Infographic: The Most Popular TED Talks of All Time (2024)

TED Conferences is an American-Canadian non-profit company that posts video content of international talks online. TED Talks have a huge following, with top videos having raked in millions of views each. The following chart takes a look at the top 8 most watched TED Talks videos of all time, according to views on YouTube.

In first place comes Sir Ken Robinson’s 2006 talk, "Do Schools Kill Creativity?", with almost 75 million views. In it, the creativity expert questions the way children are educated today, pondering how school systems could be redesigned to place more focus on nurturing, rather than dismissing, creativity.

Next up comes the 2012 seminar "Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are" by social psychologist Amy Cuddy with around 68 million views. Cuddy discusses how power posing can boost feelings of confidence. According to the TED website, research on power poses has continued to develop in the years since, with some studies having failed to replicate the evidence.

The next videos are focused not only on how to excel in leadership roles, whether that’s with leadership expert Simon Sinek’s "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" with nearly 67 million views and "How to speak so that people want to listen" by sound consultant Julian Treasure with around 54 million views, but also how to look internally to find peace within oneself, as shown by vulnerability researcher Brené Brown’s "The Power of Vulnerability" with some 61 million views and activist Sam Berns’ "My Personal Philosophy For a Happy Life" with 46 million views. In the latter, Berns, who was born with a rare genetic rapid-aging disorder called progeria, shares his personal philosophy.

In eighth place comes "The Next outbreak? We're not ready", by American philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft Corporation Bill Gates, with nearly 45 million views. Filmed in 2015, Gates warned of the dangers of a future pandemic in the wake of Ebola.