Top 10 Most Viewed YouTube Videos of All Time in March, 2026

Hello!

Welcome back to the monthly update! As we wrap up the first quarter of 2026, the YouTube leaderboard continues to be a battleground between viral music hits and global children’s anthems. While the top spot seems untouchable, the competition in the lower ranks has seen some interesting shifts.

As of March 2026, we have a major shake-up at the bottom of the list. The legendary "Axel F" by Crazy Frog has officially entered the Top 10, knocking out "Uptown Funk" and proving that 2000s internet culture is more alive than ever.

Now all 417 videos in YouTube’s top rankings have each exceeded the 1 billion views mark. Even more remarkably, 148 of them have now passed the 2 billion milestone.

Below is the freshly updated list of the Top 10 Most Viewed YouTube Videos of All Time, along with a curated playlist showcasing the top 200 most-watched videos across the globe.

* *

* *

Top ten most viewed YouTube videos of all time

1. "Baby Shark Dance" by Pinkfong

Views: 16 800 410 453
Release Date: June 17, 2016
Channel: Pinkfong Kids' Songs & Stories

The undisputed king of YouTube. At over 16.8 billion views, "Baby Shark" is more of a global utility than a video at this point. It continues to gain views at a rate that keeps it miles ahead of any competitor.

2. "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee

Views: 8 976 822 218
Release Date: January 12, 2017
Channel: Luis Fonsi

Holding strong as the most-viewed music video of all time, "Despacito" continues to be a global favorite. It is steadily approaching the massive 9-billion-view milestone.

3. "Wheels on the Bus" by Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes

Views: 8 708 532 017
Release Date: May 24, 2018
Channel: Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes

CoComelon's strongest contender continues to climb. It has firmly established itself as the #3 most-watched video of all time, largely due to its infinite replayability for toddlers.

4. "Bath Song" by Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes

Views: 7 415 377 283
Release Date: May 2, 2018
Channel: Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes

Another entry from CoComelon, the "Bath Song" remains a staple for parents worldwide, maintaining a comfortable lead in the top five.

5. "Johny Johny Yes Papa" by LooLoo Kids

Views: 7 168 931 529
Release Date: October 8, 2016
Channel: LooLoo Kids – Nursery Rhymes and Children’s Songs

This viral nursery rhyme remains a powerhouse, maintaining its position in the top five despite heavy competition from newer children's content and major music industry titans.

6. "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth

Views: 6 956 778 820
Release Date: April 6, 2015
Channel: Wiz Khalifa

A tribute that never fades, "See You Again" remains the second most-viewed music video on YouTube, serving as a timeless anthem for the Fast & Furious franchise.

7. "Phonics Song with Two Words" by ChuChu TV

Views: 6 923 915 680
Release Date: March 6, 2014
Channel: ChuChu TV Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs

ChuChu TV’s flagship video is a testament to the power of educational content, holding a firm position in the all-time rankings.

8. "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran

Views: 6 690 769 808
Release Date: January 30, 2017
Channel: Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran's 2017 smash hit remains his most successful visual to date and continues to be one of the few non-childhood-focused videos to dominate the top 10.

9. "Gangnam Style" by PSY

Views: 5 893 552 835
Release Date: July 15, 2012
Channel: PSY

The video that started it all. PSY's "Gangnam Style" continues to rake in millions of views from new generations discovering the K-pop legend for the first time.

10. "Axel F" by Crazy Frog

Views: 5 823 622 261
Release Date: June 16, 2009 (YouTube) / May 17, 2005 (Original)
Channel: Crazy Frog

Rounding out the list is the iconic "Axel F." After a record-breaking month of views, the blue amphibian has officially reclaimed its position among the world's most-watched content.

* *

The data from March 2026 shows that the gap between music videos and children’s content is widening, but the entry of Crazy Frog into the Top 10 is the biggest story of the year so far. It highlights a fascinating trend where "legacy" viral videos are gaining momentum again, likely driven by YouTube Shorts and TikTok trends that repurpose classic 2000s audio.

Will Crazy Frog be able to leapfrog PSY next month? Stick around to find out!

* *

* *

Playlist of top 200 most viewed YouTube videos

YouTube History

YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, who were all early employees of PayPal. Hurley had studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, while Chen and Karim studied computer science together at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

According to a story that has often been repeated in the media, Hurley and Chen developed the idea for YouTube during the early months of 2005, after they had experienced difficulty sharing videos that had been shot at a dinner party at Chen's apartment in San Francisco. Karim did not attend the party and denied that it had occurred, while Chen commented that the idea that YouTube was founded after a dinner party "was probably very strengthened by marketing ideas around creating a story that was very digestible".

YouTube began as a venture-funded technology startup, primarily from a $11.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital between November 2005 and April 2006. YouTube's early headquarters were situated above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California. The domain name www.youtube.com was activated on February 14, 2005, and the website was developed over the subsequent months.

