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Baby Shark chews past Despacito to become YouTube's most viewed video ever

Baby Shark news, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, seven BILLION views, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper
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Doo-doo-dooing it up right.

 Video screenshot by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper/CNET

YouTube's top viral video could be so many things, really. A hilarious cat video, maybe. A rock star's hit single. A blockbuster movie trailer. Nope, it's the annoyingly catchy Baby Shark song, as recorded by South Korean company Pinkfong. The video has now been viewed more than 7.04 billion times, passing Luis Fonsi's hit song, Despacito, which isn't that far behind, topping 7.03 billion views. 

The BBC did some math, reporting that "played back-to-back, that would mean Baby Shark has been streamed continuously for 30,187 years."

The shark song was a valuable commodity for sure. The BBC says Pinkfong has made about $5.2 million (£4 million, AU$7.3 million) from YouTube streams alone. A representative for YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment about when exactly Baby Shark swam past Despacito on the charts.

Baby Shark inspired a live concert tour and an upcoming TV show, expected to premiere in 2021.