Around the World: Most Viewed Videos of 2011

Continuing our 2011 retrospective, let's look back at what some of the most viewed videos in other countries were this year. (See the rest at YouTube Rewind.)

JAPAN:

Fun-loving residents celebrate the opening of the Kyushu Shinkansen high speed rail line in Japan.



ISRAEL:

"Dip Your Apple" is a Rosh Hashanah-themed song parody of Shakira's "Waka Waka."



FRANCE:

French comedian Max Boublil created this year's hit video with his passionate tribute to "ugly" women.



SOUTH KOREA:

Sister provides a surprise at an elegant wedding:



CZECH REPUBLIC:

The President of the Czech Republic created a stir after allegedly "stealing a pen."



INDIA:

This epic trailer was the #2 most-watched clip.



MEXICO:

Werevertumorro has a big following in Mexico, where this birthday party video was very popular.

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Top 10 Holiday Videos of 2011

Happy Holidays from YouTube Trends!

Today we look back at the past month and the top trends and videos of 2011 holiday season. Perhaps the most popular Trend of the season was that of the ambitious electrician/decorator crowd which produced a seemingly endless array of very impressive synchronized light shows that varied from pure spectacle to working video game! Check out a bunch in this playlist:

(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)



The most-viewed non-music video of December and top trending video of the holiday season was Jimmy Kimmel's "YouTube Challenge - I Gave My Kids a Terrible Present." The prank, which followed a very successful Halloween version, inspired hundreds of other videos to be posted in which parents played the practical joke on their unhappy children.

There are lots of popular videos and trends that didn't make our top 10 (see: Manta Claus) and we didn't include any of the popular major music videos (see: this).

The full list of the ones that did make it is below or you can watch them in a playlist here.

(May take a moment to load.)

See last year's top 10 here!

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The Best of the Rest: Top Videos by Categories

Earlier this week, we announced Rewind 2011 and the most-viewed videos of 2011. We also pulled together top 5 lists of the most-watched videos in some more specific categories.

Watch the #1 videos below and click the category name to see the full top 5:

SPORTS: Mountain Biker Taken Out by Buck	PETS: Guilty Dog (This one is actually #2)
BEAUTY: I'm Sexy & I Know It Inspired Makeup Tutorial	FASHION: 25 Ways to Wear a Scarf in 4.5 Minutes!
SCIENCE: What does it feel like to fly over planet Earth?	TECH REVIEW: iPhone 5 Concept Features
FOOD: TurBaconEpic Thanksgiving	WEDDING PROPOSALS: Greatest Marriage Proposal EVER!!!

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The Stories behind YouTube's Most Viewed Videos of 2011

Over the course of 2011, we at Trends have been tracking popular YouTube phenomenon each and every day. So now that YouTube has released its list of the year's most-viewed videos, we went back to the archives to see how these clips became popular in the first place:

		1. "Friday" - Rebecca Black Why Rebecca Black Might Be Around Longer Than Other Viral Stars Rebecca Black Hits 100 Million Views
		2. Ultimate Dog Tease The Talking Dog Finds Millions of Fans
		3. Jack Sparrow (feat. Michael Bolton) Lonely Island Delivers Most Viewed Video of the Past Month
		4. Talking Twin Babies Why'd That Trend: Family Videos That Go Viral
		5. Nyan Cat What They're Watching: Nyan Cat
		6. Look At Me Now - Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes Look at Them Now: Karmin's Hip-Hop Cover Songs Go Big
		7. The Creep (feat. Nicki Minaj & John Waters)
		8. Maria Aragon - "Born This Way" Young Singer Goes Big After Gaga Tweet
		9. "The Force" The Super Bowl Ad That Went Viral Before It Even Aired
		10. Cat Mom Hugs Baby Kitten How We Came to Love a Cat Hug

And what about everything else?

Want more 2011 nostalgia? Check out YouTube.com/Rewind and the timeline below to dive in to some of the unique and interesting stories that played out on YouTube this year:

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The Top Political Videos of 2011

From candidate ads to pundit debates, speeches from the White House to impassioned pleas from the American heartland, this year’s most-viewed political videos show us that a message that resonates can come from anywhere -- and anyone.

Surpassing the President and various presidential hopefuls in views, the #1 video on our list comes from a young man in Iowa speaking candidly to his government. Zach Wahls’ 3 minute speech defending gay marriage has been viewed more than 18 million times.



