In 2015, you introduced the world to the latest dance crazes, opened up discussions about diversity and inclusion, and lip-synced in cars and onstage in front of millions. The trends you participated in and the creativity you shared defined the year on YouTube in a bigger way than ever before.
Rewind is our way to help you celebrate some of your favourite moments on YouTube through our official top trending videos of 2015, based on the amount of time people spent watching, sharing, commenting, liking, and more. Topped by one of the year's biggest dance trends, these videos were watched for over 25 million hours and were created by powerhouse channels with over 40 million subscribers between them.
For the first time, not just one, but four television moments made the top Trending Videos list. Three are late night TV videos of widely popular YouTube trends: the lip sync battle, the in-car singalongs, and the reading of mean tweets. You all love late night TV on YouTube—the time people spent catching up on late-night clips like Corden, Fallon and Kimmel nearly doubled in the last year alone!
- Dover Police DashCam Confessional (Shake it Off) by Dover Police
When it comes to music, 2015 saw some of our fastest-rising videos of all time. Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again" reached over 1 billion views in just 6 months and Adele reached the year's top 10 in just a few weeks. The top 10 music videos collectively have more than 66 million subscribers, and people spent over 37,000 years playing them in 2015.
In the UK, we also went mad for lip syncs, in-car singalongs and poignant play-days, while we topped and tailed our lists with breathtaking moments from Britain’s Got Talent. Our obsession with Frozen’s “Let it Go” continued for (yet) another year through a brilliant real-life tribute, while FIFA’s “Play Beautiful” commercial and The Force Awakens trailer had us glued to our screens and excited as hell. And of course if wouldn’t be YouTube without some full-on fun courtesy of a marvellous PIXAR-inspired makeup transformation and two mad UK scientists and a giant water balloon.... hit click and enjoy!
Big hits mark out our UK music lists, but with a strong showing from UK artists, including Ellie Goulding, (the legendary) Paul McCartney, Little Mix and of course - Adele ...
And if you love staying on top of the most-anticipated new trailers, hottest music videos, and viral clips from YouTube creators, today we unveil the new YouTube Trending tab. This new tab in your YouTube app delivers the top trending videos directly to your Android, iOS, and desktop device. It's the best way to catch the videos, creators, and trends that people watch, share, and talk about each and every day. See 'em as they take off and before they appear in YouTube Rewind 2016. aAnd for more Rewind fun, check out the YouTube Rewind channel!
Kevin Allocca, Head of Culture & Trends, and the YouTube Rewind team recently watched