“Evolution of Dance” wasn’t the first viral video on YouTube (that was Smosh’s “Pokémon Theme Music Video”), but it was the website’s most-watched clip for nearly 1,000 non-consecutive days. Now, 11 years after it was released, it’s not even in the top 80. That list is almost exclusively music videos, from Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” (#74) to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” (#7), with 68 of the 80 breaking the once unthinkable billion-view mark.
But only 14 videos have gone over two billion, and a measly four over 2.5 billion: Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito,” Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk,” Justin Bieber’s “Sorry,” Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” and the new number one, “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth. It’s the first time in a record 1,689 days that the Korean pop star isn’t at the top of the chart. Before him, it was Bieber’s “Baby.” That was in 2012.
However, the race between the two videos was still pretty close Tuesday morning: At the time of writing, “See You Again” had close to 2.896 billion views, compared to 2.895 billion for “Gangnam Style.” … If anything, the change at the helm of YouTube’s charts goes to show how popular music videos are on the service. All but two of the top 20 videos that currently have the most all-time videos on YouTube are music videos. (Via)
The two outliers are “Masha and the Bear: Recipe for Disaster” and Little Baby Bum’s “Wheels on the Bus,” which is 54 minutes of syrupy madness.
Anyway, it’s unlikely anything will usurp “See You Again” or “Gangnam Style” in the near future (the closest video from 2017, “Despacito,” trails by hundreds of millions of views), at least until Justin Bieber and The Chainsmokers team up with the Evolution of Dance guy for a song dissing Taylor Swift (featuring Katy Perry, obviously). Then: look out, Wiz.
(Via Variety)