Three candidates for 2012 made the most-viewed political videos list. Gov. Rick Perry's highly-covered "Strong" ad was uploaded just this month, but has already racked up 7 million views (another one of his ads, “Proven Leadership” is also on the list). Herman Cain, who recently suspended his bid for President, showed that quirky gets views. President Obama reached an audience of millions on YouTube as both commander in chief, and stand up comedian.

Here’s the full list of the most-viewed political videos from the YouTube News and Politics category:

1. Zach Wahls speaks about family
2. President Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner
3. Strong [Rick Perry ad]
4. President Obama on death of Osama bin Laden
5. Brother, can you spare a trillion? Government gone wild!
6. Seth Meyers remarks at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner
7. Rick Perry - Proven Leadership
8. Jon Stewart Goes Head-to-Head Bill O'Reilly
9. Now is the time for action! [Herman Cain ad]
10. President Barack Obama's First Ad of 2012 [NRSC Ad]

In all, the videos on this list account for over 50 million views, demonstrating that there is significant interest in political video on YouTube before the primaries have even begun. For all the key moments in online political video during the coming election, visit YouTube.com/Politics. For more of YouTube’s most-viewed videos of 2011, visit YouTube.com/Rewind.

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Latest Trending Videos: The Week of Dec 17

Presents, bears, lizards, and jukes: here are 10 of this week's top trending videos from YouTube Trends:

(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)

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Hot Music Videos from Africa

This week we added 7 new countries to our Trends Dashboard and, not unlike many other countries, music videos are among the most-shared and most-viewed in many of those regions. Today we wanted to take a look at the African continent where we've now added viewing data in Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria.

KENYA:



NIGERIA:



UGANDA:

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YouTube Trends: One Year Later

Happy Birthday, YouTube Trends. Today marks the one-year anniversary of our launch and what better way to celebrate than to look at some of the trends behind the Trends.

In 2011, we featured over 2,000 Trending videos which went on to be seen over 5 billion times. Those videos were spread pretty evenly between all our categories with Music, Comedy, News, Sports, and Entertainment among the most popular.

And now it's time for YouTube Trends most-viewed posts of ALL-TIME:

1. Top 10 Most Shared Videos of 2010
   
   
2. Rick Perry’s 'Oops': The Morning After on YouTube
   
   
3. Why Rebecca Black Might Be Around Longer Than Other Viral Stars
   
   
4. What Will the Biggest March Trend Be?
   
   
5. Top 10 'People' Videos of 2010
   
   
6. Charlie Sheen 'Winning' YouTube
   
   
7. Osama bin Laden News Draws YouTube Reaction from Across the Country
   
   
8. Rebecca Black Hits 100 Million Views
   
   
9. The 10 Most Viewed Flash Mobs of All Time
   
   
10. South Korea's Susan Boyle?

Honorable Mention goes to 'Cone-ing' or: How to Will a Trend into Popularity.

And remember...

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Christmas Invasion: SantaCon 2011

Over 400 videos have already been uploaded from the various "SantaCon" activities this weekend across the United States. (SantaCon is a mass gathering/parade/bar crawl that's become increasingly popular each holiday season.)

The majority of the videos so far come from New York City's festivities, but we've also seen them from San Francisco, Canada, and the UK. Check them all out in the playlist below. Of particular note are the scores of Santa's singing "We are the Champions" in New York's Grand Central Terminal:

(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)

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Latest Trending Videos: The Week of Dec 10

Sailors, Skittles, cellos, and Ferraris: here are 10 of this week's top trending videos from YouTube Trends:

(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)

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Bieber for the Holidays

We're only days into December, but Justin Bieber has already found a big audience for the holidays.

This fall/winter, Bieber has released a series of music videos tied to the holiday season -- some of which helped push him over 2 billion overall views on YouTube. That number continues to rise.

Below you can see a chart of the videos he's released and the number of views they've received since Thanksgiving. So far they've been seen over 30 million times.

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Perry’s 'Strong' Ad Spawns Parodies and Reactions

In under 48 hours, Rick Perry’s latest ad, “Strong,” has racked up close to 750,000 views and is the most-shared and most-viewed video on YouTube in the United States today. Earlier in the day "rick perry strong" was one of our top rising search terms.



The video has also incited significant conversation on the site -- dozens of YouTube users have uploaded parody and response videos to Perry’s original ad.

