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Culture and Trends

A year on YouTube: 2022’s top trending videos & creators in the US

By Madeline Buxton, Culture & Trends Manager, US and Canada

Dec 01, 2022 – [[read-time]] minute read

Before ringing in 2023, let’s take a moment to recognize and celebrate the videos, creators and artists you took mainstream in the US over the last 12 months.

In 2022, you paid tribute to the loss of a legend, led a top creator to new subscriber heights and set a face reveal record1. You also vibed out to a Puerto Rican superstar and drove a new class of short-form comedians to widespread success.

Before ringing in 2023, let’s take a moment to recognize and celebrate the videos, creators and artists you took mainstream in the US over the last 12 months.

Moments involving traditional celebrities like Will Smith and Millie Bobby Brown gained new levels of relevance because of the ways communities reinterpreted them for their audiences through memes, parodies and more.

Top Trending Videos

This year’s top trending videos show that individual, online communities are more influential than ever before. Take the large presence of videos featuring personal stories, which allowed creators to intimately connect with and recognize their fans: Technoblade’s father recorded a farewell message penned by his late son to viewers; Dream finally dropped the mask for a long-awaited hello; and Jaiden Animations came out via her characteristic animated style. Meanwhile, moments involving traditional celebrities like Will Smith and Millie Bobby Brown gained new levels of relevance because of the ways communities reinterpreted them for their audiences through memes, parodies and more. And, of course, top creators like MrBeast continued to bring their viewers together with large-scale participatory challenges.

In this year’s top ten you’ll also find a Halftime Show that hit a note of nostalgia, Mark Rober’s latest attempt to foil phone scammers, a teenage director’s take on a horror-filled piece of internet lore and The Try Guys addressing their channel’s future.

Altogether, viewership of the Top Trending Videos surpassed last year’s: These 10 videos were viewed more than 650 million times over 55 million hours.2 The channels behind them total more than 225 million subscribers.3

  1. Technoblade - so long nerds
  2. Guardian News - Watch the uncensored moment Will Smith smacks Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars, drops F-bomb
  3. Dream - hi, I’m Dream.
  4. NFL - Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar & 50 Cent FULL Pepsi SB LVI Halftime Show
  5. MrBeast - I Built Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory!
  6. Mark Rober - Pranks Destroy Scam Callers- GlitterBomb Payback
  7. Jaiden Animations - Being Not Straight
  8. Kane Pixels - The Backrooms (Found Footage)
  9. The Try Guys - what happened.
  10. First We Feast - Millie Bobby Brown Needs a Milkshake

Top Shorts

The first-ever Top Shorts list shows that when it comes to short-form, feel-good content — whether it’s sketch comedy or visually mesmerizing tricks — reigns supreme.


  1. Shangerdanger - Diver Cracks Egg at 45 ft Deep #Shorts
  2. Hingaflips - Sarah Trust Challenges
  3. Brodie That Dood - Come with me to shave my fluffy dog! #doggrooming #grooming #goldendoodle
  4. Chris Ivan - Dave and Busters Bet Me 1000 Tickets I Couldn’t Do THIS…
  5. Jay & Sharon - That GAP Between Your Car Seat and Center Console
  6. Adrian Bliss - Welcome to the stomach #shorts
  7. Zack D. Films - This Magic Trick EXPLAINED 😱 (America's Got Talent)
  8. ILYA BORZOV - Social experiment | What would you do?
  9. PaulVuTV - Wife surprises husband at his office with pregnancy reveal! 😭❤️ #Shorts
  10. NichLmao - If you catch it... YOU KEEP IT w/ MY GF (Funny) #shorts
Top YT Creators 2022

Top Creators

Among Top Creators, MrBeast claimed the No. 1 position for the third consecutive year in a row. While other familiar faces appear in the top 10, there are also many newcomers who are reaching viewers across a range of video formats.

  1. MrBeast
  2. NichLmao
  3. Airrack
  4. Ryan Trahan
  5. Isaiah Photo
  6. Brent Rivera
  7. Dan Rhodes
  8. Luke Davidson
  9. CoryxKenshin
  10. Ian Boggs


Breakout Creators

Many of 2022’s Breakout creators, meanwhile, are finding their niches within Shorts, putting a fresh spin on Minecraft trends and finding humor in pop culture hits.


  1. NichLmao
  2. Airrack
  3. Jooj Natu ENG
  4. Shangerdanger
  5. David The Baker
  6. Kat
  7. dayta
  8. Devin Caherly Shorts
  9. MDMotivator
  10. Charles Brockman III (TheOnly CB3)

Top Songs

Finally in music, the viral success of Encanto translated into lasting hits, while Bad Bunny ruled the charts with tracks from an album release that featured traditional and non-traditional music videos alike.

  1. Encanto Cast - We Don't Talk About Bruno
  2. Kodak Black - Super Gremlin
  3. Jessica Darrow - Surface Pressure
  4. Bad Bunny - Tití me preguntó
  5. Future - WAIT FOR U ft. Drake, Tems
  6. Bad Bunny, Chencho Corleone - Me Porto Bonito
  7. Karol G, Becky G - Mamiii
  8. Imagine Dragons x JID - Enemy
  9. Karol G - PROVENZA
  10. Lil Baby - Right On (Official Video)

Dig into top trending videos from around the world at YouTube.com/trends/2022, then head here to take a look at the ads everyone was watching.

1. ”hi, I’m Dream” is the most viewed video with “face reveal” in the title or description. Source: YouTube data, Global.

2. Source: YouTube data, Global, Jan 1-Nov 21, 2022.

3. Source: YouTube data, Global.

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