Official Blog
What You Watched and Searched for on YouTube in 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
This year has been the biggest yet for online video, and for the first time we're sharing our official Most Watched lists and some of the fastest-rising search terms on YouTube. Some moments were big (President Obama's inauguration), some small (a Minnesota wedding party erupts into dance), some expected ("New Moon"), some surprising (Susan Boyle) — but all of them inspired, entertained and connected millions of people around the world via YouTube.
For these lists, we looked at view counts of YouTube's most popular videos this year (in some instances we aggregated views across multiple versions of the same video):
Most Watched YouTube videos (Global):
1.
Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent
(120+ million views)
2.
David After Dentist
(37+ million views)
3.
JK Wedding Entrance Dance
(33+ million views)
4.
New Moon Movie Trailer
(31+ million views)
5.
Evian Roller Babies
(27+ million views)
Most Watched music videos on YouTube (Global)*:
1.
Pitbull "I Know You Want Me"
(82+ million views)
2.
Miley Cyrus "The Climb"
(64+ million views)
3.
Miley Cyrus "Party in the U.S.A."
(54+ million views)
4.
The Lonely Island "I'm On a Boat"
(48+ million views)
5.
Keri Hilson "Knock You Down
" (35+ million views)
Then, to determine the fastest rising search terms for each month, we examined the billions of queries that people searched for on YouTube (through December 15):
Fastest Rising YouTube search terms by month (Global):
January:
inauguration
February:
christian bale
March:
the climb
April:
susan boyle
May:
pacquiao vs hatton
June:
michael jackson thriller
July:
michael jackson
August:
usain bolt
September:
kanye west
October:
paranormal activity
November:
bad romance
December:
tiger woods
Fastest Rising YouTube search terms by month (U.S.):
January
: obama inauguration
February:
on a boat
March:
watchmen
April:
susan boyle
May:
pacquiao
June:
michael jackson thriller
July:
wedding
August:
send it on
September:
kanye west
October:
paranormal activity
November:
adam lambert
December:
tiger woods
There are a lot of interesting nuggets in here. The fastest rising U.S. search term in July was [wedding], clearly related to "
JK Wedding Entrance Dance
," the third Most Watched YouTube video of the year. And while [michael jackson] was
Google's
fastest rising search term in 2009, [michael jackson thriller] was the faster rising search on YouTube. Movie trailers ("New Moon," "Watchmen," "Paranormal Activity") and inspirational moments (Susan Boyle, Usain Bolt) were popular, as were sensational celebrity scandals (Christian Bale, Kanye West and, most recently, Tiger Woods).
We hope to expand these lists in the future, so if there are any "Most Watched" categories you'd like to see in 2010, let us know by leaving a comment below.
Jamie Davidson, Associate Product Manager, recently watched
"Top 10 quirky science tricks for Christmas parties."
*
Note: Some music videos may be unavailable in your country due to copyright restrictions.
Labels
3D
4k
accessibility
account info
activism
ads
africa
annotations
arts
awards
benefit
betas
bizblog
blogs
bulletins
buzz
captions
celebrity playlists
channels
chrome
citizen journalism
citizen reporting
citizentube
comedy
comments
community
community guidelines
contests
creator's corner
creators
curators
customization
dance
design
discovery
doodle
editor
education
embeds
entertainment
events
facebook
film
flagging
gaming
gmail
google
google tv
government
grants
groups
guidelines
hd
help center
holidays
homepage
howto
inspiration
investment
jobs
journalism
life in a day
live stream
marketing
meetups
mobile
moderator
movies
music
musicians wanted
news
nonprofits
open-source
partners
playlists
policy
politics
privacy
product update
quicklist
ratings
rentals
research
safety
science and technology
screening room
search
sharing
shows
social networks
sports
staff
stats and data
store
subscriptions
tags
test tube
travel
trends
tv
twitter
upload
vevo
video editing
video production
video volunteers
viral video
youtube api
youtube direct
Archive
2019
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2018
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2006
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2005
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Feed
Follow @youtube
Follow
Learn more in the
YouTube Help Center
.
Follow