Trending This Week: Robot Dogs and Life on Mars

Here's a look at some of the most buzzed about videos of the week.

For more on what's trending on YouTube, check out our playlist (this week, Valentine's Day themed!) and follow us on Twitter.

Introducing Spot


This week, Boston Dynamics introduced us to Spot, a 160 lbs robot that walks, runs and reacts distinctly like a canine, but with the look and feel of a Terminator. Boston Dynamics (a robotics company acquired by Google in 2013) has been sharing its progress towards perfecting the technology behind artificially intelligent - and highly menacing! - creatures for years (their channel has amassed ~83.9m+ views since 2008), but this latest preview was met with particular fervor (4.8m+ views and counting) due to its controversial depiction of what some are calling robotic animal "cruelty." You are highly encouraged to watch the video and decide for yourself. (FYI - PETA's statement: "PETA deals with actual animal abuse every day, so we won't lose sleep over this incident.. But while it's far better to kick a four-legged robot than a real dog, most reasonable people find even the idea of such violence inappropriate, as the comments show." - via CNN)

If I Die on Mars


In this video, The Guardian offers an intimate look at three individuals from around the world - a young UK student, a doctor from Mozambique, and an Iraqi-American athlete - who are all vying to be among the first four people to travel to and inhabit Mars, with no promise of return. The video, The Guardian's most popular of the year so far, is the latest installment in their line of short docs, a format the channel has been experimenting with for several months, supplemental to their snippet-sized (2-3 minute) news videos. (For more, check out Drone Wars and Guantanamo Diary.)

Guys Read Each Other's Texts to Their Girlfriends


Have you ever wondered what your bros are texting their girlfriends everyday? Neither had we, until we saw this simple, yet clever video from the Millennial paper of record, Elite Daily. The video, which has already risen to become the channel's third most watched video (~1.2m views), takes a page from the "First Kiss" handbook and pairs bros off the street with their best buddies, asking them to swap phones (rather than spit) and read aloud each other's most personal, lovey-dovey missives to the ones they love. What results is awkward, cute, and perfectly timed for Valentine's Day <3 :)


Sergei Polunin, "Take Me to Church" by Hozier, Directed by David LaChapelle

A little more than a year ago, Hozier's breakout debut "Take Me to Church" hit YouTube and became one of the most buzzed about songs and music videos of the year (107m+ views and counting). On Monday, "bad boy" ballet dancer Sergei Polunin and famously daring photographer David LaChapelle offered a mesmerizing interpretation of the song that quickly rose the charts (3.65m+ views), a variation performed by Polunin flitting beautifully through an empty barn alone. In this video, LaChapelle, perhaps best known for his subversive and stylish celebrity portraits, foregoes his usual flashiness and instead focuses tightly in on an emotionally (and physically) bare Polunin, who tells the story of his personal struggles and pressures as one of the world's premier dancers through every leap, spin, and fall.

--Christine Huang

YouTube Trends Number of the Week: 2 Million

2 Million: the approximate number of views Beck's YouTube channel received on February 9, the day after his controversial (to some) win for "Album of the Year" at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.

While impressive enough on its own, the number is particularly striking when compared to 60,000 - his channel's approximate view count for February 2, one week prior to the awards. That's an astounding ~3,290% increase in views, the 44-year-old music veteran receiving the largest lift post-Grammys of all the award winners across YouTube.

It's not entirely surprising that the most dramatic spike accompanied the most dramatic win of the night: Beck’s critically acclaimed sleeper hit “Morning Phase” beat out albums from of-the-moment superstars Ed Sheeran, Beyonce, Pharrell Williams and Sam Smith, despite the alt-rocker's relative "obscurity" and objections from the crowd. The win not only inspired viewers to explore songs from his winning album on YouTube - it resulted in a resurgence in interest in his vintage tracks as well: his classic “Loser” (the song 22 years old this year) saw its best-performing day ever on February 9, receiving ~600k views that day, ~420% more views than its second highest performing day more than three years ago (Oct 23, 2011).

-- Christine Huang

Trending This Week: Sam Smith Ties the Knot; Jimmy Fallon Can't Lose!

Trending this week: oldies but goodies, fresh jams, and one really heavy log. Here's a look at four of the top trending videos of the week - and more on our playlist here!

Jimmy Fallon Went to Bayside High with "Saved By The Bell" Cast

Fallon's tribute to one of the most beloved after-school sitcoms of the 90s saw the long-awaited reunion of the old gang (minus Lisa and Screech) - a nostalgia trip that racked up more than 18m views in two days. The throwback was the cherry on top of a winning week for the late night king (lip dub - the gift that just keeps on giving!), Fallon's channel receiving 73m+ views since Sunday, a ~180% increase from the week before.

