Ever wondered what the most viewed YouTube videos are?
The most viewed YouTube videos of all time are pretty much what you’d expect: multi-million dollar music videos from the world’s most prominent recording artists.
However, you’ll probably be as surprised as we were to see a couple of animated children’s videos on the list – with a combined 9 billion views!
So, let’s dive into the 20 most viewed YouTube videos of all time and see what’s what.
Table of Contents
The Most Viewed YouTube Videos of All Time
The list of YouTube videos and figures mentioned below have been compiled from various sources around the web.
These are the 20 most viewed videos on YouTube:
20. J Balvin, Willy William – Mi Gente
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnJ6LuUFpMo[/embedyt]
Views: 2.72 Billion
Kicking off the list of the most-viewed YouTube videos of all time is Mi Gente.
Written and recorded by Columbian singer, J Balvin, and French Singer and Producer Willy William, Mi Gente (English: My People) is a remix of Williams’s original song, “Voodoo Song,” and was released worldwide on June 30, 2017, by Scorpio Music, and Universal Music Latin.
Since its release,Mi Gente has been remixed by some of the world’s top artists, including Beyoncé.
So far, the music video has approximately 2.72 billion views on YouTube and won an MTV VMA.
19. Passenger – Let Her Go
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBumgq5yVrA[/embedyt]
Views: 2.72 Billion
Next up is Let Her Goby Passenger.
The song was written by English singer-songwriter Mike Rosenberg, (a.k.a Passenger), and was co-produced by Rosenberg and Chris Vallejo. Let Her Gowas released in 2012 and is the second single fromAll the Little Lights, their fourth studio album.
Let Her Go has done incredibly well, reaching the top of the charts in many countries, and winning several industry awards. Their accompanying music video was uploaded to YouTube on July 25, 2012, and has since received over 2.7 billion views!
18. Alan Walker – Faded
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60ItHLz5WEA[/embedyt]
Views: 2.79 Billion
Faded is a hit song by Norwegian born, DJ and Producer, Alan Walker.
The single was released worldwide on December 3, 2015, and managed to peak in the top ten of most countries’ charts in which it appeared.
The music video was filmed in Rummu quarry Estonia, produced and edited by Bror Bror, and directed by Rikkard and Tobias Häggbom. The YouTube video currently has over 2.7 billion views and over 1 billion streams on Spotify.
17. Katy Perry – Dark Horse ft. Juicy J
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KSOMA3QBU0[/embedyt]
Views: 2.80 Billion
The seventeenth most viewed video on YouTube is Dark Horse.
It features Juicy J and was released on September 17, 2013, by Capitol Records to help promote Katy Perry’s fourth studio album, Prism.
Dark Horse became an international commercial success, reaching the top 10 in 20 countries, selling over 13.2 million units worldwide, and winning several industry awards.
Katy also became the first female ever to have a video on YouTube with a billion views!
16. Major Lazer & DJ Snake – Lean On ft. MØ
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqeW9_5kURI[/embedyt]
Views: 2.83 Billion
Lean Onis yet another music video that made it into YouTubes’ most viewed videos.
The song was recorded by the electronic dance music group, Major Lazer,and features DJ Snake.
It was released on March 2, 2015, to showcase the group’s third studio album, Peace Is the Mission.
Lean On was both a critical and commercial success and became Spotify’s most-streamed song of all time, with over 1 billion streams worldwide by the middle of 2017.
The music video hit YouTube on March 23, 2015, and has managed to accumulate over 2.8 billion views.
15. Enrique Iglesias – Bailando ft. Descember Bueno, Gente De Zona
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUsoVlDFqZg[/embedyt]
Views: 2.86 Billion
Bailando, which means “Dancing” in English, is a song from Enrique Iglesias’s tenth studio album, Sex and Love.
Universal Republic Records released the song, and several other versions later followed.
The music video was praised by major publications, like Billboard and the Huffington Post,and the Spanish version has been viewed over 2.8 billion times to date.
14. Taylor Swift – Shake It Off
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM[/embedyt]
Views: 2.93 Billion
Next on the list isShake It Off by Taylor Swift.
The song was recorded for her fifth album, 1989,and represents an uptempo dance-pop style song that was thought to be a segway from Swift’s previous country-pop style.
It was a commercial success and became Swift’s second number-one single in the US, staying on the Billboardchart for 50 back-to-back weeks.
The music video was released on August 18, 2014, and has been viewed over 2.9 billion times to date.
13. OneRepublic – Counting Stars
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT_nvWreIhg[/embedyt]
Views: 2.99 Billion
American Pop band, OneRepublic, releasedCounting Starsin 2013 to promote their third studio album,Native.
The song became one of the band’s most successful singles, selling over 1 million copies in the United Kingdom, and reaching number one in many other countries.
The accompanying video is the 13th most-watched YouTube video of all time, with over 2.9 billion views.
12. Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp-EO5I60KA[/embedyt]
Views: 3.02 Billion
Ed Sheeran is one of the biggest names in the music industry, so you won’t be surprised to know that he has two of the world’s most viewed YouTube videos to his name.
Thinking Out Loudis the first one of the two, with over 3 billion views worldwide, making it the 12th most viewed video on the video-sharing platform.
The video also received several award nominations, and the song became the first-ever single to spend a full year in the UK top 40!
11. Katy Perry – Roar
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CevxZvSJLk8[/embedyt]
Views: 3.10 Billion
Roar by Katy Perry is the artist’s second most-viewed YouTube video, on our list, and has over 3 billion views.
It’s also a song from her fourth studio album,Prism,and was another commercial success for the recording artist. It topped the charts in countries like Austria, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
The music video was uploaded to YouTube on September 5, 2013, and reached a whopping 3 billion views by February 2020, making Katy the first female artist to reach over 3 billion views on YouTube.
10. Maroon 5 – Sugar
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09R8_2nJtjg[/embedyt]
Views: 3.22 Billion
The tenth most viewed YouTube video of all time isSugar by Maroon 5.
The band recorded the song for their fifth studio album, V, which peaked on the US Billboard Hot 100chart at number two.
The accompanying music video was based on the 2005 romantic comedy, Wedding Crashers, and premiered on the band’s YouTube channel on January 14, 2015.
As of June 2020, Sugarhas over 3.2 billion views on YouTube.
9. Justin Bieber – Sorry
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRh_vgS2dFE[/embedyt]
Views: 3.30 Billion
Coming in at number nine on the list, is Justin Bieber’s 2015 hit song, Sorry.
The song was recorded for his fourth studio album, Purpose, and was released worldwide on October 22, 2015.
It became a huge commercial success, topping the charts in more than thirteen countries, and becoming one of the fastest-selling digital music releases ever!
The video has now received more than 3 billion views on YouTube and was the seventh-fastest video in history to reach 2 billion views!
8. Loo Loo Kids – Johny Johny Yes Papa
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4tHL8reNCs[/embedyt]
Views: 3.50 Billion
For those of you that don’t know what this is, Johny Johny Yes Papa is an English nursery rhyme about a child called Johny, who’s caught red-handed eating sugar by his farther.
The video was first published on YouTube in 2009 by Shemrock Nursery Rhymes. However, as the years went by, other channels featured the rhyme in their videos, one of which was the Loo Loo Kids in 2016.
Since it was uploaded to the Loo Loo Kids channel, it’s managed to amass a whopping 3.50 billion views, becoming the eighth-most-viewed video on YouTube!
7. PSY – Gangnam Style
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0[/embedyt]
Views: 3.67 Billion
Gangnam Style is the seventh most viewed video on Youtube, the fifth most liked, and 19th most disliked.
The video was filmed in Seoul, over 48 hours, and premiered on July 15, 2012. It became the first-ever music video to cross the 1 billion views mark on YouTube and currently has over 3.6 billion views.
Gangnam Style won several industry awards and became a worldwide commercial success.
6. Mark Ronson – Uptown Funk ft. Bruno Mars
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPf0YbXqDm0[/embedyt]
Views: 3.88 Billion
Uptown Funk,by British record producer Mark Ronson, was released as the lead single for his fourth studio album, Uptown Specialon November 10, 2014.
The accompanying music video has received over 3.8 billion YouTube views to date and has won multiple industry awards, such as “Best Pop-Video-UK” at the UK Music Video Awards.
With this many views, it’s no wonder it’s become the sixth most-viewed YouTube video of all time.
5. Masha and The Bear – Recipe for Disaster
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYniUCGPGLs[/embedyt]
Views: 4.30 Billion
Masha and The Bear is an animated television series created in Russia. It’s loosely based on a children’s folk story of the same name.
Recipe for Disaster is one of the many episodes from the series and one of only two entries on our list that isn’t a music video or entirely in English.
The series is also broadcast on Netflix and has garnered an impressive 4.30 billion views on the video-sharing platform.
4. Wiz Khalifa – See You Again ft. Charlie Puth
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgKAFK5djSk[/embedyt]
Views: 4.61 Billion
The fourth most viewed video on YouTube isSee You Again by Wiz Khalifa & Charlie Puth.
The song was commissioned for the soundtrack ofFurious 7 as a tribute to Paul Walker.
It became both artist’s biggest track to date and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 non-consecutive weeks.
The YouTube video was the most viewed video on the platform between July 10 & August 4, 2017, and has since racked up over 4.6 billion views!
3. Ed Sheeran – Shape of You
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGwWNGJdvx8[/embedyt]
Views: 4.86 Billion
The third most-viewed YouTube video of all time is Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You.
The song was released digitally on January 6, 2017, as one of the lead singles from Ed’s third studio album, Divide.
It went on to become the best performing song of 2017 on the USBillboard Hot 100and stayed at the top of the charts for 16 consecutive weeks.
