The highest peak recorded since we started our monthly series was 93 million views in September. It dropped all the way to 73 million in November. Last month? 106 million. That's despite the tendency for online viewership to drop while people visit their families during the holidays.
Key of Awesome has made its chart debut in 7th place. The top two from November — Fred and Happy Tree Friends — have kept their spots with record numbers. Relative newcomer to the chart Elevator and old standard Smosh have swapped places to 3rd and 4th, respectively. College Humor's two shows on the chart (Jake & Amir and Hardly Working) have both lost a few rungs on the ladder.
The Chart: December 2009
*The Visible Measures Top 10 Webisodes Chart focuses on digital studio-driven Web series that appear on Internet video-sharing destinations. Each Web series is measured on a True Reach™ basis, which includes viewership of both studio-syndicated video clips and viewer-driven social video placements. The data are compiled using the Visible Measures Viral Reach Database, a constantly growing repository of analytic data on more than 100 million Internet videos across more than 150 video-sharing destinations.
Note: This chart does not include vloggers, interviews, how-to series, news shows, or product review shows. View-count results are incremental by month.
To notify Visible Measures of an upcoming Web series, or for an end-to-end assessment of your campaign's overall performance, please contact us directly.
If you're interested in exploring this data further, go to visiblemeasures.com/mashable.
initVisibleMeasures();
High-Pitched Teens and Violent Cartoon Animals
Fred and Happy Tree Friends are hanging around the top of the chart for the third month in a row. Fred is #1 and Happy Tree Friends is #2, just like November. The chief observation to make here is that these are two markedly different shows.
You would expect the former to appeal to a younger audience — "by kids, for kids" was part of the original pitch. It's known for goofy, fast-motion antics and relatable parental drama, but you'll be surprised to hear that its typical viewer is just over 24 years old. Fred achieved 36 million views, beating the September record of 21. His "Christmas is Creepy" and "Christmas Cash" music videos have each been viewed over six million times, accounting in part for the December success.
The latter is an uber violent cartoon for adults, featuring cute animals regularly dismembered in anatomically correct ways. Clearly that one's not for kids, but its age demographic lands at 21 — less than that of Fred! Happy Tree Friends grew 23% in viewership over November.
New on the Scene: Key of Awesome & Elevator
Elevator isn't brand new; it was on last month's list. But it's climbed from #4 to #3, bumping established performer Smosh down a step. It grew 80% in December, reaching a very impressive 16 million views.
Absolute newcomer Key of Awesome is an over-the-top music video series that pokes fun at other web videos and popular culture in general. You know those music video digital shorts by the Lonely Island that are now prominently featured on Saturday Night Live? It's similar to those, but it feels fresher because it can strike for a more niche, in-the-know audience.
College Humor Missed a Beat
In October, College Humor became the only studio to land three places in the top ten at the same time. It still has two, both have fallen from 8th and 6th to 9th and 10th. While all the other series saw viewership go up at least a little bit in December, Jake & Amir slipped slightly by 2% and Hardly Working dropped 18%.