If you fancy starting a new career as a YouTuber, you might want start with videos about gaming or ~pleasurable sounds~
A new study, conducted by the Pew Research Center, has found the YouTube keywords that attract the most views in 2019, and there are quite clearly some big trends emerging.
Number one on the list was “Fortnite,” which comes as no surprise considering 16-year-old Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf took home a whopping $3M at this week’s Fortnite World Cup. Last year, Business Insider reported that Fortnite had nearly 250 million players, which is over two-thirds of the entire U.S. population. So, yeah, it makes sense that it’s going OFF on YouTube.
Second on Pew Research Center’s list of most-viewed YouTube search terms is “ASMR” AKA Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. If you’re not familiar with the trend (where have you been?) it’s a “static-like or tingling sensation on the skin” that starts from the scalp and moves down the neck and spine, brought on by “auditory or visual stimuli,” like whispering, scratching, crinkling, crumpling, or tapping.
Personally, I’m not a fan of ASMR and find the whispering noises rather annoying, but clearly there is a huge demand for it, particularly on YouTube where it’s getting 25.7M worldwide searches per month.
On the list of most-viewed keywords, “ASMR” was followed by “Slime”, “Rainbow”, “Prank” and “Worst.” Which, to me, indicates the world likes watching really pleasant and satisfying video content, but we also enjoy seeing things go wrong.
Ahh, humans.