Sheeran released the accompanying music video on January 30, 2017, which soon became one of the fastest music videos ever to reach 1 billion views on YouTube.
As of May 2020,Shape of Youis YouTube’s third most-watched video!
2. Pinkfong – Baby Shark Dance
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqZsoesa55w[/embedyt]
Views: 5.83 Billion
Baby Shark Dance is the product of South Korean education company, Pinkfong.
It’s a children’s campfire song that features a family of animated sharks. Children sing along while performing various dance moves.
Technically it’s a music video, but it’s aimed at the children’s educational market, so it’s not quite the same as the majority on the list.
But, whether you like it or not, with over 5.8 billion views and counting, it’s obviously done something right to become the second most viewed video on YouTube.
1. Luis Fonsi – Despacito ft. Daddy Yankee
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJQP7kiw5Fk[/embedyt]
Views: 6.84 Billion
The most viewed video on YouTube of all time isDespacitoby Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee.
Despacito, (English: Slowly) is from Fonsi’s 2019 studio album Vida.
The song was released on January 12, 2017, and is a reggaeton and Latin pop song composed in common time.
Critics praised Despacito for its fusion of Latin and urban rhythms. It’s won numerous Latin Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Short Form Music Video.
If that wasn’t enough, Despacito topped the charts in 47 countries and became the first YouTube video to reach the three, four, five, & six billion view milestones!
Summary
We hope you enjoyed our list of the 10 most viewed YouTube videos of all time.
To be honest, we weren’t surprised to see most of them. A couple of videos like Recipe for Disaster and Johny Johny Yes Papa did catch us off guard, as we’d never even heard of them!
It just goes to show that if somethings catchy enough, it’s more than likely going to do well!
Here’s a quick recap of the 10 most viewed YouTube videos of all time:
- Luis Fonsi – Despacito ft. Daddy Yankee
- Pinkfong – Baby Shark Dance
- Ed Sheeran – Shape of You
- Wiz Khalifa – See You Again ft Charlie Puth
- Masha and The Bear – Recipe for Disaster
- Mark Ronson – Uptown Funk ft. Bruno Mars
- PSY – Gangnam Style
- Loo Loo Kids – Johny Johny Yes Papa
- Justin Bieber – Sorry
- Maroon 5 – Sugar
- Katy Perry – Roar
- Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud
- One Republic – Counting Stars
- Taylor Swift – Take It Off
- Enrique Iglesias – Bilando ft. Descember Bueno, Gente De Zona
- Major Lazer & DJ Snake – Lean On ft. MØ
- Katy Perry – Dark Horse – ft. Juicy J
- Alan Walker – Faded
- Passenger – Let Her Go
- J Balvin, Willy William – Mi Gente
What’s your favorite YouTube video of all time? Leave a comment below.
FAQs
What's the most views in 24 hours? ›
In March 2022, the fastest viral video based on the number of views in 24 hours after its upload was iQIYI's fantasy action film Double World. Ranked second, was a prank video of the movie Rings, in which an actress jumped out of a television screen to scare passersby.
What is the #1 music video of all time? ›1. 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson.
How many views is viral? ›Generally, posts with 100,000+ likes or views and 1,000+ comments are considered to be viral. However, the term 'viral' is subjective and can mean different things to different brands. For example, you might consider a post to go viral if it crosses 10,000 views.
What is the most viewed teaser? ›As of April 2022, the teaser of "Spider-Man: No Way Home" (2021) remained the most-watched movie trailer within 24 hours of release in history, with more than 355 million views.
What song has a billion streams? ›| Rank | Song | Streams (billions) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Blinding Lights" | 3.409 |
| 2 | "Shape of You" | 3.375 |
| 3 | "Dance Monkey" | 2.755 |
| 4 | "Someone You Loved" | 2.650 |
| Rank | Artist | Artist's Monthly Listens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ed Sheeran | 76M |
| 2 | Post Malone | 51M |
| 2 | The Weeknd | 79M |
| 4 | XXXTENTACION | 34M |
According to reports from top influencers, TikTok pays around $0.02 and $0.04 for every 1,000 views. These are reports based on payments received through the TikTok Creator Fund. This is a program that TikTok introduced in 2021 in a bid to compensate content creators for creating content on the platform.
What is the most viewed TikTok? ›The most-liked video on TikTok, with over 60 million likes, was uploaded by Bella Poarch and features her lip-syncing and bobbing her head to the song "Sophie Aspin Send" (also known as "M to the B") by Millie B.
What is a top 1 viewer TikTok? ›Zach currently holds the title for most viewed TikTok video of all time, with a whopping 2.2 *BILLION* views.
Which song is most popular in the world? ›As of February 2023, only two songs have reached 3 billion streams - The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You". A total of 27 songs have reached 2 billion streams. Justin Bieber has the most songs in the top 100 with six entries, while Post Malone has the most songs in the top 10 with two entries.