"As you might imagine, whittling down any category to six videos was a gargantuan task and already we'll say sorry to the hundreds/thousands of deserving content creators who didn't get nominated," YouTube said in a blog posting.
"But you can't exactly blame us. You made these videos memorable and helped them rise to the top of the YouTube charts.
"The nominees reflect some of the most buzzed-about videos on the site, particularly the ones you bookmarked to watch later (and presumably again and again)."
The videos include some of the most popular of the past year, including buffalo attacking lions at the Kruger National Park, Chris Crocker's Leave Britney Alone screed and a student being hit by a taser that spawned the tagline 'Don't tase me bro'.