The 10 Most Viral Facebook Videos Of All Time

As Facebook hustles to become a one-stop destination for all things entertainment (and, let’s be honest, daily procrastination), the social media site’s video ambition escalates with almost exponential speed. Once upon a time, Facebook Video was simply a photo supplement, allowing people who accidentally clicked “record” on their iPhone cameras to upload the moving flubs. Now it’s a titanic industry competing with YouTube for eyeballs.

What can Facebook’s most viewed videos teach us about the future? Here are the 10 highest-ranking grabs-for-your-attention currently on the platform.

Data surveys videos added to the platform since 2014. View counts updated on March 29, 2017.

10. “A Valuable Lesson For A Happier Life”

Page: Meir Kay
Uploaded on: December 13, 2016
Views: ~227,000,000
“It’s easy to get caught up on the less important things in life and lose focus on what matters most,” writes 27-year-old Brooklyn-born filmmaker Meir Kay in the preamble to his hyper-inspirational short film. “When I was younger I heard a beautiful parable on the topic of prioritizing the things that truly matter and decided to bring the message through the medium of video.”

Kay’s parable is the story of the “Jar of Life,” a three-dimensional metaphor for living life to the fullest, itself based on 7 Habits of Highly Effective People author Stephen Covey’s rock story. The story and video boil down to: When you think you’ve maxed out existence, keep doing more. Through the endless scroll on Facebook, it’s easy to see why this saccharine pat on the back played well. Not all the feels — just the right ones.

9. “A Ride Through Time!”

Page: Music Crowns
Uploaded on: April 1, 2015
Views: ~237,000,000
Music Crowns, a Facebook page dedicated to “supporting unsigned and independent music artists and giving them the opportunity and platform to play to a huge audience and media presence,” helped take this video from Australian comedy group SketchShe to new heights. It’s a perfect storm of “yeah, I guess I’ll watch that”: “Carpool Karaoke”-like sing-a-longs, bursts of recognizable tunes, and three young camera-ready women. As the video description notes, this video “May Contain Naked Hot Chicks.” Clicks, baited.

8. “How To Grow Vegetables From Kitchen Scraps”

Page: Goodful
Uploaded on: September 21, 2016
Views: ~241,000,000
We know Facebook food videos, so we can say this is a great Facebook food video worthy of 230 million eyeballs. In just under 1:20, the fine folks at Goodful teach us how to turn trash can fodder — everything from lettuce to garlic — into the seedlings for a blossoming vegetable garden. The latest comic book movie can shell out hundreds of millions of dollars for super-special effects, but to be honest, this video had my jaw hanging open for longer than any Batman stunt sequence.

7. “How To Grow Vegetables From Kitchen Scraps”

Page: Tasty Vegetarian
Uploaded on: April 22, 2017
Views: ~245,000,000
The same way you can plant the junk portions of lettuce heads into the soil to grow new lettuce heads, Facebook videomakers can take old ideas and plant them back into the social stream to grow new hits. Six months after Goodful’s “How To Grow Vegetables From Kitchen Scraps” blew up on Facebook, Buzzfeed’s “Tasty Vegetarian” did the same thing for fruit. Honestly, there’s room for both: The tips for growing one’s own avocados could save precious cash to put towards a down payment on a house.

6. “Cutting Hair with Swords”

Page: AJ+
Uploaded on: December 3, 2015
Views: ~250,000,000
News videos are all the rage on Facebook, with flashy visuals and overlay text telling bite-size stories in a matter of seconds. AJ+ struck gold with this mini-profile of Madrid-based hairdresser Alberto Olmedo, who slices and dices ladies’ locks with a pair of longswords. A blowtorch is often involved. He speaks in a hunky Spanish accent. His style is science, but the reason this video blew up isn’t.