Gangnam Style to Baby Shark: YouTube’s 20 greatest viral hits

After two decades of video sensations, here’s a reminder of the streaming platform’s most unforgettable clips – year by year

From weird elephant videos to revolutionising TV: 20 years of YouTube

YouTube is 20 years old. Although video had existed online before, YouTube’s ease of use – for the first time sites could easily embed video into their content – made it revolutionary. As such, we now live in a world where people watch more YouTube than anything else. But how did we get here? Perhaps the best way to find out is to trace the most significant videos produced in each of its 20 years.