'Gangnam Style' breaks YouTube counter with over 2 billion views
Dear readers, we'd like to apologize in advance ... because you're about to have 'Gangnam Style' stuck in your head for the rest of the day.
South Korean musician Psy shot to fame with the K-pop song "Gangnam Style" back in 2012, and it's still breaking records today. In fact, it actually managed to 'break' YouTube.
"We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer (=2,147,483,647 views), but that was before we met PSY," YouTube wrote in a post on December 1st. "'Gangnam Style' has been viewed so many times we have to upgrade!"
Gizmodo explains what the site means by 'upgrade':
"The video stalled out at 2,147,483,647 views, the maximum number that can be held by a 32-bit integer slot. YouTube's developers just never expected something to get that high, just like the programmers who wrote Y2K vulnerable code never thought they'd have to worry about the year 2000."
Fuse points out that if you scroll over the view counter on the official video, the digits "spin around like a possessed slot machine." (It's pretty fun, you should try it.)
Of course this isn't the first time Psy's song has been in the news. Guinness World Records notes that the video holds tons of titles, "including Most viewed video online, Most viewed music video online, Most "liked" video online and First video to receive one billion views."
The video was also the first to hit -- and then exceed -- two billion views. Curious about how much Psy has made off his wild dance?
As of June 16th, 2014, Forbes estimated that he's earned just under $2 million from YouTube ads. The site notes that: "It should be made clear that $2 million figure mentioned above is from YouTube advertising alone. When all other revenue streams are taken into account-sales of the track on iTunes, live shows, endorsements, etc. Psy's wealth swells to somewhere between $8 million and $10 million, with almost all of it being traceable back to the silly horsey dance."
The video has inspired everything from flash-mob tributes to viral gender reveals. Check out the entire video below:
And last but not least, here are some photos of the legend himself:
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