20 Most Watched YouTube Videos in 2024

YouTube has become the largest video-sharing platform worldwide. Its ease of use and simplicity lead content creators to share diverse video content with audiences. 

Most video content that performs well on this platform is music-related and kid-friendly. 

Find out more about the most watched YouTube videos in this article. 

Most Popular or Watched YT Videos

There are two criteria for a view count to be considered legitimate on YouTube. One,  the viewer initiates play on a device. Two, YouTube's algorithm has despammed the video. 

For a YouTube video to be "viral," it should have at least a million views and thousands of engagements. Engagements can be in the form of comments, shares, and likes. A typical viral video on YouTube can earn around $2,000.   

20 YT Videos with Most Views (As of July 2023)

Videos get millions of views because of these most common factors: 

• High-quality thumbnails
• Consistency of the channel's posting
• Video quality, title, and description 
• Observing other Search Engine Optimization (SEO) aspects of YouTube 

In this section, explore the top 20 most watched YouTube videos and their relevant information. Let's begin! 

1. Baby Shark Dance - PinkFong Kids’ Songs & Stories

13.1 Billion Views

The first on the list is “Baby Shark Dance | #babyshark Most Viewed Video | Animal Songs | PINKFONG Songs for Children.” SmartStudy launched this video in June 2016 with the song Baby Shark, kids dancing, and vibrant animations. 

With billions of views of SmartStudy’s Baby Shark video, it has become the most-watched YouTube video in 2023. Additionally, the video earned the most viewed song on YouTube to date. 

2. Despacito ft. Dadee Yankee - Luis Fonsi 

8.2 Billion Views 

The next video is "Luis Fonsi - Despacito ft. Daddy Yankee," the most-viewed music video on YouTube. "Despacito" is a bilingual mix of pop and reggaeton. The title means "slowly" in English. It has gained popularity since its launch in 2017 due to its catchy beat and poetic lyrics. 

With its video, the production had the La Perla neighborhood as its location. Its residents joined the effort to beautify the place. Later, La Perla gained interest from tourists along with the video's success.

@pahanya8554, a YouTube commenter, said, "This is crazy. Years later, it still sounds like a song released today.️"

3. Johny Johny Yes Papa - LooLoo Kids

6.7 Billion Views

The video, "Johny Johny Yes Papa 👶 THE BEST Song for Children | LooLoo Kids," combines a nursery rhyme and an educational story. It is an animated video in October 2016 about a child's sugar intake and honesty with the elder.

Looloo Kids' video has become popular because of its familiar melody referenced to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." However, some reviews consider this video nonsense and weird that it became a meme for some time. 

4. Bath Song - Cocomelon Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs 

6.3 Billion Views

"Bath Song | CoComelon Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs" is an animated video from May 2018 showing the process of taking a bath for kids. Its soundtrack is a fusion of tunes from "Baby Shark" and "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider." 

The modified music and visuals made CoComelon’s video gain billions of views. CoComelon left a description on this music video, saying, "It's time to get all clean! Let's have fun playing in the bubbles and washing all over!" A great message about hygiene. 

5. Shape of You Official MV - Ed Sheeran

6 Billion Views

The top 5 is a song from Ed Sheeran's Divide album in 2017. "Ed Sheeran - Shape of You (Official Music Video)" rolled around a love story between Ed Sheeran and Jennie Pegouskie's characters as boxers. Later in the video, Jennie left a note "causing" Ed to join sumo wrestling against Yama. 

"This masterpiece never gets old," said @mahakgupta7162

in the video's comment section. The Shape of You is among the many music videos of Ed that gained billions of views. Another one of his videos sits at the 20th spot on this list. 

6. See You Again ft. Charlie Puth (Official Video Furious 7) - Wiz Kalifa

5.9 Billion Views

Furious 7 featured the song 'See You Again' as a tribute to the late actor Paul Walker. The song's music video was titled "Wiz Khalifa - See You Again ft. Charlie Puth [Official Video] Furious 7 Soundtrack". To date, it has gained 5.9 billion views since 2015. 

7. Wheels on the Bus - Cocomelon Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs

5.4 Billion Views

The next one is CoComelon's second most watched YouTube video. CoComelon released "Wheels on the Bus - Cocomelon Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs" in May 2018 and has been gaining popularity since. The animated music video encourages the kids to sing and move along. 

The song has lyrics that mimic the sound, and its video shows the corresponding actions. This video excites the kids with the idea of traveling and socializing. 

8. Phonic Song with TWO words: A For Apple ABC - ChuChu TV

5.4 Billion Views

Another children's video titled "Phonics Song with TWO Words - A For Apple - ABC Alphabet Songs with Sounds for Children" has topped this list. This video shows a creative way of teaching kids the alphabet. It has gained popularity since its release in 2014.

One reason for this popularity could be the educational details of its lyrics, like "A is for Ant," "B is for Ball," and so on. Its video also has an animated object or being corresponding to the letters.

9. Uptown Funk ft. Bruno Mars (Official Video) - Mark Ronson

4.9 Billion Views

The music video, "Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk (Official Video) ft. Bruno Mars" made waves at the 58th Grammy Awards in 2017. That same year, the song won Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. 

One video comment said, "I remember when the radio actually made people dance." To date, Uptown Funk's music video has almost 5 billion views with memorable lyrics and dance moves. 

10. Learning Colors: Colorful Eggs on a Farm - Miroshka TV

4.9 Billion Views

Miroshka TV's animated video "Learning Colors – Colorful Eggs on a Farm" features the song Old MacDonald Had a Far. It teaches kids about colors:

• black
• white
• brown
• pink 
• blue 
• red 

Many say the video looks weird since it shows colors strangely. It uses eggs with faces split in the middle, and a "goo" of color fills the egg's bottom half. Still, it has garnered over 4.9 billion views on YouTube since February 2018.

