YouTube Highlights Its Top Trends, Topics and Creators of 2023

YouTube has published its annual trend wrap-up, highlighting all the key trends, based on user engagement and search behaviors, from throughout the year.

And most of them you probably recognize, either via your own engagement or subconscious exposure.

As per YouTube:

“2023’s Trending Topics in the U.S. reflect fandom’s increasingly important role in transforming cultural moments into fully immersive phenomena that play out across Shorts, longform, livestreams, and podcasts. From original series like Skibidi Toilet to the release of Barbie, fans came to YouTube to put their personal spins on memes, movies, and more.”

Ah, yes, “Skibidi Toilet”, a random joke clip that somehow morphed into an epic, post-apocalyptic drama series, set across 68 video clips and counting.

Yeah, it’s super weird, but there actually is a core story told through machinima, or computer game-based animation, which has obviously proven compelling to many users.

Like, tens of millions of them, for every episode.

Among other key trends of note, YouTube highlights the viral “Grimace Shake” response, Jack Black’s “Peaches” from the Mario Bros. movie soundtrack, and Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers”, among various other niche topics of interest.

The top 10 YouTube topics of the year, among U.S. users (by total engagement), were:

The top YouTube creators, meanwhile were headed by Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson and his friends once again, as he continued to expand upon his online video (and beyond) empire.

It’s always amazing to me to consider the cultural impact of gaming based on this list. Out of these 10 creators, more than half of them have direct roots in gaming content, which has become a key pathway into content creation, beginning with game streaming, then shifting into other areas.

And gaming is likely to remain a key cultural influencer, because most young consumers these days don’t even watch regular TV, with YouTube, and other online platforms, now their primary sources of entertainment. To them, these creators are not YouTubers, they’re as mainstream as anyone else, which will see them continue to guide future creative trends.

YouTube has also included a listing of “Breakout Creators” and top songs of the year, providing a solid overview of what resonated in the app in 2023.

Also, Shorts is a key factor. YouTube hasn’t provided a Shorts-specific listing for this year, but I suspect that’s coming, maybe in 2024, as Shorts continues to drive more engagement in the app.

YouTube’s full overview is worth a look if you want a reminder of the top trends, or if you want to catch up on what young people, in particular, are currently engaging with.

Let’s just hope they don’t also make another “Rewind” video clip to go with it.

You can check out YouTube’s 2023 Trend Report here.