Who has the most viewed YouTube videos of all? The answers may surprise you, and was certainly eye-opening to this blogger. The online video space has grown dramatically since YouTube’s launch in 2005, and now the video sharing and production website took in 13 million hours of new video in 2010, and 48 hours of video are uploaded every two days. Over 3 billion videos are seen every single day.
Top 60 YouTube Videos Seen 12.7 Billion Times
But of all that traffic, the top 60 most viewed videos were seen 12.701 billion times, and include such works as Best Ever (which was originally called “Best Sex Ever” until the title was changed), seen over 141 million times, and other classic videos like Charlie Bit My Finger, which features two small boys, one a toddler named Charlie, just playing around, when Charlie takes a chomp at his brother’s finger.
But the most popular videos aren’t based on kids biting or fighting, but are music videos. In fact the top 60 most viewed YouTube videos are dominated by them. A whopping 86 percent of the top videos are from entertainers like Lady Gaga, Pitbull, Miley Cyrus, Kary Perry, Chris Brown, Bruno Mars, Eminem, The Black Eyed Peas, and Beyonce.
Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Rihanna Dominate
But even in that list of music videos, three artists represent 25 percent of the total of all 60 video views: Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna.
Bieber leads the pack with an amazing 1.664 billion views. Lady Gaga clocks in at 842 million views. And Rihanna’s not far behind Lady Gaga with 715 million views. Combined, these legendary entertainers have attracted 3.2 billion views, and of the list of the top sixty, have 14 videos on it: Bieber has the most at 6, while Lady Gaga and Rihanna have 4 videos each.
Other notables are Bruno Mars, representing three videos and 620 million views. Miley Cyrus also has three videos on the list drawing 558 million views.
Views Equal Revenue
By this time you may be (or should be) wondering just how much money all of this video view traffic comes to. As a rule of thumb developed from an analysis of the revenue I generate as a YouTube partner, one video view equals .001 cents. So, the entire 60 video set that comes to 12.7 billion video views, equals $12 million in YouTube Partner Revenue.
That’s more than respectable money for the person who owns the YouTube channels where the videos are presented. It should silence anyone who thinks it’s not possible to earn a living as a YouTube Partner (though part of me at times says ‘Why bother to tell people if they don’t listen?’)
The fact is, a number of YouTube Partners are doing quite well in generating traffic and revenue. Tops of all partners is Vevo.
Vevo, an organization formed by a consortium of music organizations that represent Justin Bieber, The Black Eyed Peas, and other artists, attracted 60 million YouTube video views in August 2011 alone. That translates to $60,000 in revenue for that month and (assuming that earnings performance is the average for each month) comes to $720,000 for the year.
Not bad.
YouTube And Online Video Are Here To Stay
It’s obvious that with performance like that reported, online video is more than here to stay. The money earned is not just a reflection of video views, but of what advertisers and sponsors are currently willing to pay to be associated with a video brand.
Also consider that the revenue estimate is based on what I make, not what Vevo earns from YouTube. Given the top talent Vevo represents, the total take may clear over a million a year.
What’s neat is that’s all generated from video views – passive income. All Vevo does is get the video, post it on their various website platforms and on YouTube, and watch the cash from Google AdSense (in the case of the YouTube Partner program) come in monthly.
In closing, here’s the list of the top 60 most viewed videos on YouTube, as culled by this blogger, and using information posted at YouTube:
146,623,364 Adele
208,280,421 An experiment
164,640,085 Avril Lavigne
119,858,386 Baby Panda
138,034,353 Barack / Hillary
141,615,900 Best Ever
143,336,874 Beyonce
157,707,090 Black Eyed Peas
143,677,670 Bob Airplanes
214,584,469 Bruno Mars
212,892,635 Bruno Mars
192,637,195 Bruno Mars
379,576,917 Charlie Bit my fing
125,136,167 Chris Brown
120,611,097 Chris Brown – L
241,211,586 Don Omar
147,676,049 Edward Maya
391,390,940 Eminem – Lve
283,195,389 Eminem – Not Af
182,202,481 Evolution Dance
204,384,421 Hahaha
131,999,363 I just sex
140,939,257 Jeff Dunham
403,874,422 Jennifer Lopez
152,550,314 Jessie J
638,635,988 Justin Bieber
152,737,290 Justin Bieber NL
266,926,450 Justin Bieber NS
146,517,022 Justin Bieber One
269,142,672 Justin Bieber OT
190,639,045 Justin Bieber S
137,341,235 “Katy Perry ET
241,094,991 Katy Perry Fire
420,076,054 Lady Gaga
154,647,406 Lady Gaga
144,843,849 Lady Gaga
123,177,131 Lady Gaga Tell
240,894,357 LMFAO
126,032,867 Mickey Mouse
160,657,224 Midnight Meat
157,565,325 “Miley Cyrus 7
148,823,764 Miley Cyrus Cl
252,077,857 Miley Cyrus party
160,165,606 Nicki Minaj
266,750,651 Parto in un letto
154,738,513 “Pitbull – Give
196,794,601 Pitbull – I know
156,246,788 Pregnancy Boost
210,757,896 Rihanna
180,066,306 Rihanna
171,835,922 Rihanna
152,876,127 Rihanna
142,004,918 Sasara
128,185,314 Selena
135,813,296 Stroboscopy
130,546,815 Taylor Swift
148,534,574 The Gummy Bear
252,434,721 Thigh massage
208,835,270 Tootin Bathtub
405,719,717 Waka Waka
12,701,410,395 Total
Stay tuned.