11. Gangnam Style (Music Video) - Psy

4.8 Billion Views

K-Pop star Psy's Gangnam Style or "PSY - GANGNAM STYLE (강남스타일) M/V" is the most watched YouTube video in 24 hours. It gained over 500,000 views on its first day, July 15, 2012. Also, it was the most viewed YouTube video for 1,689 days since its release. 

The music and video referred to the Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea, known as Seoul's Beverly Hills. Due to its essence of parody of the place’s wealth, stylishness, and narcissism, it became a star-studded music video. It featured: 

• Hwang Min-woo
• Soon Jae-suk
• No Hong-chul
• Hyuna. 

12. Masha and the Bear: Recipe for Disaster -  Get Moves

4.5 Billion Views

One of the Russian children's Masha and The Bear episodes made it to this list. The series released its 17th episode on YouTube titled, "Masha and The Bear - Recipe for Disaster (Episode 17)." Since then, it has gained 4.5 billion views, and it’s the most-watched YouTube video that’s not music. 

The episode was about Masha making a strawberry porridge, but it overflowed and exploded. She had to clean up the mess and ended up eating the leftovers. 

13. Dame Tu Cosita ft. Cutty Ranks (Official Video) - El Chombo

4.4 Billion Views

El Chombo's track from 1998, "Dame Tu Cosita," has risen in popularity on YouTube as "El Chombo - Dame Tu Cosita feat. Cutty Ranks (Official Video) [Ultra Records]." The video gained 4.4 billion views in April 2018. It shows an animated green alien dancing to the music. 

Unknown to many, the green alien danced to the lyrics that meant "Give me your thingy" in English. One of the music video's comments was, "If you would know the song's meaning and relate it with the dance, you would never let your kids watch it."

14. Axel F (Official Video) - Crazy Frog

4 Billion Views 

Axel F's Crazy Frog music first appeared on YouTube in June 2009. It is a music rework of the Beverly Hills Cop movie theme from 1984. The 2009 music video was titled "Crazy Frog - Axel F (Official Video)" and has over 4 billion views. 

A few reasons why it rose to fame are the following:

• Nonsensical yet fun ramblings 
• Happy and hardcore tune
• Snappy beat

"This song randomly pops up in my brain, and I have to come back to it every time. Such nostalgia every time," one commenter said in the video's comment section. 

15. Sugar (Official Music Video) - Maroon 5

3.9 Billion Views

Next on this list is Maroon 5's Sugar, with 3.9 billion views on YouTube. The band released this music video on January 2015 as "Maroon 5 - Sugar (Official Music Video)." It got famous because of the song and the video concept.

There were speculations that the "crashing of weddings" was fake. Later, Director David Dobkin revealed that it was a bit of both what's real and staged. Specifically, the last two weddings and the people's expressions were.

Many still consider this song great, like the commenter who said:

"No matter how many years pass, this song will stay in our hearts forever!"

16. Roar - Katy Perry

3.8 Billion Views

The only video from a female artist on this list is "Katy Perry - Roar." This music video got 3.8 billion views since its release in  September 2013. The song and video gained fame as it had a deep meaning and a catchy tune. 

Katy Perry considers this song one of her songs about women's empowerment and uplifting anyone who listens to it. It reflects how people think about the song. One video comment said, "This always makes me proud of myself."

17. Counting Stars - OneRepublic

3.8 Billion Views 

Since May 2013, OneRublic's music video "OneRepublic - Counting Stars" has now 3.8 billion views. This music video's popularity made the song a Diamond-Certified Single in 2018. 

A fan commented on the music video, "This song was a hit on the radios, Still the best song ever."

In an interview, Ryan Tedder reflected on how he made the song to be effortless and emotional at the same time. He added he was hand-picky with their third album, Native's single. 

18. Baa Baa Black Sheep - CoComelon Nursery Rhymes and Kids Songs

3.7 Billion Views

This nursery rhyme's YouTube video is CoComelon's third entry for this list. CoComelon released "Baa Baa Black Sheep | CoComelon Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs" in June 2018 and has 3.7 billion views. 

Baa Baa Black Sheep is a classic song for kids that CoComelon revamped with kid-friendly animation. That combination made this video appealing to its audiences to dance and sing along. 

19. Justin Bieber - Sorry (PURPOSE: The Movement)

3.6 billion views

The next one on this list is the only dance video, "Justin Bieber - Sorry (PURPOSE : The Movement)." BLOOD and Skrillex produced the video with Parris Goebel's choreography and John Hang's animation. 

The dancers in this video were members of the following dance groups:

• The Ladies of ReQuest
• The Royal Family Dance Crews

The top comment said, "I was too young to understand how majestic and iconic this choreo is." Today, this YouTube video's views count to 3.6 billion since October 2015. 

20. Thinking Out Loud (Official Music Video) - Ed Sheeran

3.6 billion views

Over the years since October 2014, "Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud (Official Music Video)" has grown its number of views. It has over 3.6 billion views and was once Ed's biggest music video launch. 

The music video's description revealed that Ed learned to dance to match the song's romance and emotions. A fan named @popmusic888 said, "No matter how many years pass, this song will stay in our hearts forever!" 

Conclusion

These most watched YouTube videos gained billions of views because they are catchy, memorable, and fun. If you also want to go viral, ensure to plan the video well, from its content to production.