YouTube Rewind 2019 is here, and it's revealed one particularly interesting fact that might surprise you: Minecraft was the most-viewed video game on YouTube in 2019.
Every year, YouTube does this thing called "YouTube Rewind", a tradition where they generally screw one or more things up pretty badly and get a torrent of (sometimes well-deserved) hate from the community. (At the time of writing, the dislike-to-like ratio is nearly 2:1.) You can watch YouTube Rewind 2019 for yourself to get a good idea of what people will be complaining about over the next week.
While the YouTube Rewind has traditionally been a music video of sorts highlighting some of the biggest moments both on the platform and in pop culture for the year, with a heaping helping of Youtuber cameos this year YouTube decided to just create a Top 10 list. After wading through various categories both banal and bombastic, we came upon video games — and there's where a pretty staggering figure was revealed.
You see, YouTube ran the numbers to figure out which games got the most views, Minecraft won by a country mile: it's had over 100 billion views. That's billion, with a B!
Minecraft Leads the Top 5 Most-Viewed Games on YouTube
Though Mojang's blocky sandbox was king, it wasn't the only game to feature in the Top 5 for gaming. Here are the other items on the list along with their views:
- Minecraft (100.2 billion views)
- Fortnite (60.9 billion views)
- Grand Theft Auto (36.9 billion views)
- Garena Free Fire (29.9 billion views)
- Roblox (29.6 billion views)
That's pretty darn impressive for a game that came out more than a decade ago.
It should be noted that there are several factors that likely contributed to its success this year. One was the fact that Keemstar hosted weekly games with other YouTubers which likely helped its popularity a bit, and the other was PewDiePie taking the time to make his own Let's Play of the game.
Minecraft has had a very good year, and being #1 in YouTube views is just the cherry on top. Can they replicate their success next year? We're sure to find out when YouTube releases another (probably terrible) Rewind video.
What do you think of Minecraft being the most-viewed game on YouTube in 2019? Do you think they can do it again in 2020? Let us know in the comments below!