YouTube has quietly unlisted every official YouTube Rewind video, from the charming 2010 debut to the infamous 2019 finale. It’s a stealthy cleanup that might have happened sometime recently.
Users first spotted it via a viral r/youtube post from sitkinator, complete with screenshots of all the YouTube Rewind videos in a grid — all marked unlisted.
After some quick digging, I can also confirm that all the videos are unlisted. That said, just revisiting the videos and seeing this mashup of the titles brings back memories of the whole messy era: early ones like Rewind 2010: Year in Review, next to later disasters such as YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind, the one that broke the dislike button with its awkward celeb mashup.
Rewind kicked off in 2010 as a fun montage of top creators and trends.
By 2018, it devolved into corporate cringe — Will Smith dancing Fortnite dances, forced slang from non-YouTubers, and zero actual community reps like PewDiePie. That video racked up more dislikes than views, sparking endless memes about “markass brownlee” and ear-r*pe sound effects. Matter of fact, even after all these years, it retains the top spot on the list of the most disliked YouTube videos, with over 20 million dislikes.
We all piled on, and YouTube killed the series after 2019, swapping it for safer trend lists. Now, unlisting buries them further, so no more surfacing in searches or recommendations.
It’s like YouTube saying, “Yeah, we’re past that phase.” But it also erases a weird cultural artifact, which was the annual hate-watch that united gamers, vloggers, and meme lords in shared outrage.
That said, this change might be because of YouTube’s pivot to personalized Recap features, which began rolling out around early last week. It puts the spotlight on what you watched and loved, rather than the one-size-fits-all corporate skits.
Unlisting frees the platform from Rewind’s baggage, letting it focus on algorithm-driven nostalgia without being roasted every year. The videos are still viewable if you visit them with direct links, but casual scrollers won’t stumble on the “skibidi rizz” attempts anymore.
We’d be surprised if they delete them outright; archives matter. Will they ever revisit Rewind in a redemption arc? I’m skeptical — better to let it fade into unlisted oblivion.
FYI, if you want to relive YouTube Rewind, you can check out all the videos in this playlist.
Dwayne Cubbins
2911 Posts
I cover fast-moving stories across apps, online platforms, and everyday tech — phones, wearables, consoles, and whatever else people are fighting with this week. Bugs, rollouts, scams, policy enforcement, and the occasional internet-culture rabbit hole are all fair game. My goal is simple — make confusing tech news readable. When I'm not working, I'm working out or chilling with my dog. Got a tip? You can find me on X @dcubbins.
Next article View Article
