The blank video uploaded on January 5, 2026, has crossed two million views despite showing no visuals or audio.
Its listed duration drops from 140 years to around 12 hours when played, deepening the mystery.
The channel behind the upload hosts other extremely long videos, fuelling theories ranging from platform tests to ARGs.
A mysterious YouTube upload claiming to be running for more than a century has gone viral, leaving the internet puzzled and sparking speculations all over the platforms. The video was uploaded on January 5, 2026, by a channel called @ShinyWR and appears to have a runtime of 40 years, making it one of the most unusual uploads ever seen on the Google-owned video platform. Even after its unusual length, the video has crossed over two million views and received over 28,000 comments, with users trying to decode that ‘How’ question.
SurveyAt first glance, the video shows no visuals or audio, displaying only a blank screen. While the thumbnail lists the duration as 140 years, users report that clicking play reduces the runtime to roughly 12 hours, adding to the confusion around how the video actually functions.
What grabbed more attention is the video’s description, which was written using Arabic characters and is widely interpreted by users to translate to a phrase inviting viewers to “meet in hell.” The screenshots of the video and description quickly went viral on platforms like X and Threads, starting debates and conspiracy theories.
The details about the channel also captured massive attention. Public information also suggested that the account operates from North Korea and joined YouTube in mid-2023. The channel hosts other unusually long uploads as well, including videos lasting hundreds of hours and a livestream stretching close to 300 hours.
With no clear explanation from YouTube or the channel owner, speculation has ranged from the video being a backend test upload to part of an elaborate alternate reality game. Some users believe it may be similar to experimental channels previously used to test platform features, while others question how advertising or monetisation would even function on such extreme uploads.
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Ashish Singh
Ashish Singh is the Chief Copy Editor at Digit. He's been wrangling tech jargon since 2020 (Times Internet, Jagran English '22). When not policing commas, he's likely fueling his gadget habit with coffee, strategising his next virtual race, or plotting a road trip to test the latest in-car tech. He speaks fluent Geek. View Full Profile
