As the world’s largest video-sharing platform，YouTube has rapidly grown into one of the core platforms for global social media and digital content consumption since its establishment. With increasing academic attention and ongoing in-depth studies，the diversity and complexity of the related literature make it crucial to systematically review and assess these research findings. To clarify the fragmented overseas research，this study uses bibliometric methods to examine the one thousand most influential YouTube-related papers in the field of communication studies from the past five years. The study visually presents the characteristics and trends of overseas YouTube research. The findings indicate that popular topics in recent overseas YouTube research focus on health communication，platform studies，and effects research. The research trajectory shows a dual trend：on the one hand，it focuses on social and behavioral studies of social media platforms，especially the significant role YouTube played in information dissemination and health communication during the pandemic；on the other hand，it centers on technical aspects，particularly video processing and content analysis techniques. Overseas YouTube research is developing in an interdisciplinary direction，with a mainstream trend combining social-cultural influence and technological innovation. Future research is expected to make further breakthroughs in the interaction between machine learning，deep learning，and social media.