YouTube showcases 2016's most popular online videos
YouTube has revealed its most watched videos of 2016 and unveiled its highly anticipated YouTube Rewind — an important event in and of itself for online video fans.
While Rewind features the YouTube creators and videos that garnered worldwide interest, the company on Wednesday also released a list of the clips, music videos and trailers that "captured the imaginations of Canadians" in 2016.
There's no single common thread through the top ten list: the eclectic mix includes Channing Tatum dressed as Beyoncé on Lip Sync Battle, a 16-second C-SPAN clip of Barack Obama mispronouncing Toronto-adjacent city Mississauga and a news item on the Fort McMurray wildfires.
Without further ado, here are the top ten trending YouTube videos in Canada for 2016:
1) Channing Tatum & Beyoncé's Run The World (Girls) vs. Jenna Dewan-Tatum's Pony from Lip Sync Battle
2) Adele Carpool Karaoke from The Late Late Show with James Cordon
3) So You Want to Move to Canada, Eh? from The Ellen Show
4) How To Be a YouTube Star, starring Superwoman and The Rock
5) Wheel of Musical Impressions with Céline Dion, from The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
6) What's inside a Rattlesnake Rattle?
7) Brothers Convince Little Sister of Zombie Apocalypse
8) Soccer Trick Shots, from Dude Perfect
9) Barack Obama pronouncing Mississauga
10) Caught on camera: Fort McMurray fire erupts behind Global News reporter
Tragically Hip concert, U.S. debates highly viewed
YouTube's report also noted some other impressive figures and events.
Viewers flocked to CBC's live stream of the Tragically Hip's concert in Kingston, Ont., the final show of their 2016 tour. Viewers from 188 countries watched both the concert and post-concert show, with up to 130,000 watching online at once.
Music fans mourned the death of legendary Canadian crooner Leonard Cohen by making Hallelujah the most-watched video the day the news broke. It's also the most-covered song on YouTube, with around 8,700 versions posted on the site.
The first U.S. presidential debate in September was one of the most-watched live events on the site, with nearly two million concurrent viewers around the world. That's 14 times more people compared to live streams of the 2012 debates. Behind the U.S., more viewers from Canada tuned in than any other country.
And 199 channels by Canadian creators reached the 100,000-subscriber mark, and 42 hit the one-million mark. Lilly Singh, meanwhile, hit 10 million subscribers and starred in a YouTube Red documentary, A Trip to Unicorn Island.
Top trending music videos
Canadian performers The Weeknd and Shawn Mendes featured in the Top 10 music videos, but the winning duo was Rihanna and Drake's music video for Work, filmed at Toronto restaurant The Real Jerk.
1) Rihanna – Work (Explicit) ft. Drake by Rihanna VEVO
2) Fifth Harmony – Work from Home ft. Ty Dolla $ign by Fifth Harmony VEVO
3) The Chainsmokers – Closer ft. Halsey by Chainsmokers VEVO
4) Calvin Harris – This Is What You Came For ft. Rihanna by Calvin Harris VEVO
5) Zayn – Pillowtalkby Zayn VEVO
6) Twenty One Pilots – Heathens (from Suicide Squad: The Album) by Fueled By Ramen
7) Can't Stop the Feeling! (from DreamWorks' Trolls) by Justin Timberlake VEVO
8) The Weeknd – Starboy ft. Daft Punk by The Weeknd VEVO
9) Shawn Mendes – Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes VEVO
10) Ruth B – Lost Boy by Ruth B VEVO
Top trending movie trailers
The movie trailer category was, perhaps unsurprisingly, all about superheroes and Star Wars.
1) Suicide Squad official trailer 1 by Warner Bros. Pictures
2) Marvel's Captain America: Civil War trailer 2 by Marvel Entertainment
3) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story official teaser trailer by Star Wars
4) Ghostbusters official trailer by Sony Pictures Entertainment
5) Sausage Party official restricted trailer by Sony Pictures Releasing Australia
6) Wonder Woman Comic-Con trailer by Warner Bros. Pictures
7) Neighbors 2 official trailer by Universal Pictures
8) Doctor Strange teaser trailer by Marvel Entertainment
9) The Shallows official trailer 2 by Sony Pictures Entertainment
10) Jason Bourne official trailer by Universal Pictures
Rewind an event unto itself
Since 2010, YouTube Rewind has showcased the site's most popular videos, creators and celebs of the previous 12 months, evolving into its own version of an awards show like the People's Choice Awards.
Last year's Rewind features several YouTube stars in newly shot footage in addition to clips of the most popular items from the past year. Since it was posted last December, it's accumulated more than106 million views.
