Maroon 5 Basketball Challenge

About

Maroon 5 Basketball Challenge refers to a series of videos in which TikTok users are engaged in a game of basketball and then break into a line dance and exit the room with the leader holding the basketball in the air. The dance which initially became popular in November 2019 evolved into groups of people engaged in activities other than basketball then breaking into the same dance all to a remix of “Payphone” by Maroon 5.

Origin

On June 2nd, 2015, Brynny uploaded a Maroon 5 remix titled “Payphone (Brynny Bootleg)” to soundcloud (shown below). The track gained over 2.3 million likes and 51,200 shares in four years

On November 1st, 2019, TikTok user @b1akemckay uploaded the first basketball dance challenge video using the remix (shown below). The video garnered over 1.5 million likes and 99,600 shares in 13 days.

Spread

On November 2nd, 2019, TikTok user @_emiliogallo gained over one million likes and 49,100 shares in 12 days for their basketball challenge video (shown below, left). On November 8th, TikTok user @maxfourrue uploaded a basketball challenge video in which a group exits a McDonalds. The video garnered over 101,300 likes an 3,000 shares in six days. On November 11th, @christinaantoniades96 up loaded a circus iteration which accumulated over 30,500 likes and 180 shares in three days (shown below, right).

On November11th, Maroon 5 responded on Twitter saying “we agree” to a tweet claiming that the basketball challenge was the best trend on TikTok right now (shown below). The tweet garnered over 8,000 likes and 1,200 retweets in three days.

Various Examples

Search Interest