Most Viewed Music Video on YouTube: Luis Fonsi's 'Despacito' Leads the Top 10

The most viewed music video on YouTube is 'Despacito' by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee. On 25 October 2026 its official video stood at 9,154,660,023 views, about two billion ahead of the runner-up, Wiz Khalifa's 'See You Again'. Below are the ten most viewed music videos on YouTube of all time, each count read from the video's own page that morning, and what still brings people back to each.

'Despacito' is the most viewed music video, not the most viewed video. We follow the music-video ranking that kworb.net keeps, which leaves children's channels out. Put them back in and Pinkfong's 'Baby Shark Dance' leads all of YouTube at 17,484,587,054 views, and CoComelon's 'Wheels on the Bus', at 9,637,195,197, is ahead of 'Despacito' too. Three more children's songs, CoComelon's 'Bath Song', LooLoo Kids' 'Johny Johny Yes Papa' and ChuChu TV's 'Phonics Song with Two Words', are ahead of 'See You Again'.

Top 10 most viewed music videos on YouTube of all time

When the views came says more than the totals. The monthly estimates kworb.net keeps for every video show three patterns. Some videos had one enormous year, as 'Despacito' did in 2017, when it drew half of all the views it has ever had. Others come back with an occasion, the way 'Waka Waka' climbs whenever a World Cup is played. A few are growing faster now than when they were new, and in 2026 the two most watched of the ten are a Hindu devotional hymn, with about 746 million views so far, and a cartoon frog's 2005 novelty hit, Crazy Frog's 'Axel F', with about 611 million.

1. 'Despacito', Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee: 9.15 billion views

The Spanish-language 'Despacito' ('slowly') went up on 12 January 2017 and drew about 4.62 billion views by the end of that year, half of its lifetime total and the biggest single year any of these videos has had. Its biggest month was July 2017, at about 654 million views, three months after an English-language remix with Justin Bieber came out on 17 April. The pace has eased gradually since, to about 255 million views in 2026 so far and about 0.84 million a day in October. Its 56,771,317 likes are more than any other video here has.

2. 'See You Again', Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth: 7.12 billion views

'See You Again' was made for the soundtrack of Furious 7 (2015) in memory of Paul Walker, one of the series' stars, who died in 2013, and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth's video for it went up on 6 April 2015. Only 18 percent of its views came in 2015, its best year. People have kept coming back to the goodbye song long after the film. Since 2019 it has drawn between about 370 and 550 million views a year, and in October it has drawn about 0.94 million a day, more than 'Despacito'.

3. 'Shape of You', Ed Sheeran: 6.83 billion views

Eighteen days after 'Despacito', on 30 January 2017, Ed Sheeran's 'Shape of You' went up, and it too had one huge year: about 2.96 billion views in 2017, or 43 percent of its total, the year it finished first on Billboard's year-end Hot 100. Its writing credits include the three writers of TLC's 'No Scrubs', because part of its pre-chorus melody echoes that song. No video here has gained fewer views in 2026, about 195 million so far, and 'Axel F', one place below, is gaining on it by about 1.3 million views a day.

4. 'Axel F', Crazy Frog: 6.25 billion views

Crazy Frog is a Swedish animated character, created to go with a man's imitation of a two-stroke engine and made famous as a ringtone, and 'Axel F' is its 2005 cover of Harold Faltermeyer's 1984 theme for Beverly Hills Cop. Its climb is the strangest on the list. The video went up on 16 June 2009 and drew only 10 to 36 million views a year until 2015, by kworb's estimates. In 2016 it jumped to 199 million and in 2017 to 578 million, and its biggest year came in 2024, 15 years after it was posted, at 706 million. It has about 611 million views in 2026 so far and about 1.95 million a day in October, a pace only 'Shree Hanuman Chalisa' beats among the ten. We think a tune with no lyrics to translate, voiced by a cartoon, has nothing to stop it crossing borders.

