YouTube has reaped well more than 1trn views – that’s about 140 views for every person on the planet – during its existence. The video-sharing site marks its eighth anniversary today, and to mark the occasion we look back on its top 8 most-popular videos to date.
Since the beta launch of YouTube in May 2005, it has become a phenomenal success. Created by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, the site officially launched in December 2005. By then, 8m videos were watched per day.
Less than a year later, internet search giant Google came calling, and it acquired YouTube for US$1.65bn.
Today, more than 1bn unique users visit YouTube per month. In the same time period, viewers watch more than 4bn hours of video.
YouTube isn’t doing too shabbily on mobile, either: traffic from mobile devices tripled in 2011, and today, 25pc of global YouTube views come from mobile devices. YouTube mobile has also spawned 1bn views a day.
So what are all those people watching? Here are YouTube’s top 8 most popular videos to date, from all categories:
1/ PSY – GANGNAM STYLE (강남스타일) M/V
1,551,973,277 views to date
2/ Justin Bieber – Baby ft. Ludacris
850,860,839 views to date
3/ Jennifer Lopez – On The Floor ft. Pitbull
664,941,682 views to date
4/ Eminem – Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna
555,790,453 views to date
5/ LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem ft. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock
535,749,062 views to date
6/ Charlie bit my finger – again !
522,479,116 views to date
7/ Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) (The Official 2010 FIFA 2010 FIFA World Cup (TM) Song)
519,616,200 views to date
8/ Lady Gaga – Bad Romance
516,595,766 views to date
YouTube image via Annette Shaff/Shutterstock
