Getting a decent number of audiences on the largest video streaming platform in the world is not as hard now as it was before. While getting a million YouTube views is still a triumphant feat, it’s not an uncommon milestone to reach nowadays. According to the latest statistics, YouTube has over 2 billion users from across the world– that’s about a third of the entire internet population.
That is why our collective metrics for what video is the most “Youtube popular” continues to expand. It was such a big deal when, in 2012, “Gangnam Style” by PSY became the first-ever Youtube video to have crossed the threshold to billion views. However, as years went by, more and more videos were able to catch up and earn their spot in Youtube’s so-called Billion Views Club.
“Despacito,” the website’s most-viewed video to date, has a whopping 6.95 billion views. In the elite list, the work of Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee is currently followed by the “Baby Shark Dance” and “Shape Of You” with 6.77 and 5.01 billion views, respectively. The ‘Billion Views Club’ is a long list made up mostly of commercial music videos, along with some other types of content.
True enough, it’s nothing new to see our current music superstars dominating the list with their masterpieces. So when you see songs created from way, way back– as in the time before Youtube even came to life in 2005, it’s considered a monumental achievement for those artists of the previous era– proof that they are timeless legends.
Check out these oldies-but-goodies and their respective music videos that have reached a billion views since their initial upload.
November Rain- Guns and Roses
Upload Date: Dec 25, 2009
Current View Count: 1,443,052,989
Numb- Linkin Park
Upload Date: Mar 5, 2007
Current View Count: 1,463,123,633
Bohemian Rhapsody- Queen
Upload Date: Aug 1, 2008
Current View Count: 1,210,880,606
Sweet Child o’ Mine- Guns N’ Roses
Upload Date: Dec 25, 2009
Current View Count: 1,137,407,937
Take On Me- a-ha
Upload Date: Jan 7, 2010
Current View Count: 1,131,496,504
Zombie- The Cranberries
Upload Date: Jun 17, 2009
Current View Count: 1,049,549,113
Smells Like Teen Spirit- Nirvana
Upload Date: Jun 17, 2009
Current View Count: 1,132,001,166
Do I Wanna Know?- Arctic Monkeys
Upload Date: Jun 19, 2013
Current View Count: 1,051,992,971
*The view count indicated for each video is the latest as of October 7, 2020, at 4:25 PM.
Read more: Why it’s important that you watch these teenage twins reacting to “old people music”
Which among these timeless classics is your favorite?
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