YouTube trends 2021: Gaming tops India charts along comedy and pranks

Gen Z gaming became democratized and the gaming audience also expanded outside of the metropolitan areas, says top India exec

Gaming topped YouTube charts this year, with the genre featuring in the most popular creators and videos of the year, along with comedy and others.

"Gaming content evolved from gameplay style videos to comedy, pranks, challenges and even festival-themed music videos. Interestingly, Gen Z gaming became democratised and the gaming audience also expanded outside of the metropolitan areas in India," said Satya Raghavan, Director - YouTube Partnerships, India.

With a dearth of film music this year, many independent songs released in 2021 were accompanied by music videos with distinct storylines, featuring popular movie actors.

The rise of Bhojpuri music also continued, with artists Ankush Raja and Shilpi Raj.

Viewers turned to YouTube to learn new skills, hone newfound passions, discover new, and find like-minded communities. Besides, YouTube's short video product Shorts also gained traction this year.

Among the top Shorts creators were A2 Motivation (Arvind Arora) and Mr. Gyani Facts, who shared facts and knowledge in byte-sized videos. Crazy XYZ and MR. INDIAN HACKER fused the goodness of science and technology with entertainment as Science and Experiments emerged as a new genre.

"Some of the most popular Shorts creators in 2021 went beyond the well-understood techniques of editing videos to music and transitions, and have given rise to new and innovative formats of short-form storytelling across themes including family and friendships, language skills, motivation and men's grooming content and social messages," said Raghavan.

Round2Hell’s 40-minute long horror-comedy zombie apocalypse short film became the  number 1 trending video, and comedy did just as well in short-form video.

The break-out success of the Tamil sensation Enjoy Enjaami, set off a drumbeat of content inspired by the Tamil Hit reaction videos, cover songs including some in Hindi and Malayalam, animated re-creations, re-creations within FreeFire, make-up tutorials, and even a public service announcement by the Kerala Police!

Other popular comedy videos that made it to the top ten were from The Viral Fever's Aspirants web series, CarryMinati, BB Ki Vines, and a scene from the popular TV show Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashma.

Web series and scripted content also did well on YouTube.

TVF's Aspirants made a come back, and other scripted content that appealed to specific interests and relatable life stages of Gen Z audiences included Dice Media’s Operation MBBS and Clutch, Telugu shows like 30 weds 21 by Girl Formula and Surya featuring Shanmukh Jaswanth in the lead.