LOS ANGELES: YouTube will not produce its annual YouTube Rewind celebratory recap video this year - with the video giant saying it doesn't feel appropriate, given the chaos of 2020.

YouTube announced the decision to scrap Rewind in a statement on Twitter.

"Since 2010, we've ended the year with Rewind: a look back at the year's most impactful creators, videos and trends," the platform said. "But 2020 has been different. And it doesn't feel right to carry on as if it weren't. So, we're taking a break from Rewind this year."

Even with the global Covid pandemic, job losses, a reckoning on racial injustice and the US presidential election, YouTube praised its creators for helping people get through a stressful year.

"We know that so much of the good that did happen in 2020 was created by all of you," YouTube said in the statement. "You've found ways to lift people up, help them cope and make them laugh. You've made a hard year genuinely better."

Last year, YouTube Rewind took a new approach to the mashup video, which was presented as a montage instead of past year's highly produced original videos segments. That came after the 2018 YouTube Rewind set the record for the most dislikes of any video on the platform, as critics complained it was tone-deaf to the video platform's community by featuring mainstream celebs at the expense of native YouTube creators. In fact, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki's own kids told her the 2018 video was "cringey”.

Since 2012, YouTube Rewind had been produced by LA-based digital studio Portal A.

 - Variety.com