The most-viewed video on YouTube is not a Taylor Swift video, a MrBeast challenge or a football final. It is a two-minute children’s song about sharks — with more than twice the population of Earth in cumulative views.
This ranking is a fixed snapshot from July 10, 2026 because YouTube view counts never stop moving.
YouTube’s all-time view-count giants
1 · Baby Shark Dance — Pinkfong
About 17.0 billion views in the July 10, 2026 snapshot. YouTube itself said the video had already passed 16 billion in June 2025.
2 · Wheels on the Bus — CoComelon
About 9.1 billion views. The children’s-song machine has now overtaken most conventional pop videos.
3 · Despacito — Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee
About 9.0 billion views — still the most-viewed conventional pop music video.
4 · Bath Song — CoComelon
About 7.5 billion views.
5 · Johny Johny Yes Papa — LooLoo Kids
About 7.2 billion views.
6 · See You Again — Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth
About 7.0 billion views.
7 · Phonics Song with TWO Words — ChuChu TV
About 7.0 billion views.
8 · Shape of You — Ed Sheeran
About 6.7 billion views.
9 · Crazy Frog — Axel F
About 6.0 billion views.
10 · Gangnam Style — PSY
About 5.9 billion views — still historic as the first YouTube video to reach one billion views.
YouTube’s all-time chart is dominated by repeatable children’s content
Children replay the same songs. Parents use familiar videos repeatedly. The content crosses language barriers and does not depend on current news or fandom cycles. That creates a very different growth curve from a conventional hit song.
How the platform’s idea of ‘huge’ kept changing
Gangnam Style reaches 1B
YouTube later celebrated it as the first member of the platform’s billion-view club.
Baby Shark passes Despacito
The children’s song takes the all-time #1 position.
Baby Shark reaches 10B
The first YouTube video to cross ten billion views.
16B
YouTube’s own tenth-anniversary retrospective for Baby Shark confirmed the video had passed sixteen billion.
The all-time YouTube chart is less about virality than repetition
A viral hit explodes.
An all-time view monster keeps being useful to new viewers — and to the same viewers — year after year.