Most Viewed Videos on YouTube in 2016 - as featured on Promonews
Promonews - 3rd Jan 2017
Let's begin 2017 with one last look at that memorable year that has now passed into history. And this is where we rummage around our secret store of statistics for the actual viewing figures for the videos featured on Promonews in 2016, and discover which ones had the greatest number of YouTube views.
Yes, this is where the money is at. And out in front is Calvin Harris and Rihanna's This Is What You Came For, directed by Emil Nava - not only No.1 for the year, but the only video released this year (featured by us, we must add) that broke through the one billion views barrier. Not bad going for a video that was only released in June.
That's followed by more Rihanna: her double video for Work (ft. Drake) by Director X and Tim Erem - the latter following up his No. 1 spot in the 2015 chart with Major Lazer/DJ Snake/MØ's Lean On with the No. 2 in 2016 - which has over 800,000 views since its release. With further appearances for Nava, X and Erem in the Top 20, not surprisingly they are the most viewed directors of the year too.
So here is the top 20 - and their YouTube view count as recorded by the Promonews stats engine.
1 Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna 'This Is What You Came For' by Emil Nava 1,130,079,589
2 Rihanna ft Drake 'Work' by Director X & Tim Erem 811,802,119
3 Zayn Malik 'Pillowtalk' by Bouha Kazmi 661,120,371
4 Coldplay 'Hymn For The Weekend' by Ben Mor 642,528,585
5 Charlie Puth 'We Don't Talk Anymore (feat. Selena Gomez)' by Phil Pinto 565,214,977
6 Twenty One Pilots 'Heathens' by Andrew Donoho 547,948,347
7 Enrique Iglesias ft Wisin 'Duele El Corazon' by Alejandro Pérez 516,019,041
8 The Weeknd ft. Daft Punk 'Starboy' by Grant Singer 456,469,872
9 Jennifer Lopez 'Aint Your Mama' by Cameron Duddy 380,174,242
10 Justin Timberlake 'Can't Stop The Feeling' by Mark Romanek 337,122,845
11 Selena Gomez 'Kill 'Em With Kindness' by Emil Nava 308,391,576
12 Sia 'The Greatest' by Sia and Daniel Askill 307,339,851
13 Imagine Dragons ft. Lil Wayne, Ty Dolla $ign, Logic, X Ambassadors, Wiz Khalifa 'Sucker for Pain' by Elliott Sellers 304,251,530
14 Bruno Mars '24k Magic' by Cameron Duddy 297,649,780
15 Jonas Blue Ft. Dakota 'Fast Car' by Adam Newport-Berra 211,380,894
16 Skrillex & Rick Ross 'Purple Lamborghini' by Colin Tilley 194,371,020
17 Jonas Blue ft JP Cooper 'Perfect Strangers' by Sashinski 193,260,502
18 Beyoncé 'Sorry' by Kahlil Joseph & Beyoncé 173,948,659
19 Little Mix ft. Sean Paul 'Hair' by Director X 172,714,647
20 Nick Jonas feat. Tove Lo 'Close' by Tim Erem 172,021,451
And of course these were not the only videos that posted gigantic viewing figures on YouTube in 2016. All the big hitters of 2015 continued to post huge viewing figures, and the likes of the aforementioned Lean On, Maroon 5's Sugar, and Adele's Hello have gone from nearly one billion views to nearly two billion views.
Indeed, when you compare the viewing figures of the respective Top 20s in 2016 and 2015, you can see that in almost every position that the figures are greater this year than last (eg, the no 20 video this year for Nick Jonas ft Tove Lo has 172 million views, while last year's No.20 video had 103 million.
Looks like music videos are more popular than ever.
Videos
Promonews - 3rd Jan 2017