Baby Shark set to overtake Despacito as YouTube’s most viewed video

As the net’s most popular video-sharing platform, YouTube boasts a significant amount of record-breaking releases — but one of its most-viewed videos could upend a major streak on the site that has lasted for quite some time.

Despacito — the music video for Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi’s viral song of the same name — has reigned as YouTube’s most-viewed video since 2017, becoming the first video to reach three billion views in August of that year.

Since then, it has stayed at the top of YouTube’s most-viewed videos list at seven billion views, having become somewhat of a meme and an all-around easy listening experience for speakers of any language.

However, it seems that Despacito’s reign as YouTube’s top-viewed upload could be coming to an end in the near future, as another viral sensation is quickly creeping up behind — and it goes by the name ‘Baby Shark.’

Although the Baby Shark song has been around since before YouTube was even created, it surprisingly surged to popularity in the past few years after being uploaded by South Korean YouTube channel ‘Pinkfong’ in 2016.

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While the initial video for the song — also made by Pinkfong — was uploaded in 2015, the Baby Shark Dance has become somewhat of a cultural phenomenon, with many parents around the globe becoming all-too familiar with the tune that drives kids wild.

Baby Shark Dance currently sits at 6.9 billion YouTube views, and could be set to reach or overtake Despacito at any moment — especially after YouTube star Mr Beast pointed it out on Twitter.

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Baby Shark isn’t just breaking records on YouTube; the song also made it into the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019, breaking out at number 32 thanks to a 2013 change that took online viewership of songs into account.

Considering the song’s popularity among children, it doesn’t come as too big of a surprise that it might topple Despacito’s long-standing rule on YouTube, hearkening back to an earlier time when PewDiePie fought against T-Series to gain the most subscribers for a single channel on the platform.