5. 'Gangnam Style', PSY: 6.10 billion views

In December 2012, five months after it went up on 15 July, PSY's 'Gangnam Style' was the first video on YouTube to pass one billion views; it drew about 1.10 billion in what was left of that year. By 2018 it had slowed to about 220 million a year, but in 2020 it picked up again, to 430 million, and it has drawn between about 350 and 400 million a year since, about 31 million a month in 2026. It is still the only song in Korean among the ten and the most viewed K-pop music video on YouTube, and its 5.4 million comments are more than any of the others have.

6. 'Uptown Funk', Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars: 5.93 billion views

About 1.19 billion of the views on 'Uptown Funk', Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars's 1980s-style funk record, came in 2015, its biggest year and the year it topped Billboard's year-end Hot 100; the video had gone up on 19 November 2014. It has since settled at roughly 20 to 30 million views a month. At about 0.66 million a day in October, level with 'Shape of You' for the slowest pace here, it could lose sixth place within weeks.

7. 'Shree Hanuman Chalisa', Hariharan: 5.84 billion views

Of the ten, the video gaining fastest is a prayer. 'Shree Hanuman Chalisa', sung by Hariharan and posted by T-Series Bhakti Sagar in May 2011, sets the Hanuman Chalisa, the poet Tulsidas's 16th-century prayer to the god Hanuman: forty four-line verses in Awadhi, framed by three couplets, which many Hindus say daily and especially on Tuesdays and Saturdays, the days kept for Hanuman. At 9 minutes 42 seconds it is more than twice as long as any other video here, and it is the only Indian video in this top 10. Its yearly views have roughly doubled since 2019, to about 825 million in 2025. September 2026 was its biggest month yet, at about 99 million, and in October it has added about 3 million views a day, more than any of the others. Behind that pace is the Indian audience we looked at in our piece on YouTube's most viewed artist.

8. 'Dame Tu Cosita', El Chombo ft. Cutty Ranks: 5.68 billion views

'Dame Tu Cosita', by El Chombo, was first recorded in 1997 and released again in April 2018 with an animated dancing green alien in place of a singer. It drew about a billion views in 2018, but its biggest year was 2020, at about 1.24 billion: views had been climbing since late 2019 and reached roughly 138 million in each of April and June 2020. It still adds about 1.45 million views a day. At 2 minutes 32 seconds it is the shortest video here, and it is built around a dance anyone can copy.

9. 'Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)', Shakira: 4.80 billion views

Shakira's 'Waka Waka' was the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, recorded with the South African band Freshlyground and built on the Cameroonian song 'Zamina mina (Zangaléwa)'. Every World Cup sends it back up in kworb's monthly figures. Views rose from about 85 million in 2013 to 201 million in 2014, and 2018 was its biggest year, at 473 million. Its best month ever was December 2022, the month of the final in Qatar, at about 81 million. In June and July 2026, while the World Cup was played in North America, it drew about 65 and 72 million, against 37 million in May. Her newer single with Burna Boy, 'Dai Dai', now gains more views a day than any other music video on kworb's list.

10. 'Counting Stars', OneRepublic: 4.54 billion views

No video on the list has climbed more steadily than OneRepublic's 'Counting Stars'. Since it went up on 31 May 2013 it has never drawn more than about 55 million views in a month, and 2018, its best year, accounts for just 12 percent of its total. It got here without a spike: about 40 million views a month from 2014 to 2018, about 20 million a month since, and still about 21 million a month in 2026.

What keeps a music video climbing on YouTube

The totals reward one global moment, as 'Despacito' and 'Shape of You' had in 2017. Our reading of the daily counts is that they reward something else: a reason to press play again that does not depend on the song being new. For 'Shree Hanuman Chalisa' that reason looks like devotion, for 'Waka Waka' it is plainly the World Cup, and for 'Axel F' and 'Dame Tu Cosita' we think it is a cartoon and a dance that need no translation. We expect 'Shree Hanuman Chalisa' to pass 'Uptown Funk' for sixth place before the end of 2026, and 'Gangnam Style' for fifth by 31 March 2027. At their October daily averages it needs about five weeks for the first and about four and a half months for the second; at the slower pace it kept from January to August, the second would take until about May, so the March date depends on its autumn rise holding.