Inside The Feeds: YouTube Canada Reveals The Trends That Took Over 2025

What really shaped Canada’s pop-culture pulse in 2025? From K-pop domination to nostalgic throwback hits going viral on Shorts, YouTube once again proved it’s where our cultural moments are born, shared, and blown up. To celebrate YouTube’s 20th birthday—and unpack this year’s most-watched creators, biggest songs, and buzziest trends—we sat down with Alexandra Hunnings Klein, Head of Communications at YouTube Canada. She breaks down the surprising favourites, the rise of fan-fuelled storytelling, and why Canadians are shaping global culture more than ever. —Noa Nichol

If you had to explain 2025’s YouTube trends using only three emojis… which ones make the cut, and why is one of them probably a K-pop lightstick?

Trying to bottle up a whole year on YouTube into three emojis is tough, but we are going with ✨, 🎮 and 🇨🇦.

We need that K-pop energy, so instead of a literal lightstick, we are using the ✨ emoji. It captures the high-energy fandom that basically took over this year. We saw this dominance clearly as K-Pop groups and influences, including Katseye and the film KPop Demon Hunters, were top trending topics. The film’s songs, in particular, were massive, making up almost half of this year’s top songs list. 

Next up is 🎮. This is a must because 2025 was the year creators became the new gaming studios. We saw an obsession with fan-created Roblox experiences like Steal a Brainrot, and the announcement of the Nintendo Switch 2 was a major real-time news moment.

Finally, we have to ground it in Canada with the 🇨🇦. Whether you were watching re-runs of the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series, or perfecting your dance moves to the latest Shorts trends, YouTube is a reflection of what’s happening here in Canada. 

KPop Demon Hunters basically took over Canada this year—what do you think this says about the way Canadian viewers are shaping (not just following) global fandom culture?

The rise of KPop Demon Hunters is the perfect illustration of how Canadian audiences are transforming consumption into co-creation. 

Fans treated the film’s fictional K-Pop groups like real musical acts. We saw them creating dance trends, song covers, reaction videos, and fancams. Summer, the creator behind SleepyCrafter, connected her crafting channel with the film, merging her love of gaming and entertainment with K-Pop fandom. This type of fan activity helped propel the film to become a global phenomenon.

This fan-driven model is how Gen Z is transforming pop culture. It means viewers often spend more time engaging with the fan content, like the reaction videos, deep dives, and commentary, than the actual original source material. 

’APT’ by Rosé and Bruno Mars hit a billion views faster than Gangnam Style—did YouTube HQ feel the seismic cultural shift, or was it more like, “Yup, saw that coming”?

While the speed of the track’s success was certainly a huge moment, our feeling was a “yup, saw that coming.”

When you combine the power of an artist like Rosé with a global icon like Bruno Mars, plus the engagement of the YouTube fan community, you have all the ingredients for a record-breaking cultural moment. 

It was the perfect way to usher in the next 20 years for YouTube!

Shorts resurrecting older songs was a huge trend—what is it about YouTube that keeps giving forgotten tracks their second (or third!) life?

We think it comes down to a simple, powerful mix: the Shorts format and fan culture.

Whether it’s Connie Francis’s Pretty Little Baby or The Black Eyed Peas’ Rock That Body, YouTube Shorts allows people to immediately grab the audio and create their own dance challenges or skits. It acts as a cultural bridge, helping younger fans integrate older songs into modern trends and giving them a new life.

It’s a tool that works for everyone: the classics get rediscovered, and new hits like Doechii’s smash hit Anxiety use the same culture on Shorts to break through to success.

This year’s Canadian Creators to Watch span everything from Blue Jays super-fans to BookTubers to crocheting—was there any creator on the list who made you go, “Only on YouTube”?

The entire list made us go, “Only on YouTube,” because it perfectly showcases the diversity and entrepreneurialism of the Canadian creator economy.

Where else can you find a creator like TheCrochetCrowd, led by Mikey in Nova Scotia, who built a massive, supportive community around mindful crafting and mental health? At the same time, SleepyCrafter has grown to nearly 3 million subscribers by merging her crafting with major global trends like KPop Demon Hunters and Italian Brainrot. 

This mix of passion and global trends is what makes the platform special. 

Plus, the list proves creator businesses are only growing. Just look at Mia Plays & Kouman opening a huge studio in North Vancouver, Blue Jays Today becoming the top place for real-time fan analysis during the World Series, or Morgannbook scaling her business by launching her successful video podcast, Off The Shelf with Morgann Book. 

This variety shows the rich content Canadian viewers are craving right now.

SleepyCrafter went from brand-new to almost 3 million subscribers—what does her rise tell us about how niche fandoms are fueling the next wave of viral creators?

The rapid ascent of SleepyCrafter is a masterclass in how today’s creators leverage fandom to achieve viral success.

She successfully connected her crafting with the biggest global trends of the year: KPop Demon Hunters, Roblox, Labubus, Squid Games, and Italian Brainrot. By finding a creative way to join these huge cultural moments, she built a massive community in 2025. 

Creators opened massive studios, built book empires, and helped power sports culture this year. How have you seen the definition of ‘creator’ evolve in 2025?

The definition of a creator continues to expand. Creators are now undeniable business leaders, knowledge sharers, and community builders. 

This evolution is seen in the concrete investments made this year. For instance, Mia Plays & Kouman opened a brand new 4,000 square foot content studio in North Vancouver to support their growing business. 

YouTube just turned 20 (!!). If you could travel back to 2005 YouTube and show them one trend from today, what would blow their minds the most?

The development that would completely blow the minds of 2005 YouTube is how YouTube has become a shared, big-screen experience on the TV.

Back then, YouTube was just on a computer monitor or a phone screen and it was mostly a solo thing. If we traveled back and showed them that in 2025, families and friends gather together to put their favorite creators’ content on the biggest screen in the house, they wouldn’t believe it.

The TV has been YouTube’s fastest-growing screen by watch time for years. This shift from a small, personal device to a communal, living-room experience shows how beloved YouTube is in the daily life of Canadian homes.

With Roblox brainrot, K-pop, and Nintendo Switch 2 topping the trending topics—what surprised you most about what Canadians were obsessed with in 2025?

What surprised us the most wasn’t a specific individual trend, but the range of Canadian interests and the way global and local conversations intersected.

The visibility of Korean culture this year was certainly something to see across our lists. We saw it everywhere, from trending topics like Katseye, Squid Game, and KPop Demon Hunters, to the fact that songs from KPop Demon Hunters made up nearly half of our top songs list.

We were also struck by the lovely blend of nostalgia and discovery happening on Shorts. We saw older songs find new life (like Rock That Body, Pretty Little Baby, and Ocean Eyes), while at the same time, newer hits (like Anxiety) used Shorts to break through to mass audiences.

If Canadians could know one behind-the-scenes secret about how YouTube picks up on emerging cultural moments before they explode, what would you tell them?

The biggest “secret” is that YouTube doesn’t just look for what’s trending, we rely on our creators to be the barometers of cultural moments.

YouTube is the epicentre of culture, and that’s fueled by the content our creators upload to the platform. We’re paying attention to the fan-driven activity and creator involvement that surrounds a moment.