Here Are The Top 10 TikToks Of 2020, Which Prove Truly Anyone Can Become Famous Online
I'm sad to report our cranberry juice drinking, skateboarding 'Dreams' vibe king was not number one.
In 2020, we all turned to the little things to find any joy we could. And for a lot of us, this was TikTok.
From watching a dog have a full-blown existential crisis, to being convinced that viciously whipping up fluffy Dalgona coffee was a normal thing to do, to witnessing strangers create an entire virtual musical based on an animated rat who likes to cook, we really did have a lot of fun on TikTok this year.
Beyond the fun stuff, TikTok has also been a great platform for some bigger issues this year.
In 2020, we watched Gen Z turn TikTok into a political tool during the US election, hot firefighters debunked bushfire conspiracy theories in under 60 seconds, and we witnessed a strawberry dress and artists like Lizzo spark important conversations around thin privilege and fatphobia.
But with over 800 million active users on the app, it’s not surprising that TikTok sparked so many important cultural moments. However, with SO many users, this meant there was also just a whole lot of filler content that we had to sift through over the last year.
Thankfully for us, TikTok has crunched the numbers to come up with a list of the world’s top 10 videos from 2020. Based on total engagements (views, creations and growth) and not just likes, here are the best TikToks from the year that was:
10. A goose literally throwing it back — @hartyt_
17-year-old Hunter Clay and his twerking goose, Lauren, went viral back in April, for very obvious reasons.
Set to ‘If I Back It Up, Is It Fat Enough’ by Cookiee Kawaii, Lauren’s tail feather shaking really did capture TikTok’s heart.
9. This superhero transformation — @thejulianbass
Proving that real talent can still get you noticed online, Julian Bass’ super creative superhero transformation helped him gain over 1.3 million followers.
8. Miss Tabitha Brown’s carrot bacon — @iamtabithabrown
Easily one of the most wholesome people and accounts to come out of this trash fire year was Tabitha Brown, the vegan influencer with the most soothing voice known to man.
The vegan bacon even landed Miss Brown a spot on Ellen, where she taught Tiffany Haddish how to cook this very same recipe a few weeks ago.
7. The meatier/meteor joke — @lizemopetey
Possibly the dumbest, yet funniest moment of 2020 was Eliza Petersen’s mega-viral joke about how the dinosaurs were wiped out.
Acting out the parts of both God and an angel, Petersen joked that a simple misunderstanding was the reason dinosaurs no longer roam the Earth. Iconic, honestly.
6. The obscure Russian cereal jingle — @awa_de_horchata_uwu
It was hard to escape hearing “Mi pan su su sum” for a good chunk of the year thanks to this dancing llama.
But as we all quickly discovered, the track is a cover of a Russian jingle for a cereal called ‘Miel Pops’, which somehow makes it 30 times better.
5. Will Smith wiping it down — @willsmith
Actually quite active on TikTok, unlike so many celebrities who join the platform, Will Smith took part in the ‘Wipe It’ trend by throwing it back to his Men in Black character, Agent J.
4. Justice for the original ‘Renegade’ — @nba
With the rapid growth of TikTok and TikTok influencers, a huge conversation around who owns and deserves credit for creating these massive movements was sparked.
But it all came to a head early this year, when the app’s biggest creator, Charli D’Amelio, was accused of stealing the ‘Renegade’ from a Jalaiah Harmon, a 14-year-old.
After the whole debacle, listing dance credits in the description of a video is now commonplace. Plus, Harmon ended up getting her credit and was put on the big stage to perform it during the NBA All-Star game, which is what you see above.
3. The co-worker you despise on Zoom — @itscaitlinhello
Caitlin Reilly built a successful brand for herself on TikTok by perfectly portraying all the people, characters and things we all love to hate.
But during the pandemic, it was clear that we all really just felt the same way about our annoying co-workers during all those Zoom meetings we had to sit through while working from home.
2. The skateboard riding, juice drinking vibe king — @420Doggface208
While 2020 has been horrible, one man united us all: Nathan Apodaca.
Apodaca only rose to fame at the end of September, but his vibe-heavy TikTok, where he skateboards along to Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ while drinking Ocean Spray cranberry juice, gave us a year’s worth of serotonin in just 22 short seconds.
In the days since his deservedly viral ‘Dreams’ video, Apodaca has been gifted a new car, was able to buy a new home in all cash, and even managed to get some of Fleetwood Mac to join TikTok just to recreate his incredible vibe.
Now that’s what I call impact.
1. M to the B — @bellapoarch
The most baffling influencer to come out of 2020 is easily Bella Poarch, who’s entire brand is making baby face lip-sync videos as she aggressively chews her words.
For reasons that people can’t quite seem to figure out, the ‘M to the B’ super-zoom video is the most liked video on the platform, which really is just proof that anyone can get famous in 2020.
You can find the full list of who top the TikTok charts in 2020 here.