Even if you personally didn’t take the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, you and millions of other people sure enjoyed watching its videos. YouTube announced today that videos related to the challenge have raked in over one billion views globally.
The company told Mashable the ALS Ice Bucket videos have beat out 2013’s video meme, the “Harlem Shake.” Challenge videos had double the amount of uploads and triple the amount of views as “Harlem” ones. “That, combined with the volume of uploads, makes it one of the biggest video memes in the history of the Internet,” stated YouTube. “Yeah, it’s that big.”
Challenge videos, which began in the US and spread across the rest of the world, feature anyone–from your next door neighbor to celebrities–pouring buckets of ice water over their heads to raise awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The videos started appearing on YouTube in August and rapidly became one of the globally top-searched terms that month.
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The Challenge roped in so much attention for ALS that the ALS Association has received a total of over $100 million in donations to help fight the disease.
YouTube’s put together a playlist of the most-viewed Ice Bucket Challenge videos to date, which you can view below. Otherwise, we’d like to hear from you — which was your favorite challenge video and why?