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‘Baby Shark’ becomes the most-watched video on YouTube, surpasses 10 billion views

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 22: A selection of "Baby Shark" toys are seen on a display at the annual "Toy Fair" at Olympia London on January 22, 2019 in London, England. The Toy Fair is the UK’s largest dedicated game and hobby event and aims to showcase the most anticipated products for the year ahead. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

(NEXSTAR) – “Baby Shark,” a children’s song that may already be stuck in your head, has become the most viewed video on YouTube, surpassing 10 billion views on the platform earlier this week.

The video was uploaded to YouTube in June 2016 by Pinkfong, a South Korean education company, and recorded by singer Hope Segoine.


By March 2020, the video had already amassed over 4.6 billion views, making it one of YouTube’s top five watched videos of all time, the Associated Press reports. By November 2020, “Baby Shark” had been viewed over 7.04 billion times, making it the most viewed video on YouTube.

On Jan. 13, “Baby Shark” became the first video on the platform to surpass 10 billion views, Pinkfong announced. YouTube even took notice, tweeting a link to the video and adding “ten billion views doo doo doo doo doo doo.” “Baby Shark” outranks YouTube’s second-most viewed video, “Despacito,” by about 3 billion views.

Other renditions of “Baby Shark” have also become popular.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pinkfong released a new rendition of the song called “Wash Your Hands With Baby Shark.” Fans of “Ted Lasso” may have noticed how similar the chant for Jamie Tartt – “Jamie Tartt, doo doo doo doo doo doo” – is to “Baby Shark.” Before the song became a viral sensation, “Baby Shark” was a hit at summer camps.

The song’s popularity doesn’t stop on YouTube, either. It became a live show, a Nickelodeon show, boxed macaroni and cheese, and a Kellogg’s cereal. In 2020, “Baby Shark” was allegedly used as torture in an Oklahoma jail where inmates say they were forced to listen to it for up to four hours at a time.