things. As of 2017, the Carr family has been estimated to have made over 1 million dollars in ad revenue from "Charlie Bit My Finger".

Baby
When Justin Bieber's "Baby" music video surpassed Lady Gaga's outstandingly popular "Bad Romance" on July 16, 2010, Bieber expressed his thankfulness to his fans on Twitter, saying that the success of the video was "crazy" and that it was great how he started on YouTube and now one of his music videos had the most views.

This song being the lead of the latter half of his first album in his career, titled "My World 2.0" 's viewership propelled Bieber to become one of the most popular and successful pop singers stars of all time. Although the video did receive it's share of applause, the video is the most disliked on YouTube, with nearly 8 million dislikes as of July 2017.

Due to the backlash of Bieber's songs from then on and unpopular decisions he made throughout his life since, Bieber remains one of the most hated celebrities of all time as well.

Gangnam Style
When Psy's Gangnam Style became the most viewed video on YouTube in October 2012, many were grateful it surpassed Bieber's "Baby". Gangnam Style becoming the most viewed video of all time as well propelled the South Korean pop singer to be known in many places around the world rather than his Native country.

The song became one of the most famous internet phenomenas of all time, having millions across the world, famous or not acknowledging and even imitating "Gangnam Style" and it's dance. This resulted in Psy attending prestigious events due to his online success as well as meeting important figures and celebrities.

The song topped multiple charts all over the world for a time, as well as being the most liked video and holding the title for the longest.

Although well recieved it also faced criticism from a considerably large and vocal audience (although it was still the minority) saying that the video was inappropriate for young ages and how both Psy and the video is "stupid".

Koreans had mixed opinions about the video, though there were more positive than negative reviews as most other nations. Many Koreans were offended over the fact that people of many cultures were enjoying a video from a genre they barely knew anything about (Korean Pop, otherwise known as K-Pop) and that they felt some might now believe that is what most K-Pop videos and songs are like.

Psy since the video has made millions of dollars from it and further projects as well as having many beloved live performances of the song and it's dance.

See You Again
When Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth's See You Again surpassed Gangnam Style by PSY on July 10, 2017 to become the most viewed YouTube video, many fans were extremely grateful that Gangnam Style was finally dethroned after being the most viewed video for nearly five years, a record, although many fans of Gangnam Style were disappointed and heavily promoted the song to get it to the most viewed YouTube video again.

Charlie Puth expressed his thankfulness on Twitter with the statement "I remember when I signed up for YouTube in 2007 and had hopes of uploading a video and it reaching 10,000 views. Now a decade later, it feels incredible to be a part of the most-viewed video on YouTube." Khalifa also expressed his thankfulness on Instagram.

After the release of this music video in 2015, it's views skyrocketed and it was on the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Charts for 12 weeks. It was the first number one single produced by Charlie Puth, propelling his career and fanbase and Wiz Khalifa's second after his "Black and Yellow" single in 2011.

It also became on top of other music charts around the globe, capturing the title of the fastest selling single of all time with nearly 21 million units and track equivalent streams, also being the best selling song of 2015. Many fans and celebrities loved the message of both artists honoring Paul Walker, a prominent actor in the Fast and Furious Movie Franchise who died in a car accident on November 30, 2013.

The music video was so popular that multiple tracks, covers, and parodies were made of it, including the video and song getting numerous awards.

The song was also used for different purposes besides honoring Paul Walker's life, career, and relationship between them as it was used to grieve the lost of Christina Grimmie in June 2016 and much more.

The same audience congratulated Charlie and Wiz when the music video became the most viewed on YouTube.

Despacito
Many fans of "Despacito" were glad Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's music video became the most viewed video on YouTube, but many expected it's accession to the top, a big reason being it already being the fastest viewed video of all time.

Shortly prior to it becoming the most viewed video, many people were asking if "Despacito", "See You Again" or "Gangnam Style", the top three most viewed videos at the time, would become the first YouTube video to reach 3 billion views.

Shortly before and after "Despacito" surpassed "See You Again", it's views per day skyrocketed and the same day it surpassed "See You Again", the video became YouTube's first to reach 3 billion views.

Luis, Yankee, the song and music video topped nearly every music chart around the world for months, breaking multiple different records, as well as receiving an overwhelming majority of music critics applause the song and music video.

Due to the success of the song, Justin Bieber collaborated with both Fonsi and Yankee in an English/Spanish version, the remix also topping charts and records, making the original "Despacito" even more popular in the process.

Not only the United States but many other countries found a new interest in Latin music, wanting to know more about Spanish culture, and record companies all over the world wanting to associate more often with Latino music.

This saw Luis Fonsi and Daddy get a larger following, especially Fonsi, the main star in the video who in June 2017 became the most streamed artist on Spotfiy, the first Latino artist to do so, and the next month, "Despactio" becoming the most streamed song of all time.