YouTube is an American online video-sharing platform created by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim in February 2005. In this article we are going to take a look at the records that have been achieved by various professional music artists over the past 10 years. Firstly, we will explore the most viewed music videos to date, from 2010 to 2019, then we will talk about one of the most known YouTube records, “The most viewed video in 24 hours”, who currently owns the record and who owned it in the past.
For the beginning of the decade, Shakira is the one who takes the first place of the most viewed music video of the year (“Waka Waka” with 2.57 billion views), followed closely by Justin Bieber with his song “Baby” (with 2.29 billion views). “Baby” is also the most disliked music-video on Youtube with 11.64 dislikes! Also on the 2010 list, we have Eminem with “Love The Way You Lie”, which achieved 2.05 billion views so far.
For the year 2011, Bruno Mars is the one who takes the gold for the most viewed music video with “Lazy Song”, which gained 1.94 billion views since its release. Close by, we have LMFAO with “Party Rock Anthem” with 1.88 billion views. “Party Rock Anthem” was the most liked music video, in 2012, with 1.56 million likes, until “Gangnam Style” was released. On the list we also have Christina Perri, with the soundtrack from “Twilight”, “A Thousand Years” with 1.64 billion views.
In 2012, “Gangnam Style” by Psy was released. At present, the song has 3.76 billion views. This song was the most viewed music video on Youtube, for 5 years, until another known hit was released, and also entered the Guinness World Records book as the most liked video of that year, with 1.57 million likes, remaining the most liked music video for nearly 4 years. Next on the list, we have Passenger with “Let Her Go” (2.77 billion views) and Rihanna with “Diamonds” (1.55 billion views).
2013 is ruled by Katy Perry! Her song “Roar” achieves first place by having 3.16 bilion views. On the list we also have OneRepublic with “Counting Starts” (3.04 billion views) and Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” (1.95 billion views).
Mark Ronson is the one who takes first place in 2014 with his song “Uptown Funk” which features Bruno Mars, with 3.93 billion views. Ed Sheeran is also in the 2014 list, with his song “Thinking Out Loud” which achieved 3.06 billion views. Taylor Swift takes 3rd place with “Shake It Off” (2.96 billion views), followed by Enrique Iglesias with “Bailando” (2.90 billion views).
In 2015, Wiz Khalifa’s hit “See You Again” was released. With 4.70 billion views, Wiz Khalifa’s song was the most viewed and also liked (11.21 million likes) music video in 2017, and broke Psy’s previous records, until “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi, became a hit later that year. In this year’s list, we also have “Sorry” by Justin Bieber with 3.33 billion views and “Sugar” from Maroon 5 (3.27 billion views).
The most viewed music video of 2016 is Shakira’s “Chantaje” which features Maluma, with 2.57 billion views, followed by “Closer” from The Chainsmokers and Halsey (2.54 billion views), and “We Don’t Talk Anymore” from Charlie Puth and Selena Gomez.
2017 is the year which made history! The mega hit, “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi was released. This song broke multiple records and now holds the title of the most viewed (6.94 billion views) and most liked (39.53 million likes) Youtube video. Also, in this list, we have Ed Sheeran’s hit “Shape Of You” which made history by being the fastest music to reach one billion views, in just 97 days from its release, and currently holds the second place in the most viewed music videos list with 4.95 billion views.
Maroon 5 are the ones who claim first place in 2018 with their song “Girls Like you” which features Cardi B, with 2.79 billion views. On the second place, we have the song which went viral that year, “Dame Tu Cosita” from El Chombo with 2.66 billion views.
The 3 most viewed music videos of 2019 are all latino. On first place, we have Daddy Yankee with “Con Calma” (2.02 billion views), on second place is Rosalía featuring J-Balvin with “Con Altura” (1.57 billion views) and lastly, there is Anuel AA with “China” (1.47 billion views).
At the present time, the ''most viewed music video in 24 hours'' record is held by BTS. Their newest song “Dynamite” suppressed 101.1 million views in the first 24 hours since its release, breaking BlackPink’s record from earlier this year (86.3 million views). BTS’ song “Dynamite” doesn’t hold only this one record but several ones! The music video had a live view count between 3 and 4 million at its premiere, giving BTS the biggest YouTube premiere of all time. And it was also the fastest video to reach 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 million views, and fastest video to reach 8 million likes, making it the most liked video in 24 hours as well. The third place in the most viewed video in 24 hours, is held by BTS again with “Boy With Luv” which features Halsey, with 74.6 million views.
In the last 3 years, this record was broken several times by BTS, BlackPink and Taylor Swift making them the only artists who broke the record several times. The korean boy group BTS, has 5 entries out of the top 20 most viewed videos in 24 hours, with their songs “Dynamite”, “Boy With Luv”, both versions of “ON” and “Idol”. Blackpink broke the record three times, with their songs “How You Like That”, “Kill This Love” and “Ddu-Ddu Ddu-Du”. Taylor Swift also has 2 entries in this top, with “Me!” and “Look What You Made Me Do”.
In 2018, the record was broken 3 times, BlackPink broke Psy’s “Gentleman” record with “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du”, which was broken in September, that year, by BTS with “Idol” which in turn, was broken by Ariana Grade and her song “Thank U, next”.
As a fun fact, the K-Pop groups also have the most entries in the top 30 most liked music videos, BTS being the only artist with 5 entries, and followed by BlackPink with 3 entries. These records make them the artists with the most YouTube records achieved in the last decade.