# What is the most viewed video on YouTube? (https://www.socialcrawl.dev/data/most-viewed-youtube-video)

As of 2026-08-18, the most viewed video on YouTube is Baby Shark Dance by Baby Shark - Pinkfong Kids’ Songs & Stories, with 17.2 billion views, ranked live across 24 of the platform's most watched videos via the SocialCrawl API. That is 8 billion views clear of the runner-up, Wheels on the Bus, which stands at 9.3 billion.

Computed 2026-08-18 from a sample of 24.

## Methodology

SocialCrawl reads the public view count for a curated basket of the most watched videos on YouTube via the API endpoint /v1/youtube/video, then ranks them by lifetime views. 24 videos were ranked on 2026-08-18. The basket is drawn from the videos already known to be the most watched, not an exhaustive scan of every video on YouTube, so it answers which of these is biggest rather than surveying the whole platform. Each video is listed under the name the reference sources use, which is the part of its YouTube title before the first vertical bar, because creators pack keywords and channel branding after that bar; the untouched title is kept in the snapshot alongside it. Like counts come from the same call, so the most liked video named on this page is the most liked of these 24, not of YouTube as a whole. A channel can hide its like count, and a video that does is still ranked on its views. Every count is read live, never estimated.

## FAQ

### What is the most viewed video on YouTube in 2026?

As of 2026-08-18, Baby Shark Dance by Baby Shark - Pinkfong Kids’ Songs & Stories is the most viewed video on YouTube, with 17.2 billion views. It is ranked live from public video data across 24 of the platform's most watched videos via the SocialCrawl API, so the number tracks reality rather than a stale estimate.

### How far ahead is the most viewed YouTube video?

By 8 billion views as of 2026-08-18. Baby Shark Dance sits on 17.2 billion against 9.3 billion for the runner-up, Wheels on the Bus. Both counts are re-read daily, so the gap on this page is the current one rather than a figure typed in once.

### Is the most viewed YouTube video also the most liked?

No. As of 2026-08-18 the view leader Baby Shark Dance carries 47 million likes, while the most liked of the 24 videos ranked here is Luis Fonsi - Despacito ft. Daddy Yankee on 57 million likes. Views count plays and likes count deliberate approval, so they routinely have different winners. Note this is the most liked video in this basket, not on YouTube as a whole: the platform's overall like leader need not be a heavily viewed video at all.

### How is the most viewed YouTube video calculated here?

Each video's public view count is read via /v1/youtube/video, then the 24 videos are ranked by lifetime views. The leader as of 2026-08-18 is Baby Shark Dance with 17.2 billion. This is a curated basket of videos already known to be among the most watched, not an exhaustive scan of YouTube, and counts are read live rather than estimated.

### How often does the most viewed YouTube video change?

The ranking is recomputed every day, and as of 2026-08-18 the leader is Baby Shark Dance on 17.2 billion views. The top spot moves rarely because the lead is measured in billions, but the positions behind it change far more often, which is why this page re-reads all 24 counts rather than publishing a fixed list.

## Explore with AI

Questions this API answers, phrased for an AI assistant:

- What is the most viewed video on YouTube?
- How many views does the most watched YouTube video have?
- Which video has the most views on YouTube right now?

Data source: SocialCrawl unified social data API. https://www.socialcrawl.dev/data