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On the Scene: Windstorm in Scotland

A major storm in the United Kingdom resulted in hurricane-force winds whipping through parts of Scotland Thursday. A number of residents braved the sometimes 165mph winds to get some footage on the street of the effects of the wild storm:

(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)

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Top Rising Search: 'Occupy Australia'

"Occupy" protests, which arguably began with Occupy Wall Street in NYC in September, have spread throughout the world, and this week there's increased attention in the Australian iteration that's playing out in Melbourne.

On Monday, this clip of the "Tent monsters" evading police drew over 100,000 views with its protester shenanigans.



Today, this clip, which shows Australian officers removing the tent from a protester -- leaving her in minimal clothes -- has become a trending video and the term "Occupy Australia" was a top rising search this afternoon. (Adult language.)

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Kids and Sports: There's No Crying in Baseball... But Football's Fair Game

This post was co-authored by Will Goodman, managing editor of CBSNews.com's The Feed, and Bailey Johnson, Editor of CBSNews.com's The Feed and Sports, for a YouTube Trends series exploring viral video phenomena.

Tom Hanks once famously said in the film A League of Their Own, “There’s no crying in baseball!” And while it may be (mostly) true for baseball, it’s a whole different story when it comes to kids and football on YouTube. Football fans come in all shapes and sizes - and ages. These kids may not understand an onside kick or a Cover-2 defense, but they understand the one thing that counts the most: losing sucks. And then the tears start. For this week's trend, we're lining up at 1st-and-10 to look at pint-sized pigskin fans in tears.



Let's kick off with the most recent video to go viral in what has become a whole series of kids expressing their passion and disappointment when it comes to sports. There are plenty of fully-grown men who feel as passionately about Tom Brady as this tyke does. They just usually don't express themselves in quite the same octave. But like any major trend, this one is not just limited to the East Coast or boys crying over their team losing.



That’s right, this is a trend that covers all genders, coasts and ages (all the way from pre-school to middle school). This broken-hearted Vikings fan just can't believe what those mean ol' Packers did to her team. But at least she doesn't live on the West Coast, where there is a team that may very well feast on the tears of small children...



They dress in black, they have a history of heavily penalized players, and their mascot is a wacko with an eye-patch. Oh, Raiders, why must you make so many children cry? Sure, but we’ve only seen one child crying over them so far, you’re thinking. And you’d be right, so let’s roll the next clip so we can accurately say children in terms of the Raiders trend.



So there you have it. Sports can bring many people to tears, but only children - as they so often do - express what we're all feeling. And we've only focused on one sport. There is a wealth of sport-related childhood heartbreak online. (Spoiler alert: there is crying in baseball.)

Today's Trend analysis provided by

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Across the Country: College Spirit

We dug through data from cities across the U.S. today to find some of the current Most Shared and Most Viewed local clips:

MINNEAPOLIS: Minnesota's management school organized a holiday flashmob	OKLAHOMA CITY: OSU and OU bands unite for a stirring performance of "Amazing Grace" following the women's basketball tragedy
SAN FRANCISCO: Another argument/angle on the UC Davis pepper-spray incident	NEW ORELANS: The first LSU National Championship game song

See more of what's popular in different locations nationally and around the world with our Trends Dashboard.

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Latest Trending Videos: The Week of Dec 3

Frisbees, paint, bicycles, and dogs with hands: here are 12 of this week's top trending videos from YouTube Trends:

(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)

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Speech by Son of Gay Parents Goes Viral Twice

Earlier this year, a college student named Zach Wahls delivered a touching speech in the Iowa legislature. The video was featured here on Trends and saw a small viral surge of just over half a million views.

But now it's gone viral again and, this time, the surge is not so small.

Another version of the clip suddenly skyrocketed in popularity, and it's been seen roughly 11 million times in the past 3 days. Here's a chart of combined views for the video:



So how'd it happen? It seems much of the attention was driven from a link on Reddit, and, even moreso, from a post on Moveon.org from Wednesday. The video drawing significant share traffic.

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Bye Bye Movember

Today marks the start of December, which means that everyone who grew facial hair for charities focusing on men's health.

We've been seeing hundreds of "Movember-ending" videos posted in the past 24 hours in which men of all ages have filmed themselves shaving off their 'staches, beards, and goatees:

(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)



Rather expectedly, we're also seeing mustache time-lapses from the more photographically dedicated:

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