--- title: Here Are the Most Popular Viral YouTube Videos of 2016 description: From Adele and James Corden's Carpool Karaoke to a pseudo zombie apocalypse prank, here are the viral videos that people watched this year. canonical: https://time.com/4592346/top-viral-youtube-videos-2016/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-07T06:01:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:39:13.917Z og:title: Here Are the Most Popular Viral YouTube Videos of 2016 og:description: From Adele's Carpool Karaoke to family pranks, here are the year's viral videos. og:url: https://time.com/4592346/top-viral-youtube-videos-2016/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here Are the Most Popular Viral YouTube Videos of 2016 twitter:description: From Adele's Carpool Karaoke to family pranks, here are the year's viral videos. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The 10 Most Popular Viral YouTube Videos of 2016 > Sponsored content. 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From professional comedian segments (thanks to hosts like [John Oliver](http://time.com/3674807/john-oliver-net-neutrality-civil-forfeiture-miss-america/?iid=sr-link2) and [James Corden](http://time.com/4506470/james-corden-carpool-karaoke-all/?iid=sr-link1)) to candid pranks (for instance, a [faux zombie apocalypse](http://time.com/4290519/wisdom-tooth-removal-surgery-prank-zombie-apocalypse-video/?iid=sr-link2)), people were hooked on these mini-masterpieces. Excluding professional music videos, here are the platform’s most-watched clips: ### 1\. Carpool Karaoke with Adele James Corden’s smash-hit viral series reached its peak with singer Adele’s legendary pipes in the mix. The fellow Brits took a drive through some rainy English streets, and the video garnered 135.8 million views, making it the most-viewed video on YouTube’s list. ### 2\. Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen/PIKO-TARO At 95 million views, this zany song and video was hailed as the “Gangnam Style” of the year. ### 3\. What’s Inside a Rattlesnake Rattle? The father-son “What’s Inside?” duo takes on one of the curiosities of the natural world—for 59.5 million views. ### 4\. Nike Football Presents: The Switch ft. Cristiano Ronaldo In a Freaky-Friday-like twist, soccer’s biggest star and a young wannabe player switch places. The Nike ad puts the power of hard work in the spotlight, and received rave reviews, catapulting it to 57 million views. ### 5\. Grace VanderWaal: 12-Year-Old Ukelele Player Gets Golden Buzzer On an _America’s Got Talent_ audition, ukulele wunderkind VanderWaal made a breakout performance that earned her a shoutout from Taylor Swift—and 46.4 million views. ### 6\. Water Bottle Flip Edition Popular YouTube pranksters Dude Perfect throw water bottles at various surfaces—and they land perfectly, right-side-up, every time. It’s got 41.9 million views. ### 7\. Channing Tatum vs. Jenna Dewan Tatum’s Lip Sync Battle We’d never seen Channing Tatum dance quite like this before. Then his wife busted out a wildly impressive rendition of Tatum’s iconic _Magic Mike_ “Pony” dance, and all bets were off. It’s at 36.9 million views. ### 8\. Donald Trump: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver John Oliver’s weekly HBO show had a number of popular and politically-scathing segments in 2016, but none bested this twenty-one-minute segment from February on now-president-elect Donald Trump, with 30.8 million views. ### 9\. The $21,000 First Class Airplane Seat YouTube video personality Casey Neistat traveled in expensive style—and then let his viewers in on the experience, calling his first-class upgrade on Emirates one of the greatest days in his life. His peek into the lap of mile-high luxury has 26.7 million views. ### 10\. Brothers Convince Little Sister of Zombie Apocalypse Prankster brothers took advantage of their sister’s compromised mental state after her wisdom tooth removal to convince her that zombies were coming for them all. 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