Can YouTube Fans Predict the Latin GRAMMY Winners?

On November 17, the Latin GRAMMY Awards will honor the biggest names in Latin music. With YouTube viewers around the world watching more Latin music than ever — 55 Latin artists have songs in the YouTube Top 100 music charts this year alone — we decided to look at which nominees would have the highest chance of winning if the winners were selected based on views of their songs on YouTube during the GRAMMY eligibility period.

Latin GRAMMY Predictions: Record of the Year
When it comes to the Record of the Year, this year’s Latin GRAMMYs have a clear winner if song popularity is our metric of choice. Among the nominees, Enrique Iglesias and Wisin’s “Duele El Corazón” is far and away the most-played track on YouTube.

Latin GRAMMY Predictions: Song of the Year
While Record of the Year honors the performer alongside the producers, engineers, and mixers of the track, the Song of the Year award recognizes the songwriters behind some of the biggest hits of the year. Among the ten nominated tracks, Enrique Iglesias & Wisin’s “Duele El Corazón” once again stands out as the most-watched track:

Best New Artist
The Best New Artist category for this year’s Latin GRAMMYs is -- when compared to the Song of the Year and Record of the Year -- a much closer race. Nevertheless, Manuel Medrano’s YouTube views over the past year and a half suggest that the singer of “Bajo El Agua” and “Una Y Otra Vez” are more popular than newcomers Mon Laferte (“Tu Falta De Querer”), Morat (“Cuánto Me Duele”), and Joss Favela (“Cuando Fuimos Nada”).



Latin GRAMMY Predictions: Urban Song of the Year
If YouTube’s weekly Top 100 Charts are our barometer for highlighting the songs that people love, Latin Urban music is tremendously popular on YouTube. The most popular song of all the Urban Song of The Year nominees is Yandel’s “Encantadora,” beating out the likes of Cosculluela & Daddy Yankee’s “A Donde Voy” and De La Ghetto’s “Acércate.”



Urban Album of the Year
J. Balvin is one of only four Latin artists (the others being Enrique Iglesias, Shakira, and Romeo Santos) who, at the time of writing, have videos that have received over a billion views. Although Balvin’s billion-view song, “Ay Vamos,” was on a previous album, tracks like “Ginza” and “Safari” have proven immensely popular, and have led to his Energía being the most listened-to album of all nominees. Farruko’s Visionary is next in line, followed by Emicida’s Sobre Crianças, Quadris, Pesadelos E Lições De Casa…, El B’s Luz, and Arianna Puello’s Despierta.



How closely will popularity sync with the decisions of this year's Latin GRAMMY judges? We'll have to wait until November 17 to find out!

-- Posted by the YouTube Culture & Trends Team

Remembering Leonard Cohen's Legacy on YouTube

Following the announcement of Leonard Cohen’s death on November 10, “Hallelujah,” one of his most iconic songs, is today’s most-watched video on YouTube, with over 5.2 million views (as of 4pm EST).

Leonard Cohen - "Hallelujah"

Furthermore, today's increase in views for “Hallelujah” has far outpaced the view increases to other videos on Leonard Cohen's channel:

The resurgence of “Hallelujah” should come as no surprise. Since September 2014, it has been viewed over 35 million times, making it one of the most popular ‘80s songs on YouTube. Among Cohen’s catalogue, it’s his most popular track, with double the views of his second most-viewed song, “A Thousand Kisses Deep.”

Why is “Hallelujah” so unique? After all, when it was released in 1984, the song did not immediately become a commercial hit. Yet over the past 30 years, it has remained a core part of contemporary culture due to the high number of its covers by other artists. The most popular version on YouTube is Jeff Buckley’s rendition, which has been viewed over 75 million times since September 2014:

Jeff Buckley - "Hallelujah"

Yet famous covers are not the only source of timeless appeal for the song. YouTube creators have covered “Hallelujah” more than any other track release before 2010:

While Cohen may be gone, his music — particularly “Hallelujah” — has memorialized him as a once-in-a-generation talent.

8 Years of U.S. Presidential Elections on YouTube: How They Compare

We’ve reported staggering numbers for the 2016 U.S. presidential election on YouTube. The final debate, for example, had an unprecedented 140 million election-related views.

