For a decade, YouTube has been at the top of video streaming platforms, primarily driven by users’ interest in music, but that trend seems to have changed in recent times.
The platform has witnessed a change in the nature of its audience over the past years, as another competitor to music clips has emerged, which are children’s songs and educational clips directed at them.
To highlight the most viewed videos, visualcapitalist has put together a list of 20 videos, which reveal the high demand for children’s content and how it has stacked up against other types of content offered on the platform as of August 2023.
On the following graphic, video clips for children appear in green, while music clips appear in pink.
Most viewed clips
At the top of the list is the children’s video “Baby Shark”, which was launched in 2016 by children’s education brand Pinkfong.
In January 2021, the video clip crossed the 10 billion watch mark on YouTube, becoming the first clip to achieve this number.
Of the top 20 YouTube videos, 9 offer content specifically for kids, as shown in the following tables:
The “Baby Shark” clip, which has garnered 13 billion views, surpasses the “Despacito” clip by singer Luis Fonsi, which comes in second place, with about 8 billion views.
Children’s songs return again in third place, with the “Johnny Yes Papa” clip, with 6.7 billion views, then the “Bath Song” in fourth place, with 6.3 billion views.
And in fifth place comes the song “Shape of You” by the singer “Ed Sheeran” with 6 billion views, then the clip of the song “See You Again” with 5.9 billion views.
And the seventh and eighth place is occupied by two songs for children, with more than 5 billion views.
Why top children’s songs?
While the rise in popularity of nursery rhymes on YouTube may be explained by several reasons such as catchy music and familiar lyrics that make them easy to memorize, research suggests other reasons.
According to a study by the “Pew” Institute for Research, the YouTube platform works to provide content directed to children in a large way.
According to the study, 81% of parents with children 11 years old or younger allow their children to watch YouTube clips, while 35% of these children follow the platform regularly.
From a market point of view, this is profitable for YouTube, which prompted it to acquire Cocomelon, and other popular children’s channels, in a deal estimated at $ 3 billion in 2021.
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