Some years are easy to remember through video. A funny clip can bring back a whole week. A travel film can bring back a place. A small family moment can bring back a feeling.
That is what this 2023 collection is about. It is a look back at videos that made people stop, watch, laugh, learn, or simply enjoy a few quiet minutes.
The mix is wide on purpose. There are big views, small stories, clever ideas, skilled people, animals, travel, science, and plenty of fun.
Not every good video needs a huge budget. Some of the best clips work because the idea is simple and the moment feels real.
Short videos were a major part of online viewing in 2023. Longer films still mattered too. Viewers moved between quick clips and deeper stories depending on what they wanted to see.
So this is less a strict ranking than a time capsule. Sit back and enjoy a sample of the sights, skills, laughs, and stories that made 2023 fun to watch.
Why 2023 Was Fun to Watch
Video in 2023 came in many shapes. People watched quick phone clips, polished films, live streams, how-to videos, music, sports, and long talks.
Short-form video was especially hard to miss. Our look at the rise of YouTube Shorts explains why quick vertical clips became such a normal part of daily viewing.
Yet a short run time was never the whole story. A strong idea could hold attention for seconds or for an hour. The best length was the one that fit the story.
The Kinds of Videos We Kept Watching
Feel-good clips had an easy appeal. Reunions, surprises, acts of kindness, pets, and family moments gave viewers a break from harder news.
Skill videos were just as easy to enjoy. A great bike line, a careful build, a perfect trick, or a hard outdoor task can tell a story without much talk. That same pull is clear in our look at Danny MacAskill’s Imaginate.
Travel footage gave people another kind of escape. Mountains, cities, coastlines, food, and local life could make a screen feel much larger. A good travel video did not just show a place. It made the viewer want to know more about it.
Educational videos also had a strong place. Clear pictures can make a hard idea much easier to grasp. Our feature on 3Blue1Brown’s neural-network lesson shows how visual teaching can turn an abstract idea into something people can see.
A Simple 2023 Watch List
Rather than pretend every clip can be placed in a perfect order, it makes more sense to remember the broad kinds of videos that stood out.
- Feel-good stories: reunions, surprises, kind acts, and happy family moments.
- Epic visuals: northern lights, deserts, mountains, oceans, cities, and drone footage.
- Great skills: sports, crafts, building, cooking, riding, and other hard-earned talents.
- Comedy: sketches, harmless fails, odd reactions, and everyday moments that became funny on camera.
- Learning: science, history, nature, gardening, machines, and simple explainers.
- Travel and culture: local food, festivals, streets, landscapes, music, and traditions.
- Creative experiments: unusual editing, animation, AI tools, cameras, and new ways to tell a story.
If you like keeping a few viewing notes or making your own best-of list, a simple video and movie journal on Amazon can be an easy way to remember what you enjoyed.
What Makes a Video Stick?
Good video usually gives the viewer a reason to care right away. That reason may be a question, a beautiful shot, a person worth following, or a task that looks almost impossible.
After that, clarity matters. The viewer should know what is happening. Fancy editing can help, but it cannot save a weak idea.
YouTube says its recommendations are personalized and use signals such as watch history, search history, subscriptions, likes, dislikes, and viewer feedback. Its official guide to recommendations is useful context for why two people can open the same platform and see very different videos.
That also explains why there is no single list that can truly define a year for everyone. A person’s favorite 2023 videos depended on what they watched, who they followed, and what they cared about.
Watching Can Lead to Doing
The best videos do more than fill time. A garden video may send someone outside with a shovel. A camping clip may start a weekend plan. A repair video may help someone fix a problem instead of throwing something away.
That is one reason practical video has lasting value. A related guide from Noah’s Outdoors can help turn outdoor inspiration into time spent away from the screen.
A small phone tripod for video recording on Amazon is also enough for many people to start making useful clips of their own. Good light and a clear idea matter more than a pile of gear.
A Year Worth Rewatching
Looking back at 2023 is a reminder of how broad online video had become. One minute could bring a joke. The next could bring a distant landscape, a science lesson, a hard-earned skill, or a small human story.
That variety is the real point of this collection. The videos did not need to fit one style. They only needed to give people a reason to keep watching.
Years pass, platforms change, and trends move on. A good video can still hold up because the feeling, lesson, laugh, or view inside it remains worth sharing.