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YouTube debuts Trending Tab, and with it the 10 most popular clips of 2015

One Silento to rule them all.

 

Rae Votta

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Posted on Dec 9, 2015   Updated on May 27, 2021, 12:48 pm CDT

YouTube is making it easier to see what’s moving the needle on the service with a new Trending Tab, debuting today on the platform.

The Trending Tab will aggregate popular and buzzworthy video, filtering across all YouTube apps like Red and YouTube Music, as well as the desktop service. To emphasize the impact of YouTube trends, the service announced the 10 highest-trending videos in the general and music categories for 2015.

The Trending Tab

The Trending Tab

via YouTube

Trending videos of the year are determined based on based on views, shares, comments, likes, and more, according to YouTube. Overall, the trending videos have been watched for 25 million hours, collectively, and have an aggregate of 6.5 billion views.

For all trending videos, Silento’s “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” performed by Heaven King marks the first year where a dance video hit the top of the trending videos chart. The song gained traction thanks to a partnership with multichannel network DanceOn, and skyrocketed up the music charts in addition to the YouTube ones. Other top videos include Super Bowl commercials, prank videos, and TV clips from shows like Lip Sync Battle and Britain’s Got Talent.

1. Silento- Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) #WatchMeDanceOn
2. Clash of Clans: Revenge (Official Super Bowl TV Commercial)
3. Crazy Plastic Ball PRANK!!
4. Love Has No Labels | Diversity & Inclusion | Ad Council
5. Lip Sync Battle with Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart and Jimmy Fallon
6. Justin Bieber Carpool Karaoke
7. 6ft Man in 6ft Giant Water Balloon – 4K – The Slow Mo Guys
8. Golden boy Calum Scott hits the right note | Audition Week 1 | Britain’s Got Talent 2015
9. Dover Police DashCam Confessional (Shake it Off)
10. Mean Tweets – President Obama Edition

On the music video side, the official Silento video still makes the chart, but is down at No. 10. On top is Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s track from the Furious 7 soundtrack, paying tribute to Paul Walker. Adele’s “Hello,” despite breaking records, hasn’t been on YouTube long enough to rack up enough longterm hits to move it above a No. 9 spot.

1) Wiz Khalifa – See You Again ft. Charlie Puth [Official Video] Furious 7 Soundtrack
2) Maroon 5 – Sugar
3) Ellie Goulding – Love Me Like You Do (Official Video)
4) Major Lazer & DJ Snake – Lean On (feat. MØ) (Official Music Video)
5) Taylor Swift – Bad Blood ft. Kendrick Lamar
6) David Guetta – Hey Mama (Official Video) ft Nicki Minaj, Bebe Rexha & Afrojack
7) Sia – Elastic Heart feat. Shia LaBeouf & Maddie Ziegler (Official Video)
8) Fifth Harmony – Worth It ft. Kid Ink
9) Adele – Hello
10) Silentó – Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) (Official)

For the first time ever, YouTube also announced a trending songs list, which doesn’t tie to specific video uploads, but instead tracks songs that are most popular as uploads in cover songs, dance performances, fan tributes, and in any other way across the system. Topping off that list was Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk,” while longterm viral successes like “Gangnam Style” still make the chart.

1) Uptown Funk
2) See You Again (feat. Charlie Puth) 
3) Thinking Out Loud
4) Gangnam Style
5) Blank Space
6) Sugar
7) Shake It Off
8) All About That Bass
9) Chandelier
10) Cheerleader – Felix Jaehn Remix Radio Edit

Screengrab via Tianne King/YouTube

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*First Published: Dec 9, 2015, 5:53 pm CST