YouTube announces they won’t do their annual Rewind this year

YouTube has canceled their annual Rewind tradition this year.

Evan Pattee

YouTube recently made the announcement that there will not be a YouTube Rewind for 2020.

YouTube Rewind has been a long-standing tradition for the video sharing website since 2010. Each November, YouTube releases a recap of the year featuring the site’s most popular content creators and the biggest trends. The rewinds have served as time capsules of pop culture for the last decade, but 2020 continues to be a year filled with exceptions.

“2020 has been different,” YouTube acknowledged in an official statement. “And it doesn’t feel right to carry on as if it weren’t. So we are taking a break from Rewind this year.”

This revelation has left many people either heartbroken or relieved. YouTube Rewind has become infamous in recent years, specifically the 2018 YouTube Rewind, which was heavily criticized for pushing celebrities like Will Smith and Trevor Noah to the forefront of the video while excluding prominent content creators of the year such as PewDiePie and MrBeast. This video also received backlash due to its inclusion of unpopular or outdated trends and lack of tributes to the many public figures that passed away that year such as Avicii, Stan Lee and Stephen Hawking.

YouTube Rewind 2018 reigns as YouTube’s biggest loser, holding the record for most dislikes on the channel — a total of 18.56 million. No matter the videos’ popularity, many people look forward to the YouTube Rewind as a source of entertainment — whether that entertainment comes from making fun of it or genuinely enjoying it is entirely based on the viewer. 

One video content creator in particular agrees with this sentiment. Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, who was previously left out of YouTube Rewind 2018, has taken up the torch with a statement on Twitter.

“Since YouTube isn’t making a rewind this year, I’m going to.” Donaldson said.

With Donaldson’s history of releasing unconventional videos, his version of YouTube Rewind will surely be interesting.