YouTube Billion Views Club

The official figure for the number of music videos with more than 1 billion YouTube views is now more than 300. Record Labels and artists’ marketing teams understand full well the importance of YouTube videos for their campaigns, as well as the role that features from premieres to Shorts can play for their artists. YouTube has more than 2bn monthly music users; music is 25% of its global watch time; its annual payments to the music industry have topped $4bn.

YouTube Music pays artists $0.008 per stream. This rate is higher than many other streaming platforms. Spotify, earnings range from $0.003 to $0.005 per stream. This rate varies due to several factors like user location and subscription type. Apple Music pays approximately $0.01 per stream, making it one of the highest-paying platforms available. Amazon Music offers around $0.004 per stream.

According to an NPR piece on the history of the music video, Big Bopper’s 1958 hit “Chantilly Lace”, fits the bill as possibly the first-ever definition of a music video. There’s a painted setting – hand-painted in black and white and at the start of the song someone hands him a phone, which he puts to his ear. So there are props there, and a basic setting, all components of today’s modern music video. Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues (1965) is also an example of an early music video in the way that we would classify them today. The video consists of Dylan standing in an alleyway, showing cue cards of the lyrics as life happens behind him. The Beatles would make short films for their singles during the late 60s after they stopped touring. Through these videos, we can see the concept of the modern music video begin to take shape.

However, the short-form music video really became established during the 1980s with the advent of MTV. In order to have a hit single or album, record labels started putting money into creating music videos as promotional tools. Eventually, it became the standard process for promoting all singles and popular recording artists. MTV played a pivotal role in shaping the cultural landscape of the 1980s, introducing audiences to new music, new artists, and new ways of experiencing entertainment.

Set up in 2005 by three former PayPal employees and originally intended to be a dating service, YouTube is now the world’s most popular online video-sharing platform. The first video ever posted on the website was a very short clip of co-founder Jawed Karim standing near some elephants at the zoo and describing their “really, really long trunks.” The video is appropriately titled “Me at the Zoo”. The following year seeing the potential in what they called “the next step in the evolution of Internet”, Google acquired the rapidly growing video-sharing platform for $1,65 billion.

In May 2014, “Gangnam Style” the K-pop song by South Korean singer and rapper Psy, became the first video to exceed two billion views. At 34, he was a relative old-timer when “Gangnam Style’ was released, and he had neither the squeaky-clean image (he’d been in trouble with the authorities for marijuana use) nor the traditional looks of a classic K-pop star. Shot in a mere 48 hours, “Gangnam Styles” video was stuffed with a host of well-known South Korean celebrities to ensure local success. US President Barack Obama cited the success of “Gangnam Style” as an example of how people around the world are being “swept up” by the Korean Wave of culture.

The top 5 female artists in the Billion Views Club are Shakira who tops the list with her 2010 release “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” (The Official 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Song) with over 4 billion views. The video shot in Los Angeles was recorded in multiple languages and topped the charts in 18 countries. “Roar” by Katy Perry also has had just over 4 billion views, and her 2013 hit “Dark Horse” featuring American rapper ft. Juicy J stands at just under 4 billion. Taylor Swift has two songs “Blank Space” and “Shake It Off” both of which have had over 3 and a half billion views.

The top 5 male artists are Luis Fonsi and his song “Despacito” with over 8.5 billion views. The track topped the charts of 47 countries and became the first video to reach three billion views in August 2017. Wiz Khalifa “See You Again” ft. Charlie Puth, Furious 7 Soundtrack comes second with over 6.6 billion, Ed Sheeran “Shape of You” stands at just under 6.5 billion, (the British singer has three other songs with over 1 billion views, “Thinking Out Loud”, “Photograph”, and “Perfect”). Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” featuring American singer Bruno Mars released late 2014 now has 5.5 billion and “Gangnam Style” by Psy stands at just under 5.5 billion.

Older videos that pre-dated the launch of YouTube in 2005 but were added later to pass a billion views include: “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses which became the first video to do this made prior to 2005, YouTube’s foundation year, to reach this threshold by July 2018. “Numb” by Linkin Park was the first 2000s video predating YouTube to reach 1 billion views in November 2018. “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen was the first 1970s video (and pre-1990s video) to reach 1 billion views in July 2019 and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses was the first 1980s video to reach 1 billion views in October 2019.

Thirteen years after its release, the video for the Amy Winehouse’s classic “Back To Black” entered the billion views club, marking Winehouse’s first video to reach the milestone. The black and white Phil Griffin-directed video was shot at Abney Park Cemetery in Northeast London, and features Winehouse leading an elegantly-dressed cast of characters in a funeral procession. “Back To Black” was the first song Winehouse wrote for her second album of the same name, and marked her first creative collaboration with producer Mark Ronson.

Coldplay added another song in YouTube’s Billion Views Club in 2024. Their breakthrough 2000 hit “Yellow” became the band’s sixth video to collect over one billion views on the platform following “Paradise”, “Adventure Of A Lifetime”, “Something Just Like This” (with The Chainsmokers), “The Scientist” and the Beyoncé collaboration “Hymn For The Weekend”.

Many classic videos have caught on more than others and have now racked up 1 billion views and more. These include Red Hot Chili Peppers “Californication”, Metallica “Nothing Else Matters”, Whitney Houston, “I Will Always Love You”, The Cranberries “Zombie”, A-ha “Take On Me”, Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, Michael Jackson “Billie Jean” and Rick Astley “Never Gonna Give You Up”.

In 2025, Billboard reported that the Eurythmics music video for “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” had joined YouTube’s Billion Views Club. Released in 1983 the song was the title track off of the Eurythmics 1983 sophomore album, and since has been featured on the soundtracks to multiple films, including House On Haunted Hill and Gamer, as well as in episodes of TV shows such as The Following and Luther. It was also certified gold in the US by the RIAA, and has been covered many times, most famously by Marilyn Manson, as the first single from his 1995 EP, Smells Like Children EP.