Sam Smith - Lay Me Down


The much buzzed-about video for Sam Smith's "Lay Me Down" was released yesterday, depicting the first ever (according to Smith) same-sex marriage in an English church. The video - which has garnered 850k+ views within its first 24 hours - shows the musical artist tying the knot with another man, a union deemed illegal in the churches of Smith's home country, England. Smith hopes that through his video, he is helping spread a message of hope and equality, and that "one day gay men and women and transgendered men and women all over the world..will be able to get married under any roof, in any city, in any town, in any village, in any country."

〈獨家〉復興客機墜河／高架橋上目擊民航機墜河畫面 (TVBS) [Transasia Airways DashCam Crash Footage]


On Wednesday morning (UTC+8 time), TransAsia Airways Flight 235 tragically crash landed into the Keelung River near Taipei, killing at least 35 people. Within hours, dashcam footage of the accident taken by drivers on a nearby highway began appearing on YouTube, and quickly became among the top trending videos online (3 of the top 10 most viewed videos for February 4 were related to the crash). Local news network TVBS's capture of the dramatic accident is now the most popular YouTube coverage from the accident, with more than 6m views.

Hafthór Björnsson Thor new world record 2015


Hafthór Björnsson, best known for his role as The Mountain on "Game of Thrones," demolished a 1,000 year old weightlifting record this week, carrying a 1,433 lbs. log on his back five grueling steps. The Norwegian weightlifter dethroned the legendary Icelandic muscleman Ormur Stórólfsson, who - according to Viking lore - is said to have carried a 1,250 lbs. ship mast on his back for 3 steps before his back gave out. (Loser!) The video of Björnsson's momentous achievement (and the various guttural sounds that accompanied it) was one of the top viewed videos of the week, earning an easy 4m+ views in five days.

-- Christine Huang

YouTube Trends Explainer: American Girl Stop Motion, or #AGSM

The most viewed AGSM video (4.7+m views): No School!?!?! by FiveDollStars

2014's top toy search on Google will feel like a throwback for kids of the ‘90s: American Girl dolls. But on YouTube today, American Girl dolls are bigger than ever thanks to #AGSM, or "American Girl Stop Motion": a steadily growing video trend that has given rise to a subcommunity of (mostly) young creators who use DIY animation techniques to create intricate, short films starring their dolls. The process of creating an AGSM video is laborious, requiring thousands of still photos and hours editing and splicing the footage together. #AGSM videos have covered classic motifs like the prom and the first day of school (and more transient ones like the Ice Bucket Challenge) but also veer into more hard-hitting material like cyberbullying, familial alienation, and even the very real perils of drunk driving (warning: this video contains doll reenactments some may find disturbing.)

Since 2011, YouTube has seen a steady increase in AGSM uploads and creators. Of the 62,000+ AGSM related videos uploaded on YouTube since 2008, more than 23,000 of them were published in 2014. And last year alone, AGSM saw more than 33m views (compared to 7.8m in 2008).

One of the most prolific AGSM creators is basilmentos (90k+ subscribers). The teenage creator has made a jaw-dropping 285 videos, racked up over 30M views, and been called "the Scorcese of doll film" by at least one YouTube Trends team member.

For more AGSM on YouTube, explore here.

- Claire Stapleton & Christine Huang

Trending This Week: East/West Bowl is Back; A New Danish Action Hero is Crowned

Here's a rundown of the videos that bubbled to the top of our trending chart this week (and for more, check out this lovely playlist):

 Key & Peele - East/West Bowl 3 - Pro Edition


Leave it to Key & Peele to get even this noobiest of football fans amped up for Super Bowl Sunday! In their latest installment of sports segment parodies, the comedy duo take a moment to introduce some new "flamboyant personalities" to the lineup for the fictitious East/West Bowl - (...including some players that are actually quite real). Since its posting on Wednesday, the video has received over 3.7m views, 1.8m+ of which were clocked within its first 24 hours online.

 Lars Andersen: a new level of archery


Have you ever seen a real-life person stop, grab and re-shoot a real-life arrow mid-air (all in one 360 degree spin!?)? Neither had we until this extraordinary video came across our desks: "Lars Andersen: a new level of archery" presents one of the most talented archers alive today (Lars) demonstrating a plethora of elaborate tricks and skills that will challenge everything you thought you knew about bowmanship. The compilation video is meant to, as Lars puts it, "prove Hollywood archery is not historical" - which it does handily. But perhaps more significantly, it shows that appreciation for the ancient sport (art?) is far from dead, the video receiving close to 23m views within its first week.

Women's Ideal Body Types Throughout History

Following the success of newcomer channel Cut's 100 Years of Beauty series, Buzzfeed released their take on beauty through the ages on Monday, shining a light on the "ideal" female form from 1292 BC to present day. The video (9.5m views and climbing) features women of all shapes, sizes and ethnicities, relaying the age old message of "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" in a snackable, poppy format BuzzFeedVideo has appeared to have mastered (the channel has garnered a whopping 4.5m+ subscribers, and 1.8b+ views to date).

