Pinkfong's Baby Shark, already the most viewed video on YouTube, has now surpassed 10 billion views, making it the first video in the platform's history to do so. To put things in perspective, the world's population is currently around 7.8 billion. This means that if everyone living has viewed Baby Shark Dance even once, a little over 2 billion people would still be left. On January 13, the video for the catchy children's song broke the 10-billion mark, widening the gap between it and the No. 2 video, Despacito, by Puerto Rican pop stars Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee.
In the video, two kids perform Baby Shark while the animated shark and his family, which includes a Grandpa Shark too, swim serenely before attempting to hunt the children. However, they fail and watch from afar, while the kids rejoice.
Watch the video here:
On its official Facebook page, Pinkfong welcomed kids from across the world to share their “Baby Shark Dance moments” with the company to commemorate the “special milestone”.
In November 2020, after garnering 7.04 billion views, the song had become the most viewed video on YouTube history then. The brainchild of South Korean educational firm Pinkfong, the song was sung by Korean-American singer Hope Segoine in 2015, when she was just 10 years old. It debuted in 2016 and has since been adapted into a Nickelodeon pre-school series Baby Shark's Big Show early in 2021. Nickelodeon also said that it was working on a feature film based on Baby Shark.
The song then went on to become the rallying cry of the Washington Nationals, an American professional baseball team. Baby Shark also spawned a six-piece NFT collection in December 2021. On the Billboard Hot 100, the song made its debut at No. 32 — its highest position — on January 12, 2019.
Over the years, Baby Shark has amassed a slew of celebrity fans. In 2018, James Corden sang the song with the help of Sophie Turner and Josh Groban. A year later, in 2019, Bebe Rexha, John Legend and daughter Luna, Celine Dion, and others covered it.
Going by its ever-increasing popularity, one thing's clear — Baby Shark is here to stay.
