In lieu of a year-end Rewind video, an endeavor that YouTube has abandoned altogether, the video giant unveiled five ‘best-of lists’ on its official blog today, including the 10 ‘top trending videos’ of the year in the U.S.
MrBeast’s I Spent 5 Hours Buried Alive led the pack, followed by Dream’s Minecraft Speedrunner VS 5 Hunters, and Mark Rober’s Glitterbomb Trap Catches Phone Scammer (who gets arrested).
A YouTube spokesperson tells Tubefilter it tabulated top trending videos by looking at a range of factors, including the nature and volume of viewership within the U.S. — with only one video being eligible per creator. Shorts and music videos were excluded, as YouTube released standalone lists for those two categories this year (see below).
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Collectively, YouTube said, this year’s top 10 trending videos in the U.S. were viewed more than 485 million times, with their respective channels counting 238 million subscribers among them.
Additionally, for the second year running, MrBeast — whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson — was named the ‘top creator’ in the U.S., followed by morality video purveyor Dhar Mann, and reaction and commentary creator SSSniperWolf. The top ‘breakout creator’ of the year in the U.S. was KallMeKris, a Canada-based TikTok and YouTuber whose real name is Kris Collins, and who has risen to fame on the strength of her character-driven sketches.
We’ve reached out to YouTube to ascertain the methodology behind its top creator and breakout creator lists — as well as how it determined the top Shorts creators and music videos of the year in the U.S. — and will update this post with any additional information.
You can check out all of the company’s lists below.
Top Trending Videos (US)
- MrBeast – I Spent 50 Hours Buried Alive
- Dream – Minecraft Speedrunner VS 5 Hunters
- Mark Rober – Glitterbomb Trap Catches Phone Scammer (who gets arrested)
- NFL – The Weeknd’s FULL Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime show
- CoryxKenshin – Friday night Funkin’ KEEPS GEtTING BETTER AND BETTER (Part 2)
- Dhar Mann – Kids MAKE FUN OF Boy with AUTISM, Instantly Regret It
- America’s Got Talent – Golden Buzzer: Nightbirde’s Original Song Makes Simon Cowell Emotional – America’s Got Talent 2021
- Biden Inaugural Committee – The Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris | Jan. 20th, 2021
- Forge Labs – I Spent 100 Days in a Zombie Apocalypse in Minecraft… Here’s What Happened
- Dude Perfect – Game Night Stereotypes
Top Creators (US)
- MrBeast
- Dhar Mann
- SSSniperWolf
- CoryxKenshin
- Dream
- TommyInnit
- Mark Rober
- Kallmekris
- Technoblade
- The Royalty Family
Breakout Creators (US)
Top Shorts Creators (US)
- Zhong
- Desmond Dennis
- Dental Digest
- Greg Renko
- Nick DiGiovanni
- The Bentist
- Milad Murg
- SeanDoesMagic
- Dylan Lemay
- DankScole
- Lisa Nguyen
- Jeenie.Weenie
- Jacob Colvin
- Ian Boggs
- The Beverly Halls
Top Music Videos (US)
- Pooh Shiesty – Back In Blood (feat. Lil Durk)
- The Weeknd- Save Your Tears
- Lil Nas X – Montero (Call Me By Your Name)
- Polo G – RAPSTAR
- DJ Khaled – EVERY CHANCE I GET ft. Lil Baby, Lil Durk
- MO3 & OG Bobby Billions – Outside (Better Days)
- Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic – Leave the Door Open
- Cardi B – Up
- Olivia Rodrigo – drivers license
- Rod Wave – Street Runner