Even more exceptional is how this U.S. presidential election cycle compares to those of 2012 and 2008. We examined the data for election years in 2016, 2012, and 2008, and determined that this year will likely break YouTube records for views and watch-time on Election Day, November 8.

Since January 1, overall views in 2016 for videos about candidates have been 5x larger than in 2012. Going back four more years to the 2008 election, this year has had 8x more views than 2008’s presidential race. This is a departure from the change in views from 2008 to 2012, which was only 1.65x larger.

In each case, Election Day was the most popular date: views historically increase 7-10x from the yearly average, as viewers tune into analyses of the results. When it comes to U.S. elections-related viewership, we expect November 8, 2016, to be one of the largest days ever in YouTube’s history.

The Significant YouTube Moments From Every Presidential Election Year 

Each election season is marked by its own cultural milestones: there are the gaffes, the inspirational speeches, and the viral campaign moments. We’ve compiled a list of some of the biggest election-related moments on YouTube during the past three presidential races:

Here are some of the elections-related videos that provided sizable contributions to the viewership spikes in each of the three campaign cycles:

2016

• March 12: Protester attempts to rush stage as Trump speaks (4.5 million views) 
• July 18: Stephen Colbert gets on stage at Republican National Convention (5.3 million views) 
• Oct. 9: Second presidential debate (124 million views across numerous live streams)

2012

• Jan 20: Obama sings Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” (4.5 million views) 
• June 5: Lip dub mashup of Obama singing “Call Me Maybe” goes viral (48.7 million views) 
• Sept 5: Gay Vietnam veteran discusses marriage equality with Romney (3.6 million views)

2008

• Feb 2: Super Obama girl video goes viral (40 million views) 
• March 18: Obama delivers “More Perfect Union” speech (7.2 million views) 
• Aug. 29: Obama attends the 2008 Democratic National Convention (826 thousand views)

Celebrate National Cat Day With YouTube’s Most Popular Felines

October 29 is National Cat Day, which means it’s the perfect moment to reflect on one of the most important memes in YouTube’s canon. Who are the most popular cats on YouTube? Have YouTube viewers tired of watching cute kittens? Are cats more popular than dogs?

We’ve crunched the numbers to deliver answers to these momentous questions.

Have we achieved peak cat?

Fans of felines can rest easy: according to figures dating back to 2007, cats are as popular as ever.

• Weekly views of cat videos have grown by over 10,000% since early 2007 
• Dec 2009 - “Surprised Kitty” video finds huge popularity online 
• May 2011 - A video of a cat hugging her kitten goes viral 
• May 2014 - Video of the family cat saving a boy from a dog is covered by media outlets across the world

The Most Popular Cat on YouTube is…

To no surprise of YouTube’s cat enthusiasts, the most popular channel, by cat-related video views, is dedicated to Simon’s Cat. For years, creator Simon Tofield has illustrated a web series about his cat, inspired, in large part, by the real-life version of Simon’s cat, named Hugh. At the time of writing, the channel has amassed over 4 million subscribers.

Simon’s Cat in “Cat Man Do” has received over 58 million views

Here's the full list:

(Check out their channels here: Simon's Cat, mugumogu, ignoramusky, Talking Kitty Cat, かご猫 Ｂｌｏｇ)

Cats vs. Dogs

There are few rivalries that can match that of cats vs. dogs. And, despite the popular belief that YouTube is only an archive of cat videos, dogs seem to be the more popular of the two on YouTube. Views over the past two years seem to suggest that this trend is going to continue.

As YouTube continues to grow as a destination for filmmakers, chefs, and educators, there is a simple joy that cat videos still provide in 2016.

Over the past 11 years, YouTube has given us the chance to melt over friendships like Oskar the blind cat and Klaus, develop existential crises from Henri’s life musings, and celebrate the personality of the late Colonel Meow, the 2014 Guinness World Record holder for the cat with the longest fur.

Though the future may soon be dog driven, both YouTube’s founding fathers — Grumpy Cat, Keyboard Cat, and Lil Bub — and their digital legacy will remain very much feline.

Halloween ‘16: Clown Sightings, Harley Quinn Costumes, and Other Trends

Whether it’s decorations or costumes, YouTubers take Halloween very seriously. As big fans of the holiday, we’ve been closely watching the biggest Halloween trends of 2016.


