| If you Google "Most Popular Videos of All Time" or | | | | David Blaine Street Magic: YouTube Edition!, and |
| search for it on YouTube you will bring up some | | | | Potter Puppet Pals all touch on things virtually |
| interesting results. It's very hard to tell with any | | | | everyone knows or has heard about. Videos like |
| consistency what makes a video popular and why. | | | | these clearly have an edge of getting around their |
| For the purposes of this article any top viewed | | | | respected communities. Their popularity could have |
| videos by recording artists will be ignored due to the | | | | happened partly on accident as well as their video |
| advantage out of the gate any of them have as well | | | | gained momentum snowballing from one person to |
| as the power of the record labels to promote their | | | | the next. |
| videos beyond the power of the average person. | | | | There are some wild card videos that go against |
| This will leave only the videos submitted by regular | | | | some clear trends in popular videos as well. Chris |
| people with normal resources. | | | | Crocker's Leave Britney Alone is in a class all by itself. |
| Some have tried to figure out a trend using video | | | | It's been parodied and redone since it debuted. Battle |
| length. Since YouTube actually has a cap on how long | | | | at Kruger shows what some people filmed while at |
| a video can be it may not be a fair test. As no video | | | | South Africa's Kruger National Park involving lions and |
| can exceed ten minutes your options will already be | | | | buffalo. This particular video sat idly by for months |
| limited. YouTube would become a different ball game | | | | until one day it literally exploded with views. One of |
| if entire movies could be uploaded, for example, | | | | the biggest head scratchers in the All Time list is |
| making the video length test much harder and | | | | Explore Google Earth. This video is simply an |
| probably bring you back to square one. So we'll take | | | | announcement of sorts that is a little over a minute |
| a brief look at subject matter. | | | | long showing you how to use Google Earth to |
| Currently, the top video is Evolution of Dance with | | | | explore the stars and constellations. |
| over 78 million views. There are other videos like it as | | | | The only major thing that most of the videos have in |
| well who reside in the All Time list. Robot Dance, | | | | common is the emotion they bring out in their |
| Jumpstyle Duo, and OK Go: Here It Goes Again round | | | | viewers. The content themselves is compelling, |
| out the dance videos. Since a dance video is at the | | | | interesting, and usually worth your time to watch. If |
| top of the list we can probably assume people like to | | | | you're looking to make a video for YouTube or other |
| watch other people dance and do it well. These can | | | | video site and you want it to be hugely popular a |
| actually be blanket categoried into "Performance". | | | | quick visit to the All Time list will answer, but create, |
| Counting the excluded videos from recording artists, | | | | more questions. The question you need to ask |
| which are more in the number than viewer submitted | | | | yourself is if you saw your video, would you pass it |
| videos, we can safely say people like to watch other | | | | along to your friends so they can see? And would |
| people perform. | | | | your friends, hopefully finding it funny or compelling, |
| Other types of videos that have become wildly | | | | pass it on to more people? If it's not something |
| popular are parodies. Achmed the Dead Terrorist, | | | | someone wants to see then no one will be watching. |