TikTok announces its biggest memes, trends and videos of the year

2020 was the year that TikTok reigned supreme.

The video sharing app became the quarantine salve that no one expected. A successor to Vine that caused millions of people to download it out of curiosity then one day find themselves scrolling through the homepage for hours on end.

And with the year coming to a close, the social network shared a roundup of its biggest viral moments.

As the list proves, TikTok is fertile ground for trends, a launching pad for influencers and the new place to find hit songs before they hit the charts. Don’t underestimate its power.

Vanessa Pappas, the Interim Head of TikTok also shared a statement on the app’s eventful year:

It's been our honor to watch these videos and creators grow and share what have become iconic, sometimes even life-changing, moments of 2020. TikTok is here to bring joy, and with the year we've experienced, I'm thrilled to take a trip down memory lane and celebrate the myriad of ways the TikTok community helped us come together, bridge divides, and find both lightness and poignancy when we needed it most.

In its year roundup, the company awards the top 10 viral videos of the year, which features many familiar faces. Among them are Nathan Apodaca’s chill (and Stevie Nicks-approved) video of him skateboarding to Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ and Bella Poarch’s hypnotic lip-sync to Millie B’s ‘M to the B’.

Other noteworthy videos include ‘Renegade’ creator Jalaiah Harmon performing her world famous dance at the NBA all-stars game, a hilarious sketch about the extinction of dinosaurs, and a cursed recipe for carrot bacon.

As any TikTok user will know, trends tend to spread like wildfire as the app’s ability to reshare songs, “duet” with videos and use filters mean that just one video can turn absolutely anything into a meme.

With that, TikTok also acknowledged the biggest trends and challenges of the year, including the Time Warp scan feature, quarantine anthem ‘Bored in the House’ and, of course, the ‘Blinding Lights’ dance.

Who knows what TikTok will have in store for us in 2021?