YouTube: most watched Latin artists' music videos 2024

As of June 2024, the music video of Luis Fonsi's and Daddy Yankee's "Despacito" had a total of 8.47 billion views, being the most-watched video on YouTube by a Latin American artist and the second most-viewed video of all time. It was also the first video in the history of YouTube to surpass six billion views, already in 2017. Another Reggaeton artist, Panamanian El Chombo, ranked second with "Dame Tu Cosita" (featuring Jamaican singer Cutty Ranks), with more than 4.68 billion views. Among Latin American artists, Shakira was the only female pop star to appear twice in the top ten, ranking third with the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, "Waka Waka", and sixth with "Chantaje" (featuring fellow Colombian singer Maluma).

A musical match…

The popularity of Latin artists on YouTube is not just a matter of cultural success, but also a case of the medium being part of the message. Mostly free and easily accessible on desktop and mobile devices, the video platform is one of the defining aspects of social media usage in the Caribbean. YouTube is omnipresent in the Latin American online video landscape, with markets like Brazil and Mexico being the platform’s third and fifth-largest markets worldwide.

… for those who can watch it.

The growth of mobile connectivity in Latin America and the Caribbean indeed helps the expansion of social and media platforms like YouTube, but structural problems on the continent might still hinder part of its population’s access to its cultural production. The homeland of Shakira, Colombia, has much higher access to YouTube on desktop devices than on mobile, highlighting the country’s regional differences in internet penetration. Nonetheless, the overall imbalance in the region’s purchase power makes YouTube’s free version much more accepted than its paid premium format.