The most popular YouTube music videos this year once again had a distinct español flavor.
Eight of the top 10 most-viewed music videos on YouTube worldwide in 2018 were in Spanish — with Puerto Rican singer Ozuna (pictured above) appearing in three of them.
The No. 1 music video with 1.45 billion views year-to-date is the Nicky Jam, Bad Bunny and Ozuna remix of “Te Boté,” the 2017 breakup song from Casper Magico, Nio Garcia and Darell. Following close behind is Nicky Jam’s “X (EQUIS)” featuring J. Balvin with 1.40 billion views.
Last year, six of YouTube’s top 10 music videos were also in Spanish, including the No. 1 video: Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito,” which became in international smash hit and still holds the record as most-viewed YouTube video of all time (with currently over 5.7 billion views).
In 2018, the two English-language tracks on YouTube’s music-video chart were Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You” featuring Cardi B (No. 3) and Drake’s “God’s Plan” (No. 8).
Among the top 10 was El Chombo’s “Dame Tu Cosita” featuring Cutty Ranks — originally released in 1997, it became an internet sensation and dance trend thanks to a video of a weird animated alien (created by French animator ArtNoux) gyrating to the track. After it spiked on YouTube, Ultra Music re-released “Dame Tu Cosita” as an extended single with Pitbull, El Chombo and Karol G (along with a music video featuring the dancing alien).
Drake released a number of massive, influential music videos this year, with “God’s Plan” his most popular (notching 890 million views to date). His music also was the basis for one of the biggest dance challenges on YouTube this year — the “In My Feelings Challenge” — and his video for the song tipped a hat to the meme.
Meanwhile, Ariana Grande’s pop-culture-inflected video for “Thank U, Next,” which dropped Nov. 30, broke the YouTube record for most views in 24 hours (with 55.4 million). It also set the YouTube record for the fastest video to garner 100 million views, reaching the milestone in less than four days.
Here are the top 10 YouTube music videos by views for 2018 (as of Dec. 5):
| “Te Boté” Remix | Casper, Nio García, Darell, Nicky Jam, Bad Bunny, Ozuna | 1.45 billion |
| “X (EQUIS)” | Nicky Jam feat. J. Balvin | 1.40 billion |
| “Girls Like You” | Maroon 5 feat. Cardi B | 1.39 billion |
| “Dura” | Daddy Yankee | 1.19 billion |
| ““El Farsante” (Remix) | Ozuna & Romeo Santos | 1.11 billion |
| “Sin Pijama” | Becky G, Natti Natasha | 1.11 billion |
| “Dame Tu Cosita” | El Chombo feat. Cutty Ranks | 947 million |
| “God’s Plan” | Drake | 890 million |
| “Me Niego” | Reik feat. Ozuna & Wisin | 736 million |
| “Vaina Loca” | Ozuna & Manuel Turizo | 688 million |
