Most Viewed YouTube Video: #1, First Billion, and Top 10 (2025)

By 2025, the most viewed video on YouTube, Despacito by Luis Fonsi, has amassed over 8.4 billion views, but a children’s song, Baby Shark Dance, has quietly surpassed it with over 13.5 billion. This article tracks every major milestone, from the first billion-view video to today’s top 10, using verified data from Wikipedia and YouTube.

Most viewed video all time: Despacito (over 8.4 billion views) ·
First video to reach 1 billion views: Gangnam Style (December 2012) ·
Most viewed non-music video: Baby Shark Dance (over 13.5 billion views) ·
Most viewed video in 24 hours: Butter by BTS (108.2 million views) ·
First to reach 1 trillion views: None

Five records that define the view-count landscape, one pattern: music and children’s content dominate every tier.

The following table summarizes the key view-count records mentioned in this article.

What is the #1 viewed video on YouTube?

Current top video and its view count

• Despacito by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee holds the #1 spot among music videos with over 8.4 billion views as of 2025, per Wikipedia (community-maintained encyclopedia).
• If children’s content is included, Baby Shark Dance by Pinkfong leads overall at 13.5 billion, according to Statista (market data platform).
• Rankings depend on classification — most lists separate music videos from general entertainment.

How the top video changed over time

• From 2012 to 2017, Gangnam Style was the most-viewed video overall.
• Despacito overtook it in 2017 and has remained the #1 music video since.
• The shift reflects the rise of Latin pop and the increasing global reach of YouTube.

The implication: view-count leadership now rests on two tracks — music and kids — with no single video able to dominate both categories.

Has any YouTube video hit 1 trillion views?

Current maximum view counts

• No video has reached 1 trillion views. The highest count is Baby Shark Dance at approximately 13.5 billion.
• Even the most viral videos accumulate views gradually — trillion is still science fiction.

Feasibility of 1 trillion views

• At current global population (~8 billion), 1 trillion views would require every person on Earth to watch the same video 125 times.
• YouTube’s total daily view count is in the low billions, making a trillion-view video impossible with today’s user base.

The catch: 1 trillion views is not just unlikely — it’s mathematically implausible given YouTube’s scale.

What video got 1 billion views first?

First video to reach 1 billion views

• Gangnam Style by Psy became the first YouTube video to cross 1 billion views in December 2012, as documented by Wikipedia.
• It reached 2 billion views in 2014 — another first.

Timeline of billion-view milestones

• As of 2025, over 500 videos have surpassed 1 billion views.
• BTS’s Butter reached 1 billion in just 214 days, one of the fastest climbs.
• The pace accelerated after 2015, with more videos crossing the threshold each year.

What this means: the billion-view club has grown from a single song to hundreds, but Gangnam Style remains the historic trailblazer.

What this means: Gangnam Style’s success paved the way for the billion-view race, but now hundreds of videos have crossed that mark.

What is the top 10 YouTube?

Current top 10 most viewed videos

• Based on multiple sources, the 2025 top 10 (including children’s and music) includes: Despacito, Baby Shark Dance, Shape of You, See You Again, Johny Johny Yes Papa, Bath Song, Gangnam Style, Masha and the Bear, Uptown Funk, and Sorry (The Indian Express).
• Statista’s 2025 ranking confirms See You Again, Shape of You, and Gangnam Style among the top viewed worldwide.
• Children’s channels like CoComelon Wheels on the Bus (Los Angeles Insight) also appear in broader lists.

Breakdown by music vs non-music

• Music videos claim 7 of the top 10 spots in most rankings.
• Non-music entries are almost exclusively children’s nursery rhymes and educational cartoons.
• No gaming, news, or vlog content breaks into the top tier.

The pattern: pop music and preschool sing-alongs compete for the same billion-view pool, leaving little room for other genres.

Who has 1 billion views on YouTube?

Channels with over 1 billion total views

• Major channels like T-Series, Cocomelon, and PewDiePie have each accumulated over 1 billion total channel views.
• Individual videos with 1 billion views include songs from Luis Fonsi, Ed Sheeran, Wiz Khalifa, and others (Keyword Tool).
• Artists with multiple billion-view videos: Ed Sheeran (Shape of You, Thinking Out Loud), Wiz Khalifa (See You Again), and BTS (Butter, Dynamite).

Artists and creators with multiple billion-view videos

• Having one billion-view hit is rare; having two or more places an artist in elite territory.
• Children’s brands like Pinkfong and Cocomelon achieve multiple billions through evergreen nursery content.

The trade-off: music artists need a global smash to hit 1 billion, while kids’ channels can accumulate views steadily over years.

Timeline of YouTube view count milestones

• 2005 – YouTube founded; first video “Me at the zoo” uploaded (YouTube Culture & Trends).
• 2012 – Gangnam Style becomes first video to reach 1 billion views (Wikipedia).
• 2017 – Despacito surpasses Gangnam Style as most viewed video.
• 2020 – Baby Shark Dance becomes most viewed video overall (including non-music).
• 2025 – Despacito remains #1 music video; Baby Shark Dance leads non-music.

What’s next: as YouTube’s user base grows in Asia and Africa, a new contender — possibly from K-pop or Indian cinema — could challenge the current leaders.

Confirmed facts vs what’s unclear

Perspectives from the data

The list of most-viewed YouTube videos changes over time as videos continue accumulating views.

YouTube Culture & Trends (official platform data)

The 2025 edition of the top 10 most-watched YouTube videos includes mainly music videos and children’s content.

The Indian Express (Indian news publication)

Views on YouTube are counted as how many times a video is watched; the ranking requires a video to have been publicly available on YouTube.

Wikipedia (community-maintained encyclopedia)

Summary

The contest for the most viewed YouTube video is really two races: one for music supremacy, led by Despacito, and another for children’s attention, dominated by Baby Shark Dance. For any creator hoping to break into the top 10, the implication is clear: produce a global pop anthem or a toddler-repeatable nursery rhyme — or accept that the billion-view club will remain just out of reach.

Related reading: CoComelon Wheels on the Bus · How Old Is Sophie Rain? Age, Net Worth, and Career (2026)

The current record holder for the most viewed video on the platform is analyzed in depth in most viewed YouTube video.

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