Guns N’ Roses join YouTube’s billion club: nine other nostalgic hits on most-watched music video list

Guns N’ Roses’ November Rain has surpassed one billion views on YouTube, making it the first music video released in the 20th century – and first created pre-YouTube – to join the exclusive “billion club”.

The tear-jerking 1992 power anthem, which averaged nearly 560,000 views per day in 2017, is also one of the most expensive music videos in history, with a budget of US$1.5 million.

The Los Angeles rockers also hold the title of most-watched ’80s video on YouTube with their iconic air-guitar-inducing hit Sweet Child O’ Mine, which has almost 700 million hits.

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Data from YouTube shows that the US is still the band’s largest fan base, with Americans contributing 89 million views to the band so far this year. However, 83 per cent of views were actually logged outside the US, with Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia being home to the band’s next largest fan bases.

November Rain’s viewer numbers spike every November, with an average of 41 per cent more views compared with the rest of the year. Before Axl, Slash and co hit Hong Kong in (fittingly) November to give fans a live rendition of the song, let’s take a look at some of the other pre-YouTube classics that have found similarly huge audiences on the platform.

1. The Cranberries – Zombie

742,018,328 views

2. Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit

730,374,321 views

3. Aha – Take On Me

679,868,332 views

4. Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You

640,936,760 views

5. Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

589,987,760 views

6. No Doubt – Don’t Speak

563,073,470 views

7. The Police – Every Breath You Take

541,624,825 views

8. Michael Jackson – Thriller

529,735,614 views

9. REM – Losing My Religion

491,681,103 views