# The 11 Most Iconic Viral YouTube Videos of All Time

> Billion-view music videos sit next to 19-second home clips that changed the platform. Size isn't the only way to be iconic.

*By YPB Team · Published October 3, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-11-most-iconic-viral-youtube-videos-of-all-time*

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## Current results (1 vote)

1. **Me at the Zoo** — score 1000/1000
   The first video ever uploaded to YouTube, 19 seconds of co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo in 2005.
2. **Despacito** — score 790/1000
   Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's 2017 reggaeton hit, long the most-viewed video on the platform.
3. **Baby Shark Dance** — score 750/1000
   Pinkfong's children's singalong that became YouTube's most-viewed video ever.
4. **Never Gonna Give You Up** — score 750/1000
   Rick Astley's 1987 video, reborn online as the bait-and-switch prank known as the Rickroll.
5. **Gangnam Style** — score 750/1000
   PSY's 2012 horse-dance music video, the first YouTube video to pass one billion views.
6. **Double Rainbow** — score 600/1000
   Paul Vasquez's ecstatic 2010 reaction to a double rainbow in Yosemite.
7. **Chocolate Rain** — score 600/1000
   Tay Zonday's 2007 baritone ballad, famous for the line 'I move away from the mic to breathe in'.
8. **Evolution of Dance** — score 323/1000
   Judson Laipply's six-minute run through dance crazes, YouTube's most-viewed video of 2006.
9. **Glitter Bomb vs. Porch Pirates** — score 323/1000
   Mark Rober's 2018 revenge build that sprayed glitter and fart spray on package thieves.
10. **Baby** — score 200/1000
   Justin Bieber's 2010 debut hit, for years the most-disliked video on YouTube.
11. **Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger** — score 0/1000
   Randall's sassy 2011 narration over nature footage: honey badger don't care.

Tags: youtube, internet, viral videos, videos