Baby Shark becomes YouTube's most-watched video of all time

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By VT

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The infamously catchy 'Baby Shark' song has now become YouTube's most-watched video of all time, according to the BBC.

The video has currently been viewed 7.04 billion times at the time of writing, overtaking the music video for 'Despacito' by Luis Fonsi.

Per BBC, 'Baby Shark' has been viewed so many times that if it had been played back to back it would have been streamed continuously for 30,187 years.

Check out the catchy children's song below:
[[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqZsoesa55w]]

It was recorded by South Korean-based company Pinkfong, who has reportedly made an estimated $5.2 million from YouTube streams alone.

It took more than four years for the tune to reach the top of YouTube's most-played chart but it appears that the song has existed for much longer than that.

Per the BBC, the song's roots stem all the way back to the 1970s in American summer camps. It has also been suggested that the song came about as a result of Steven Spielberg's phenomenally successful 1975 blockbuster Jaws.

[[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBHYhvOHgvc&t=26s]]

There are several versions and variations, with one including a surfer who loses an arm to a shark and another where one of the main characters dies.

There are also versions overseas, which include the French variation, 'Bebe Requin', and the German version, 'Kleiner Hai' (Little Shark), which became reasonably successful in parts of Europe back in 2007.

This Baby Shark toy saved a toddler's life after absorbing a bullet:

However, none of these interpretations ended up being anywhere near as successful as Pinkfong's version, which was sung by 10-year-old Korean-American singer Hope Segoine and posted to the video-streaming platform back in 2015.

[[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnj17sXKW5s]]

"Nursery rhymes have always been sort of slow, very cute, but something that would help your children fall asleep - as opposed to Baby Shark," Pinkfong's marketing director Jamie Oh told the BBC in 2018.

"Pinkfong's Baby Shark is very trendy and it has a very bright beat with fun dance moves. The animation is very vivid. We call it K-Pop for the next generation," he added.

Per the BBC, Pinkfong is planning to turn the hit song into a film and a musical, and aim to make Baby Shark "another classic for kids music, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".