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Most Popular Topics/Categories on YouTube
The top categories / search topics on YouTube for 2019 were music, Live TV, and gaming, though there were a variety of subtopics within each topic, with rap artists and female musicians, specific games and movies, and particular topics-of-interest being most popular.
Top YouTube Specific Topics: Breakdown
- Over the past 12 months for US watchers, Google Trends highlights the following as the top 10 topics searched on YouTube (across all categories): Nipsey Hussle (American rapper), Murder on My Mind (song), Billie Eilish (American singer-songwriter), Game of Thrones (TV series), T-Series (music company), TikTok (topic), Avengers: Endgame (2019 film), Mortal Kombat (video game series), PewDiePie (Swedish YouTuber), and Mortal Kombat X (video game).
- For the same period for global watchers, the following are the top 10 topics searched on YouTube (across all categories): Billie Eilish (American singer-songwriter), Garena Free Fire (mobile game), TikTok (topic), PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (online game), Baby Shark (song), Avengers: Endgame (2019 film), Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) (topic), Blackpink (girl group), PewDiePie (Swedish YouTuber), and Live TV (topic).
- The top 13 (of 15) topics for both the US and global markets were further analyzed. Most of the top-rated topics were specific and had corresponding YouTube channels, each with their own most-viewed videos.
Nipsey Hussle (music)
- Nipsey Hussle was an American rap artist who died in a shooting that occurred outside his Los Angeles-based clothing store. His music debuted in 2013 from his own record label, All Money In, from which he produced 1000 cassette-based tapes, selling them at $100/each. He toured the country performing the following year, and was well-known for teaming up with a variety of successful artists over his career. Having been a member of the Rolling Sixty Crips national street gang, at the time of his death, he had been helping Los Angeles law enforcement with reducing gang-related violence.
- Nipsey Hussle’s YouTube channel has 1.53 M subscribers. His most-viewed video is a music video for the song “Racks in the Middle,” was posted 10 months ago, and has 120 M views. His second-most-viewed video is also an official music video for the song “Rap Niggas,” which was posted two years ago, and has 49 M views.
Murder on My Mind (music)
- "Murder on My Mind" is a song from YNW Melly, an American rap artist, with 44.7 M views on YouTube.
- It appears on YNW Melly’s YouTube channel, which has 3.36 M subscribers. YNW Melly has posted 26 videos in total garnering over 1.2 M views. The official music video for this song is his most-viewed video with nearly 304.4 M views.
Billie Eilish (music)
- Billie Eilish has her own YouTube channel (bearing her name) and has 24.4 M subscribers. She’s loaded 14 videos in total garnering over 15.5 M views. Her most-viewed video is a music video for the song “Bad Guy,” with 696.5 M views.
Game of Thrones (TV)
- Game of Thrones, a popular and long-running TV series, has its own YouTube channel with 4.73 M subscribers. They upload about a dozen (or more) videos for every season, with their most-viewed video being the official trailer video for Season 8, which garnered 64.5 M views.
T-Series (music)
- T-Series has its own YouTube channel with 123 M subscribers, and focuses on music from India. They’ve uploaded over 14 K videos, with the video for “Guru Randhawa: High Rated Official Song / Director Gifty” being the most-viewed, earning over 860 M views.
TikTok (topic)
- TikTok is the newest version of the former Musical.ly, and provides a platform for short-form video sharing. The topic itself has millions of related videos, with the most-viewed being “Tik Tok Nhung Man Ghep Video Lay Loi Tren Tik Tok” posted on the PowPow Channel, and garnering 56 M views.
Avengers: Endgame (movies)
- The term “Avengers: Endgame” calls up hundreds of videos on YouTube, with the most-viewed being the official trailer of the movie released from Marvel Entertainment. The video has over 131 M views so far.
Mortal Kombat & Mortal Kombat X (video games)
- Mortal Kombat is a video game and movie series, though it does not have its own YouTube channel. There is an extensive array of videos related to the topic, all from a wide variety of channels. The most-viewed video for this topic is called “Wow! EPIC Dance Crew Delivers Mortal Kombat X Street Fighter Show – America’s Got Talent 2019,” which has 23 M views.
PewDiePie (personality)
- PewDiePie is considered “YouTube’s most successful personality,” as he was the first vlogger to pass that mark. His style is brash and can be abrasive (and offensive to some), and he posts a variety of video content, though most often related to the gaming world.
- This Swedish YouTuber has his own channel with 102 M subscribers. His most-viewed video is called “Bitch Lasagna” and has more than 233 M views.
Garena Free Fire (mobile game)
- Garena Free Fire is a mobile game about a group of people trapped on a mysterious island where they fight for their lives amidst brainwashing and genetic modifications, among other issues.
- The most-watched video related to this game is called “Free Fire Funny Moments,” was published by Nekitaet Gaming, and has 15 M views.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (online game)
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is an epic game that has moved to a mobile platform in 2018, thereby significantly expanding its reach. This game is a “battle royale,” which means its everybody against everybody else until only one player is left standing.
- The most-viewed video for this topic comes from the official PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds YouTube channel, which has 1.5 M subscribers. The video is the “Season 5 Gameplay Trailer,” and has over 848.7 K views.
Baby Shark (music)
- “Baby Shark Dance” was first posted on June 17, 2016, and the original video has received over 4.2 B views. It was posted on the Pinkfong! Kids’ Songs & Stories channel, which has 27.7 M subscribers. It has since been copied, remixed, sampled, and re-worked by a huge spectrum of artists (both professional and amateur).
ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) (topic)
- ASMR videos have risen in popularity over the last decade, though remain a popular-but-niche topic of interest. They feature different scenarios, different people, and different approaches – all based on creating certain sounds (combined with visuals, often) that create a particular (and pleasant) response in part of the global population.
- The most-viewed video for ASMR is called “ASMR Black Bean Noodles + Fried Chicken,” which has 44 M views since its posting seven months ago. It was posted on the YouTube channel Jane ASMR, which has 4.67 M subscribers.
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Top YouTube Categories: Breakdown
- The results of the most-searched topics (US and global) can be broken down another way, with the focus solely on the categories of the major topics above, like music, TV, video/online/mobile gaming, and general topics-of-interest. That analysis follows, leaving off “general topics of interest” as the specific topics were addressed in the previous analysis.
- An important note about identifying the channel with the highest number of subscribers: YouTube does not allow for that type of sort, as they allow for a variety of filters, but the applicable ones only sort by relevance, upload date, view count, and rating. None of these allows for an accurate identification of the channel with the highest number of subscribers for each of these topics.
Category: Music
- For the music category on YouTube, the most-watched video for 2019 is Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings,” which has been viewed over 660 M times and is featured on her named channel (which has 39.3 M subscribers).
Category: TV
- For the TV category on YouTube, the most-watched video for 2019 is “Look Twice on the Chair Before You Sit,” which garnered over 114.6 M views and was posted on the SM TV channel, which does not list its subscriber count publicly.
Category: Gaming
- For the gaming category on YouTube, the most-watched video for 2019 is “World’s Best Gaming Room” posted on Dude Perfect’s channel and having 23 M views. Dude Perfect’s channel has 47.8 M subscribers.