YouTube Korea announces 2022's top videos, creators and more
Trot singer Lim Young-woong's “If We Ever Meet Again” was the most popular Korean music video of 2022, according to the yearly wrap-up by YouTube Korea, announced Monday.
The streaming platform wrapped up this year’s most popular videos, Shorts, music videos, content creators and fastest growing content creators. The top ten were selected in each category from videos uploaded between Jan. 1 and Oct. 30 of this year.
The most popular Korean YouTube video of 2022 was Titanam’s “Korea Theme Park EVERLAND 'Amazon Express' Cast announcement skill,” which was uploaded in April and garnered over 25 million views. The video, less than three minutes long, shows an employee at a theme park nonchalantly recite the ride safety instructions before passengers took off. The employee has been dubbed the “soulless legend” ever since and has gained cult fame as the subject of numerous parodies.
YouTube talk shows also saw success, such as rapper Lee Young-ji’s “Nothing Much Prepared” (translated), which featured numerous K-pop stars as guests. An episode of the series featuring Chaeryeong of girl group ITZY sits at No. 4 on this year’s most popular videos. Studio Waffle’s “Turkids on the Block,” hosted by comedian Lee Yong-jin, and singer Meenoi’s “Yorizori” on hip-hop label AOMG’s official channel each sit at No. 9 and 10.
Music-related content also ranked high. Among the top 10 were Taeyeon’s live performance medley on dingo music’s “Killing Voice” series, at No. 2, and girl group NewJeans’s performance of “Attention” on KBS Kpop’s Music Bank, at No. 3.
YouTube Shorts, which have a maximum time limit of 60 seconds, have also been captivating viewers. The most-watched Short of this year was 1min cook’s “The No. 1 Korean food that even shocked foreigners who have lived in Korea for 10 years,” which shows the cooking YouTuber demonstrate how to make bossam (steamed pork) with lots of garlic.
Shorts that were abbreviated edits of longer YouTuber videos were also popular, such as “Yu Jae-seok’s suffering,” a short clip from tvN’s entertainment show “Sixth Sense Season 3,” which was uploaded on the channel’s YouTube account tvN D and came in at No. 3.
The top Korean music videos of 2022 is as follows: trot singer Lim Young-woong’s “If We Ever Meet Again," PSY’s “That That” featuring Suga of boy band BTS, boy band Big Bang’s “Still Life,” girl group (G)I-DLE’s “Tomboy,” Lim’s “Our Blues, Our Life,” girl group Blackpink’s “Pink Venom,” girl group IVE’s “After Like,” project girl group GOT the beat’s “Step Back,” IVE’s “Love Dive” and Lim’s “Rainbow.”
Three of Lim’s trot numbers made it in the top 10 music videos. Trot is a genre of upbeat music popular among Korea’s older generations.
Based on how much their subscriber count increased throughout 2022, the top Korean content creators on YouTuber were Shortbox and Nerdult, both of which specialize in comedy poking fun at everyday life. At No. 3 was the aforementioned 1min cook, followed by creators from various backgrounds who have taken on the additional challenge of YouTube: Olympic speed skater Kwak Yoon-gy, singer Sung Si-kyung and webtoon artist Lee Mal-nyeon (under the handle Calm Down Man), each at No. 4, 5, and 10.
Out of the "breakout" channels that showed a 200-percent increase or more compared to the past year, bbangsong topped the list. The channel presents addictive tunes with humorous lyrics. Vocal duo Davichi member Kang Min-kyung was at No. 2, Korea-based Congolese YouTuber Jonathan at No. 4 and singer-turned-television personality Kangnam at No. 6. One common characteristic observed among fast-growing channels were that they utilized short-from content in addition to full-length videos.
The full list of each category is available at youtube.com/trends/2022/kr/.
BY HALEY YANG [yang.hyunjoo@joongang.co.kr]