YouTube: the most popular cats from its first 10 years
From Maru to Grumpy Cat, Surprise Kitten to Nyan Cat, felines have
been some of the biggest stars on so far. But which are most popular?
Stuart Dredge
YouTube.
Cats. Two concepts that, however much that horse-dancing chap from
South Korea sticks his oar in, will always be interlinked in hundreds of
millions of people’s minds. Cats are YouTube’s muses and its mascots. But which are the most
musey and mascotty? As the service celebrates its 10th birthday, we
asked YouTube’s trends team what the most popular felines of its first
decade were. They came back with a chart based on views, subscribers and how much
“discussion and creativity” its subjects had inspired during that
decade. And sorry, Grumpy Cat, but the top slot goes to ...
This Scottish Fold cat lives in Japan, loves boxes, and has accumulated more than 289m views on his channel –
which also has nearly 500,000 subscribers. From tail-dancing and
paper-bag wearing to loafing about on the sofa, he’s a global hit.
Grumpy Cat. Photograph: Amanda Edwards/WireImage
She may have less views than Maru – 31.5m on her official channel –
but Grumpy Cat is arguably more famous in the wider world thanks to her
bestselling books and appearances at various tech events. Tardar Sauce
(her actual name) owes her looks to feline dwarfism rather than a gloomy
character.
“Mow?” This animated cat was the work of Simon Tofield, who set up
his YouTube channel in 2007 and has since generated more than 640m views
and attracted nearly 3.5 million subscribers. Tofield recently raised £310k on crowdfunding website Indiegogo to make a longer 11-minute film with his feline star.
Surprised Kitten. Photograph: YouTube
Not a channel, but a single video – the only one ever uploaded to the
channel of its owner “rozzzafly”, in October 2009. The 16-minute clip
of a kitten being tickled has since been watched more than 75m times.
Published on YouTube channel BloodBlitz, this series of videos
features a take-no-nonsense cat wearing a supervillain-inspired mask,
and terrorising his owner. A Behind The Scenes video revealed that
BaneCat is female, incidentally.
Henri, the Existential Cat. Photograph: YouTube
Something more arty on this channel, which has nearly 9.5m views for
its videos presenting the life of a cat filled with angst, filmed in
suitably moody monochrome. “Just when I think they have exhausted all
means of insulting me. Now this ...”
Colonel Meow. Photograph: YouTube
Let’s get the bad news out of the way: Colonel Meow isn’t alive any
more. But when he was, he was a hit on YouTube, with 3m views of his
channel and a Guinness World Record for having the longest fur (nine inches, since you ask).
Nyan cat is one viral hit to have contributed to the ascendence of online video. Photograph: The Dishh
The original Nyan Cat video has been watched more than 120m times on
YouTube, so it’s surprising to see the multi-coloured poptart-cat so low
on this list. But it was as much of a meme off-YouTube, including a
website challenging people to watch (and listen to his song) for as long
as possible.
Keyboard Cat. Photograph: YouTube
If you ever see a snarky reference to YouTube as a place full of
“cats playing pianos”, chances are Keyboard Cat is the cause. His
original video was seized upon by the media, with his channel since
generating nearly 71m views.
Sparta Cat. Photograph: YouTube
Another veteran YouTube feline, the original Mean Kitty Song was
uploaded in 2007, going on to rack up nearly 82m views since, providing a
platform for parent channel SMP Films (which is more focused on comedy
skits and tricks) to build its audience.
Dubious about the merits of these cats? Here’s a playlist to help you decide:
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