Did you rob bill gates?

Happy holidays and a happy new year. At the end of the year people often look back over what happened that year. I think viral videos are fascinating - how a video travels around the world through word-of-mouth or click-of-link from person to person until millions of people have seen it. Sometimes this is just a personal video that the author perhaps just wanted to show to a few friends but had no idea millions of people would enjoy it - and sometimes several people have spent time and money creating a video that they then strategically market online…

Whatever the circumstances are viral videos are always entertaining - or at least interesting - otherwise they wouldn’t get millions and millions of views, right? Well, I picked a few of the popular videos I’ve noticed pop up in 2007 and ranked them against each other. I took the number of views the videos have right now and divided it by the date it was posted (well, actually how many days were left of the year when it was posted). Without further adieu I present to you The Top 10 Most Viral Videos Of 2007:

#10
Daft Hands - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

A fun little video - just one take. Probably just a boy/girl that was having fun and had no idea this cool video would get over 11 million views.

Views: 11,440,476
Added: June 06, 2007
Average (per day): 55,002.29 views

#9
me singing “what goes around“ Justin Timberlake

I’m pretty sure they were hoping this video would become viral. Looks like it worked - if you want to make a video viral just add Justin Timberlake ;) This is Dutch singer Esmée Denters and she was the first artist to be signed on the new Tennman Records label headed by Justin Timberlake.

Views: 13,094,860
Added: May 28, 2007
Average: 60,344.98

#8
CPDRC inmates doing the dance from Thriller

Amazing video - from the description on YouTube: “1,500 plus CPDRC inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, Cebu, Philippines at practice! This is not the final routine, and definitely not a punishment! just a teaser.”

Views: 10,157,475
Added: July 17, 2007
Average: 60,823.20

#7
PARIS IN JAIL: The Music Video

Clever and funny video - very smart to take advantage of the hype around Paris Hilton going to jail.

Views: 12,928,112
Added: June 06, 2007
Average: 62,154.38

#6
Battle at Kruger

Amazing video - a bit longer than most viral videos (08:23) but definitely worth watching… this is nature at its best - Never give up. This authors of this video definitely got noticed - a clip from the description on YouTube: “NEWS: National Geographic has sent us back to Africa to develop a special giving the behind-the-scenes story on how we got this amazing footage. Potential airdate: Spring 2008″

Views: 22,696,930
Added: May 03, 2007
Average: 93,788.97

#5
Paul sings Nessun Dorma

This is a very interesting video with a plot twist ;) I didn’t see that coming… Very inspiring video - don’t judge a book by its cover, right? This is Paul Potts singing Nessun Dorma on the UK talent show “Britain’s got Talent” - it’s no surprise that he won.

Views: 19,690,787
Added: June 10, 2007
Average: 96,523.47

#4
How to Charge an iPod using electrolytes and an onion

Cool video - might come in handy if you don’t have access to electricity ;)

Views: 5,510,023
Added: November 10, 2007
Average: 108,039.67

#3
Chris Crocker - LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!

This is the weirdest video on the list… not exactly entertaining but, uh… interesting. Well, it got a lot of views, some media exposure and I think I heard this Chris Crocker got a TV deal out of this. It probably helped that he was kind of taking advantage of the hype around Britney Spears.

Views: 14,803,559
Added: September 10, 2007
Average: 132,174.63

#2
The Landlord

Very funny video. Will Ferrel, Adam McKay & Co. used this video to launch their video site FunnyOrDie.com and it looks like it worked, big time.

Views: 51,292,692
Added: 8 months ago
Average: 196.523,72

…
and, drum roll please
…

The #1 most viral video of 2007 is:

Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist

Funny video, pretty long (10:47) - looks like it’s ripped from Jeff Dunham’s DVD. But I think it’s cool that Jeff Dunham has allowed this to stay on YouTube (with over 21 million views he probably has heard of it being there) - he definitely understands that this will only help with sales of his DVDs, other merchandise and tickets to his show. I wish more companies/artists/entertainers would realize how much they can gain by letting a few minutes of their videos stay on YouTube.

Views: 21,601,141
Added: September 29, 2007
Average: 232.270,33

What do you think? Had you seen all of these videos? If you liked this list I would really appreciate it if you would Digg it :)

People might say that the Jeff Dunham video and “Paul sings Nessun Dorma” shouldn’t belong here since they weren’t posted by the copyright holder - but they are still on YouTube and they have gotten quite a lot of views…

If you take a look at this list you might notice that quite a few of them have celebrities in them or are referencing celebrities - so, if you want to make a really viral video you should think about that.

Honorable mention

A Special Christmas Box (aka “D*ck in a Box”). Although it was first posted at the end of 2006 it become quite popular in 2007 and even received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. According to Wikipedia it got over 28 million views on YouTube - but NBC removed it from YouTube in October 2007.

If the embedded video above should disappear/not work you might be able to see the uncensored version (if you live in USA) here on NBC.com.

Another video that I want to mention that almost made the cut is Chocolate Rain by Tay Zonday:

It has gotten over 12 million views in about 8 months and is quite an internet hit - they even referenced “chocolate rain” on the show 30 Rock :) It has also brought Tay Zonday some success - Dr Pepper got him to star in an advertisement for Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr Pepper.

Did I forget any popular viral videos? Let me know in the comments - I might add them to the post…

UPDATE
I totally forgot about Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina answers a question

With 20,650,575 views and being posted August 24, 2007 it got an average of 161.332,62 views per day - and it would have been #3 on the list (pushing out “Daft Hands - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”).

I realize that my method of calculating the “viralness” of the videos might not be the best way - but it’s one way of seeing how popular they became. Most viral videos have a peak - a few days/weeks where they get the majority of the views. So the most recently posted videos might have a slight advantage on this list. I just thought that total views wasn’t accurate since those that have been online for a longer time have an advantage. Maybe it would be better to just take how many views the video got the first week/month… but sometimes videos don’t become viral until months after they are put online - often when a popular blog links to it.

Well, best of luck in the new year. I’ll see you again in 2008 :)