‘Baby Shark’ blows past 10 billion views on YouTube

It became the most-viewed video on the platform in November 2020

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A song many believe to be one of the worst in human history has reached a mind-blowing milestone on YouTube.

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The video for ‘Baby Shark,’ the super-syrupy children’s pop song out of South Korea that has become a North American earworm, has surpassed 10 billion views on YouTube . It became the most-viewed video on the platform in November 2020 and is now the only video to reach the 10-billion views milestone.

The song, which became a hit in Asia when it was released in 2016 but took another three years to become a viral hit in Canada and the United States, was created by South Korean educational entertainment company Pinkfong and sung by Korean-American Hope Segoine.

Baby Shark has become an industry unto itself, with a spinoff Nickelodeon TV show, a breakfast cereal and a live show. It’s also the rallying call of the Washington Nationals and earned a nod from Apple TV+ hit show Ted Lasso.

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“We instantly saw that Baby Shark starting performing, even compared to our other best-performing videos on the channel.” Pinkfong’s U.S. CEO Bin Jeong told CNN in 2019. “We saw it was going to be special. We put more marketing behind it, but that’s not how or why it became so viral. To be honest, no matter what you do, the ones that make it, make it on their own.”

‘Baby Shark’ surpassed 2017 hit ‘Despacito’ by Puerto Rican stars Luis Fonso and Daddy Yankee as the most-viewed video on YouTube. ‘Despacito’ has been viewed more than 7.7 billion times.

The video for ‘Baby Shark,’ which has the simplest of lyrics, is a combination of live action — two children demonstrating the ‘Baby Shark’ dance — and animation of a family of sharks.