'Ben Breedlove' Top Rising Search

Ben Breedlove, a young man from Texas, captured the attention of millions of people around the world last week. The teenager, who suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and said he had "cheated death" on three occasions, passed away on Christmas day and left a history and personal message on YouTube.

Breedlove is YouTube's top rising search, globally, of the past 7 days thanks to the heartbreaking videos he posted just before his untimely passing.


Like a lot of talented young people, he had a YouTube channel -- two actually -- breedlovetv and OurAdvice4You, which he used to shared his advice and thoughts with the world. Videos on those channels had been seen 4.7 million times before the 25th. A third, TotalRandomness512, was used to house the two "This is My Story" videos above, which have already been seen well over 6 million times.

In the past week, over 1,000 videos tagged with his name, many of them personal tributes and remembrances, have been posted to YouTube. His memorial service was a also a spiking search over the weekend.

The style of Breedlove's videos is not new, but had a strong emotional impact. Below is a playlist with a selection of tributes, using the same visual reference: