"Gangnam Style" is a K-pop single by the South Korean music artist PSY. The song was released on July 15, 2012, as the lead single of his sixth studio album PSY 6 (Six Rules), Part 1. "Gangnam Style" debuted at number one on the Gaon Chart, the national record chart of South Korea. As of November 26, 2012, the music video has been viewed over 830 million times on YouTube, and is the site's most watched video after surpassing Justin Bieber's single "Baby".
The song has taken the world's music charts by storm over the past few months, with its video having been shared and liked by millions, in the process earning PSY a Guinness World Records title for "most liked video online".
The K-Pop star has been featured on seemingly every news website and television channel on the planet, so it should come as no surprise that he's racked up hundreds of millions of views on the video so far.
What might surprise you, though, is just how fast these views are still adding up. Just four months after the video was first uploaded, it's now on course to topple Justin Bieber at the top of the YouTube most watched list. And that looks unlikely to be the only milestone to fall to PSY before Christmas.
Bieber's "Baby" is our current record-holder for "most watched video online", and at time of writing, has 802,076,128 views, compared with 772,876,757 for "Gangnam Style".
However, what's more important to compare (in terms of world records, at least) is the current rate of increase in views for these two videos.
While Justin's loyal Beliebers are watching "Baby" an average of 403,228 times per day, "Gangnam Style" is still seeing over 7 MILLION views per day - 7,060,231, to be precise.
Should these rates continue, the "most viewed video online" title will fall to PSY this Sunday, (November 25).
But the records won't stop there - looking further ahead, "Gangnam Style" is set to become the first online video in history to have been watched 1 billion times, with the clip set to reach the landmark on December 23rd this year. Could there be a more perfect Christmas present for PSY?
Of course, this is assuming current view rates hold steady (our averages were taken over the last 7 days).
What is more likely though, is that PSY's rate of views will actually *increase* slightly as he grows closer to that 1,000,000,000 views threshold, and interest in the video grows even stronger.
After all, who wouldn't want to say they were the one to tip him over this world record landmark?
I'm no Nate Silver when it comes to statistical analysis and predictions, but my best guess is that "Gangnam Style" will reach the 1 billion landmark sometime between the 18th and 20th of December, (for comparison, at the current view rate, Justin Bieber's "Baby" will reach 1,000,000,000 views in March 2014), marking a third Guinness World Records title for PSY's video.
We have a category open, and the certificate printer is waiting for you, PSY!
**UPDATE 26/11/12** - Well, it's one record down, one to go now for PSY! We this morning updated our record for "most viewed video online", as "Gangnam Style" overtook Justin Bieber's "Baby" this weekend as predicted. PSY is now on track to cross the 1 billion view threshold around December 16th, even sooner than we'd first thought!
Courtesy: www.guinnessworldrecords.com
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