 Auschwitz: Drone video of Nazi concentration camp

 And finally, this week marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, also known as International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27). Auschwitz was the largest network of concentration camps established during WWII, in which more than a million people died between 1940-45. BBC News brought attention to this somber day (and dismal period in history) with a moving two and half minute video of sweeping, never before seen footage of the ruins of Auschwitz, captured by drone. The haunting video became BBC News's top YouTube video of all time, amassing nearly 3.9m views in four days.

-- Christine Huang

Trending This Week: Lips - Dubbed, Read, and Green

Trending this week: an all star face-off, an all star interview, lip dubs in unexpected places, and lip reads that'll make you chortle. Dive in below!

"NFL 2015" — A Bad Lip Reading of The NFL 



Just shy of four years since their first entrée into the genre (“Gang Fight” - to the tune of Rebecca Black’s “Friday”), the anonymous creators behind Bad Lip Reading, or BLR (4.1m subscribers) are back with another smash hit, “‘NFL 2015’ - A Bad Lip Reading of The NFL.” Only 1 day since its posting, this long-awaited addition to the NFL BLR oeuvre is proving to be one of the channel’s fastest growing yet, already having garnered a very un-deflated 9.5m+ views and rising.


Dover Police DashCam Confessional (Shake it Off)



 File this under “Unexpectedly Adorbable Caught-on-Dashcams”: last Friday, the internet was treated to a very intimate, very special lip-dub of “Shake it Off” by one Master Cpl. Jeff Davis of the Dover Police in Delaware. Davis, known around the station for his goofball tendencies, became an overnight sensation after the Dover Police posted (staged) dashcam footage of him grooving to the infectious, oh-so-dubbable Taylor Swift hit on their YouTube channel - an effort to show the lighter, friendlier side of their law enforcement officers. The video has racked up 22.4m+ views since its posting a week ago, ~7.3m of which were received in one day, January 17.

(And if you were wondering, yes - Taylor has seen it, and she approves.)

Fallout vs Skyrim



Three days ago, two heroes from two of the biggest RPGs clashed in a fantasy face off that threw videogame fanatics into a tizzy. “Fallout vs Skyrim” is a 3 minute mashup that pits two of the most well-known protagonists in the videogame arena against one another in a violent battle to the death. The young creator, AndrewMfilms (aka Andrew McMurry), gained recognition last year with his “Mario vs Minecraft” mashup (12m+ views), a creative imagining of two classic game worlds merged into one. Andrew now broadcasts to over 408k subscribers, as "Fallout vs Skyrim" moves quickly towards more than 2m views.

 The YouTube Interview with President Obama


And what better way to close out the week than with a lil’ Presidential chat! Yesterday at 5pm ET, YouTube allstars Hank Green (~2.4m subs), GloZell Green (~3.3m subs), and Bethany Mota (~8.1m subs) made history as the first YouTube creators to interview President Barack Obama live, face-to-face at the White House - livestreamed to viewers around the world. The 46-minute interview, hosted by Google’s News Lab’s Steve Grove, became a top trending topic on Twitter and, perhaps most importantly, resulted in the best ussie in the history of ussies. Thank you, President Obama!

-- Christine Huang

Letter from the UK: John Green Is a Football Fan?

John Green is many things: a Vlogbrother, the author of "The Fault In Our Stars" and "Paper Towns", and part of the driving force behind YouTube conference VidCon. But in addition to these he is also a dedicated football fan, funneling revenue from the Hankgames channel into the groundbreaking AFC Wimbledon club to secure shirt (and now shorts) sponsorship.



However, John is also a passionate fan of  Liverpool FC, and so found his allegiances tested when the teams drew each other in the FA Cup. His vlog of the trip to London for the fixture is a must-see, as are highlights of the game itself (which include a fantastic free kick from Steven Gerrard). 

John isn't the only football fan choosing to capture his love of the game to share on YouTube, as the past few seasons have seen fan channels and content springing up and finding success. The Redmen TV has tracked the highs and lows of following Liverpool since 2010, Arsenal Fan TV has done likewise for the North London club (striking gold earlier this season when fellow fans clashed after a loss) and the Manchester United-backing Full Time Devils, whose post-match interviews have turned vocal fan Andy Tate into a YouTube and Vine star. This season has also seen The True Geordie get into his stride, documenting his reactions to Newcastle United's volatile Premiership run, picking up over 60,000 subscribers in the process -- six times the following of the club's official channel. 



Life as a fan is also given a more traditional documentary treatment from football specialists Copa 90, who travelled to Seattle to capture the commitment of the Sounders' ultras, attended the most ferocious fixtures across Europe with the Derby Days series and sent Football Virgin Maya Jama on a personal quest to both learn about the game and find her team. 
So there you have it: it's a great time to be a football fan on YouTube, so go join the conversation with fans (and rivals) of your team voicing their passion on the platform. You could even become 'internet famous' in the process... 

Jamie Dolling, YouTube UK, recently watched "Nike Academy: Winter Training".