Today, the biggest video-sharing website YouTube celebrates its 8th birthday. The platform first kicked off in May 2005 and ever since developed on fast pace. In a blog post, YouTube shares some key numbers from its first 8 years on the web. According to it, every minute on the site are uploaded more than 100 hours of video files. YouTube has estimated that this is equal to 4 days of video content per minute. In addition, the platform enjoys visits from more than 1 billion people every month. Pretty impressive, isn’t it?
To mark YouTube’s 8th birthday, we decided to make a list of the top 8 videos of all time. Here there are:
Psy – “Gangnam Style” (1,609,691,681 views)
Even though “Gangnam Style” was released less than one year ago, it quickly became the most watched YouTube video of all time. At one point, Psy’s video even enjoyed the massive 9 million views per day! However, not many people are aware of the fact that behind the international success of “Gangnam Style” are names like T-Pain, Britney Spears, Robbie Williams, Tom Cruise and Katy Perry. All of these popular figures were among the first who noticed the clip and shared it on their social media profiles. The rest is history.
Justin Bieber – “Baby” ft. Ludacris (859,187,103 views)
Teenage heartthrob Justin Bieber managed to get half of Psy’s views. Nevertheless, that is still enough to place him on the second spot on the list. In mid-2010, only a few months after its release, the video turned into the most viewed in the history of YouTube. Bieber’s “Baby” held that title for over two years until Psy appeared out of the blue.
Jennifer Lopez – “On the Floor” ft. Pitbull (670,015,806 views)
Although Jennifer Lopez had included nearly all of her boyfriends in her music videos, none of them received so much love as “On the Floor.” The video impresses with pricey setting, wild dances and incredible fashion taste.
Eminem – “Love The Way You Lie” ft. Rihanna (561,959,543 views)
Behind the success of this video is the formula sexy actress (Megan Fox), versatile actor (Dominic Monaghan), two talented music names (Rihanna and Eminem) and a legendary director (Joseph Kahn). Kahn is also known from his work on music video classics like “The Boy is Mine” by Brandy and Monica, U2’ “Elevation,” George Michael’s “Freeek!,” Britney Spears’ “Toxic” and many others.
LMFAO – “Party Rock Anthem” – (541,819,402 views)
A fun, crazy and goofy video. It’s almost hard to believe that it is a parody of the horror film 28 Days Later.
Charlie bit my finger – again! – (525,734,062 views) – The only video on the list that has nothing to do with music. It includes two brothers from the UK, aged three and one, and some finger biting.
Shakira – “Waka Waka” – (525,724,758 views)
Only a little behind Charlie and his brother is the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. “Waka Waka” is also the second most viewed video on YouTube by a female artist.
Lady Gaga – “Bad Romance” – (518,995,738 views) – Gaga’s “Bad Romance” remained on YouTube’s Top 100 videos for ten weeks. In addition, Billboard even named it the “best music video of the 2000s.”
Surprisingly or not, most watched on YouTube are obviously music videos. This shows that the website is one of the biggest music hubs in the online world. Who knows? Maybe this affinity to music will set YouTube’s tone for the future.
