Since February 10, 2017, Animal Adventure, an educational animal park in New York, has been livestreaming April's pregnancy and creating a social media sensation with fans all over the world tuning in regularly to check on her progress. One industrious fan created an app to crowdsource pregnancy updates from tens of thousands of other fans following the livestream. A pregnant woman even parodied April’s livestream, becoming an internet sensation in her own right. Waiting for April to give birth became an experience shared around the world.
As the anticipation and audience grew leading up to the big moment,Animal Adventure Park became the second most live-viewed channel in the history of YouTube despite launching a mere 66 days ago. Here are the highlights of April and her baby bump:
- Over 232 million live views and 7.6 billion minutes of live watch-time total.
- The livestreams became daily programming for millions, with an average time watched of more than 30 minutes across an average of 3.5 million views per day.
- Saturday, the day of the birth, was the channel’s biggest day, surging to over 14 million live views.
- More than 1.2 million viewers were watching the livestream simultaneously at 6:55 a.m. PST on Saturday, a peak that ranked as one of the top five most-watched moments for a live event ever on YouTube.
Giraffes already hold the record for being the tallest land animals in the world, but here are some other records April set this weekend:
- Animal Adventure Park became the fifth fastest channel to 200 million views, achieving the feat in only 54 days (behind notable celebrity non-giraffes Lady Gaga and Zayn).
- It’s one of only seven channels to eclipse 100 million live views so far and the fastest to do so of any channel.
- Fans have been connecting with Animal Adventure Park’s staff too through live chat. The channel received over 4,400 Super Chat messages, making them now the second highest Super Chat earner by revenue.
But April wasn't just the star of a popular stream; she sparked a pop culture phenomenon, with YouTube creators and fans posting videos of their own that were watched over 48.7 million times, including day-by-day analysis of pregnancy signs, baby showers, and anxious messages about the wait.
We've seen some of the biggest events in music, sports, politics, and gaming play out on YouTube over the years. Thanks to one endearing mother giraffe, we'll have to add animal events to that list now too.
Posted by Kevin Allocca, Head of Culture & Trends, recently watched "African Animal Lookout Camera."