7 of the year’s most viral YouTube videos

by Chase Wade

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The video with a billion YouTube views wins. Amirite?

It’s hard to believe that YouTube is just seven years old. However, despite its young age, the massive video sharing site has made a huge dent on the viral Internet world and can be credited for launching the careers of celebrities like Justin Bieber and practically any guest star on Ellen.

In 2011, the Los Angeles Times estimated that YouTube users upload close to 48 hours of video every 3 minutes. If you do the math, that equals just less than 25,000 hours of footage a day. In the words of one of 2012′s many viral video stars, Sweet Brown (watch her video here) “ain’t nobody got time for that.”

So we’ve slogged through pages and pages of cat videos and bad pop covers to present to you seven of the year’s most viral YouTube videos.

7. GloZell’s Cinnamon Challenge

Earlier this year, a trend swept YouTubers across the globe that challenged those who were brave enough to ingest (or at least try to ingest) a teaspoon full of cinnamon. The results of this viral challenge featured YouTubers hacking up the spice with a look of deep regret on their faces. However, no reaction to this challenge was greater than that of YouTube celebrity GloZell. The video personality, who gained YouTube notoriety after this post, is close to hitting the 25-million-views mark on her cinnamon challenge video. It’s something that needs to be seen to be believed. Trust us.

6. “Call Me Maybe” / All those “Call Me Maybe” covers

Technically, Carley Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” should be on this list. However, we’ve heard that song more than enough, and considering that the Canadian singer’s massive hit is close to 370 million views on YouTube, you have too. While the song itself was a viral hit, the catchy tune spawned a number of covers that came from sources such as the Harvard baseball team to the Miami Dolphins cheerleaders. As the covers kept coming in, one in particular stood out, this time from a couple a furry, familiar faces. In the war of “Call Me Maybe” covers, Sesame Street’s rendition, aptly titled “Share It Maybe” won out.

5. KONY 2012

On March 5 2012, Invisible Children, an organization formed to bring awareness to issues in Central Africa, released the below video that called for more action in the hunt for warlord Joseph Kony. The following days lead to tens of millions of YouTube views and an immeasurable amount of Facebook shares. However, once one of the organization’s co-founders was caught on camera seemingly suffering a mental breakdown in public, the video’s message was diluted and the action for youths to “cover the night” came and went with a whimper. While Kony 2012 may not be the year’s most entertaining viral video, it certainly was one of the most compelling.

4. Twins dancing to daddy’s guitar

There are two things that YouTube could call its backbone: babies and cats. While our definitive list of 2012 may not feature any cats (though our list of favorite memes does), we do have a pair of babies. Not much is known of the set of twins, but one thing’s for sure: They love the guitar.

3. Red Bull's space jump

Remember Felix Baumgartner, the 43-year-old Austrian daredevil who woke up one day (presumably) and decided to try to break the sound barrier? He’s pretty hard to forget. Baumgartner partnered with Redbull and their project Stratos to travel 128 kilometers into space on a helium balloon, with hopes of breaking a bevy of records along the way. While the jury is still out on whether Baumgartner broke the sound barrier, the video of his attempt is the year’s most thrilling viral hit.

2. Catch the ice dude

Considering this is a family website, we’ve posted the clean version above, however, the original version of the YouTube hit has racked up almost 25 million views in the few short months its been on the web. Impressive. Painful, but impressive.

1. "Gangnam Style"

Sigh. We all knew this was coming, but numbers don’t lie: Psy’s “Gangnam Style” is the year’s most viral video. The Korean pop star made waves this fall with his catchy tune and even catchier dance moves, and much like Carley Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe,” a flood of covers followed. With more than a billion views on YouTube (you read that right — ONE BILLION), Psy surpassed Justin Bieber as the website’s most viewed artist. Congrats, Psy. Even though your song has run its course, we’re glad we didn’t have to include Bieber on this list.

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