Clown Sightings

Prior to this year, the fear of clowns was a relatively niche phobia that served more as a topic for humor than a widespread phenomenon. Yet this fall, we’ve observed a sudden increase in clown-related content on YouTube:

The impetus for this trend? Clown sightings. YouTubers have been uploading footage of solitary clowns frightening passersby in droves, and as news of these unnerving encounters has spread, so have views of clown-related videos.

Although bizarre clown sightings are reported as far back as 2014, their sharp increase only goes back to late August this year. The real peak, however, occurred on October 15th, after hundreds of news stories.

Harley Quinn, ‘The Purge,’ and Clown Costumes

As clowns have become prominent, so too have clown costumes: “clown” has become one of the most searched-for costumes on YouTube this October.

• Clown costumes, at #6 this year, are in the top 10 for the first time.
• Stick figure costumes were the most popular costume-related search this month.
• Costumes of this year’s biggest Hollywood blockbusters are popular too, with users searching for costumes of Harley Quinn (from “Suicide Squad”) at #2, “The Purge” at #5, and “Deadpool” at #8.

Suicide Squad’s Harley Quinn

• Costumes inspired by this year’s video games, such as “Overwatch” (released in May ‘16) and “Five Nights At Freddy’s” (the latest installment of which was released this October), are also in the top 10.

Other Halloween 2016 Trends

• Makeup how-to videos are also among the most popular this year, including tutorials like dope2111’s Yzma from Emperor’s New Groove (4.3M) and Kat Sketch’s “The Conjuring 2” tutorial (3.1M views).
• DIY costume tutorials, such as this how-to of 15 candy costumes (8M) by SaraBeautyCorner or this “Suicide Squad” costume tutorial (3.7M) by Wengie, are also highly popular in 2016.

Halloween’s Biggest Hits

Holidays have unique soundtracks. Christmas has Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)” and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” while Valentine’s Day sees play bumps for Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called To Say I Love You” and Savage Garden’s “Truly Madly Deeply.”

But what about Halloween? To find out what’s played as we celebrate the most ghoulish day of the year, we dug into the data for tracks with the highest increase in plays on October 31 compared to a song’s average the rest of the year.

Songs That Receive the Greatest View Increases on Halloween

All songs on this list receive at least 10k average daily views throughout the year and received at least 2x the number of views on Halloween than they do on all other days in 2013, 2014, and 2015.

In first place: the timeless "Monster Mash," recorded by Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt Kickers in 1962.

Geographic Trends in Gaming: Who Plays What, Where?

Gaming, often touted as being larger than Hollywood, is an international phenomenon, with a sprawling YouTube community. We’ve been publishing a monthly list of the games trending globally for some time, but recently got to wondering: are there distinct geographic quirks to gaming on YouTube? Is everyone, everywhere, watching Minecraft videos? Or do some countries have a preference for a unique title?

To find out, we selected the 25¹ countries with the highest gaming viewership by watchtime on YouTube in 2016. Then, we examined which games consistently made the top 25 most-popular games in each country. Here’s what we found:

• To no one’s surprise, there are only two games that appear on the most-popular lists of all 25 countries: Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V.
• Of the two, Minecraft is the more popular, at #1 everywhere apart from Vietnam and Thailand. Even there, it only slips so far as #2.
• There are also two games that are popular in nearly every country’s top 25: Pokemon Go, which makes the most-watched list everywhere apart from Russia, and Five Nights at Freddy’s, which is popular in every country we looked at apart from Taiwan and Japan.

We also examined games that were uniquely popular in each country — that is, which games appeared on the most-popular list of one country, but not others? Ten games, which you can see below, made the cut:

• Due to the tremendous popularity of football in North America, Madden NFL ‘16 takes the #1 spot in the U.S. It’s also the only sports game on the list.
• Three of the games had strong RPG elements (e.g., Puzzles & Dragons in Japan, Tower of Saviors in Taiwan, Dofus in France).

-- Posted by the YouTube Culture & Trends Team

¹ Countries included: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, France, Great Britain, Indonesia, India, Japan, Mexico, Malaysia, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Taiwan, Ukraine, United States, Vietnam