Moon landing dominates YouTube India's 2023 top videos list

As Chandrayaan-3 touched the Moon, India's YouTube scene lit up with millions aiming for their own "moonshots" in 2023. UPSC aspirants found camaraderie with comedian Anubhav Singh Bassi, while the diverse content landscape celebrated India's cultural richness.

YouTube released its ‘A Year on YouTube’ report, an annual rewind of all the videos, shorts and creators who made it big in the year. Here is a wrap of the YouTube India’s 2023.

On top of the trending videos chart was, needless to say, India’s biggest achievement this year, the Chandrayaan-3 moon landing live video, which currently has over 79 million views. According to YouTube, Chandrayaan-3 Mission Soft-landing LIVE Telecast saw over 8.5 million peak concurrent views, which made it the largest live stream of all time on the platform.

It is followed by comedy group Round2Hell’s video Men on Mission with over 47 million views and on the third spot is Bassi’s stand-up comedy called UPSC with 42 million views.

Others on the list include Carryminati, Ashish Chanchalani, Harsh Beniwal and more — India laughed its heart out in 2023. On the 12th spot, however, is an explainer on how to create a YouTube channel in 2023, by Spreading Gyan. So, while most of us focused on entertaining ourselves through the channel, a lot of us also learned how to grow using the platform — 21 million to be precise.

According to YouTube, the top trending videos in the country were selected based on in-country views of videos uploaded in 2023, excluding Shorts, music videos, trailers, and children's videos.

Gaming took centre stage, with Grand Theft Auto (GTA) VI Trailer 1 smashing records, garnering over 93 million views in 24 hours. The achievement marked a new high for non-music video debuts, showcasing the evolving landscape of creativity on YouTube.

Four videos on the Top 15 Gaming Videos list in India were GTA V-related, including the top two spots.

Fitness trainer Pawan Sahu was YouTube India’s breakout creator for 2023, meanwhile, YouTuber Neetu Bisht was the top female breakout creator of the year.

They were selected based on in-country subscribers gained in 2023, excluding artists, brands, media companies, and children's content, as per YouTube.