Top viral videos per year
The best videos that have been shared all over the world, year by year. Plunge into digital history with us.
2009. “Bad Romance”, by Lady Gaga
Second year in a row: a videoclip is number one. MTV’s dead, long life to the Tubes! 50 million views for its 6 duplicates, about 5 times more than the number two of the chart (even though this naughty one used a video advertising network to set its virality).
2008. “7 Things”, by Miley Cyrus
The biggest trend this year: 8 music videos are in the top ten number of views on the web. They killed my MTV! Is it the new trend, watching the same videos over and over?
2007. Miss Teen USA 2007
Ms. South Carolina answers a question, or at least tries to. The dumb blonde meme seems to be one of the most influencial.
2006. geriatric1927
Peter aka. geriatric1927, a 79-year-old British pensioner, became the most subscribed-to user on YouTube in the space of two weeks with an endearing series of autobiographical videos, bridging the generation gap (his channel).
2005. “I Want It That Way”, by the Backdorm Boys
Wei Wei and Huang Yi Xin, otherwise known as the Backdorm Boys, became minor Chinese celebrities with their lipsynched cover of “I Want It That Way” (their channel).
2004. Numa Numa
Gary Brolsma brings the Numa Numa craze to the world. More than 700 million people shared it, as this guy singing in front of his computer is not only funny: he reminds us the too often times we do the same by ourselves. And this is certainly the best way to go viral: touching the people.
2003. Star Wars Kid
Ghyslain Raza unwittingly finds fame as the chubby Star Wars Kid when classmates leak his homemade video onto the internet, reaching up to 900 million views with it (or how celebrity is not always positive).
2002. “Hooked On A Feeling”, by David Hasselhoff
David Hasselhoff extends his cult status with the sublimely awful video for “Hooked On A Feeling”.