The first YouTube video was entitled Me at the zoo, and shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo. The video was uploaded on April 23, 2005, and can still be viewed on the site.

From left to right: Chad Hurlet, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim

YouTube's former logo, used from 2006 to 2011, with different color gradient.

YouTube offered the public a beta test of the site in May 2005, six months before the official launch in November 2005. The site grew rapidly, and in July 2006 the company announced that more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every day, and that the site was receiving 100 million video views per day. According to data published by market research company comScore, YouTube is the dominant provider of online video in the United States, with a market share of around 43 percent and more than 14 billion videos viewed in May 2010. YouTube says that roughly 60 hours of new videos are uploaded to the site every minute, and that around three quarters of the material comes from outside the U.S. The site has eight hundred million unique users a month. It is estimated that in 2007 YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000. Alexa ranks YouTube as the third most visited website on the Internet, behind Google and Facebook.

The choice of the name www.youtube.com led to problems for a similarly named website, www.utube.com. The owner of the site, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment, filed a lawsuit against YouTube in November 2006 after being overloaded on a regular basis by people looking for YouTube. Universal Tube has since changed the name of its website to www.utubeonline.com. In October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it had acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock, and the deal was finalized on November 13, 2006. Google does not provide detailed figures for YouTube's running costs, and YouTube's revenues in 2007 were noted as "not material" in a regulatory filing. In June 2008, a Forbes magazine article projected the 2008 revenue at $200 million, noting progress in advertising sales. In January 2012, it was estimated that visitors to YouTube spent an average of fifteen minutes a day on the site, in contrast to the four or five hours a day spent by a typical U.S. citizen watching television.

YouTube entered into a marketing and advertising partnership with NBC in June 2006. In November 2008, YouTube reached an agreement with MGM, Lions Gate Entertainment, and CBS, allowing the companies to post full-length films and television episodes on the site, accompanied by advertisements in a section for US viewers called "Shows". The move was intended to create competition with websites such as Hulu, which features material from NBC, Fox, and Disney. In November 2009, YouTube launched a version of "Shows" available to UK viewers, offering around 4,000 full-length shows from more than 60 partners. In January 2010, YouTube introduced an online film rentals service, which is available only to users in the US, Canada and the UK as of 2010. The service offers over 6,000 films.

YouTube's headquarters as of 2010 in San Bruno, California

In March 2010, YouTube began free streaming of certain content, including 60 cricket matches of the Indian Premier League. According to YouTube, this was the first worldwide free online broadcast of a major sporting event.

On March 31, 2010, the YouTube website launched a new design, with the aim of simplifying the interface and increasing the time users spend on the site. Google product manager Shiva Rajaraman commented: "We really felt like we needed to step back and remove the clutter." In May 2010, it was reported that YouTube was serving more than two billion videos a day, which it described as "nearly double the prime-time audience of all three major US television networks combined". In May 2011, YouTube reported in its company blog that the site was receiving more than three billion views per day. In January 2012, YouTube stated that the figure had increased to four billion videos streamed per day.

In October 2010, Hurley announced that he would be stepping down as chief executive officer of YouTube to take an advisory role, and that Salar Kamangar would take over as head of the company.

In April 2011, James Zern, a YouTube software engineer, revealed that 30 percent of videos accounted for 99 percent of views on the site.

In November 2011, the Google+ social networking site was integrated directly with YouTube and the Chrome web browser, allowing YouTube videos to be viewed from within the Google+ interface. In December 2011, YouTube launched a new version of the site interface, with the video channels displayed in a central column on the home page, similar to the news feeds of social networking sites. At the same time, a new version of the YouTube logo was introduced with a darker shade of red, the first change in design since October 2006.

In May 2013, YouTube launched a pilot program to began offering some content providers the ability to charge $0.99 per month or more for certain channels, but the vast majority of its videos would remain free to view.

source: wikipedia

Did You Know These Fascinating YouTube Facts?

Viewership

More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month
Over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
YouTube is localized in 53 countries and across 61 languages
In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth
Millions of subscriptions happen each day. Subscriptions allow you to connect with someone you're interested in — whether it's a friend, or the NBA — and keep up with their activity on the site

Mobile and Devices

25% of global YouTube views come from mobile devices
People watch one billion views a day on YouTube mobile
YouTube is available on hundreds of millions of devices
Traffic from mobile devices tripled in 2011

Content ID

Content ID scans over 100 years of video every day
More than 3,000 partners use Content ID, including every major US network broadcaster, movie studio and record label
YouTUbe has more than eight million reference files (over 500,000 hours of material) in Content ID database; it's among the most comprehensive in the world. The number has doubled in the last year
Over a third of YouTube's total monetized views come from Content ID
More than 200 million videos have been claimed by Content ID