YouTube Rewind 2016 Presents the Year's Most Popular Videos

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 08 Dec 2016

YouTube Rewind is back for another year and, as usual, it comes with lots of lists that present the year’s most popular videos.

Also, a brand new Rewind video that features a year’s worth of trends, music, memes and characters.

The video is close to 7 minutes long and packs more than 50 of 2016’s biggest trends – which is a lot. If you fancy yourself an expert and you think you can spot all the trends and creators, prove it by taking YouTube’s Rewind Quiz.

If you’re at the other end of the spectrum and you're certain you won’t recognize many of the trends, check out YouTube’s in-depth, interactive Rewind guide. The guide tells you what’s on the screen as the Rewind 2016 video plays, .

Speaking about the Rewind 2016 video, here it is.



Let’s get down to business now.

These are the year’s top 10 trending videos, top 10 music videos, top 10 ads, and top 10 game trailers.

Top 10 Trending Videos of 2016

Collectively, the top 10 trending videos presented above have more than 550 million views. And the channels behind the videos have more than 40 million subscribers.

Top 10 Music Videos of 2016

At the time of writing this, Fifth Harmony’s Work from Home music video has 1.18 billion views.

Top 10 Ads of 2016


Most of the ads presented above were watched on mobile devices. According to YouTube’s Meredith Argeris, "81% of watch time came from mobile devices, with over 250 million combined mobile views."

Top 10 Game Trailers of 2016

While the trailer for Doom has a mere 9.6 million views, the trailer for Battlefield 1 has about 5 times more views than that: 49.8 million views.

For even more end-of-the-year awesomeness, check out the YouTube Rewind or the YouTube Year in Review channel.


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