YouTube, one of the biggest freemium model-based OTT (Over-the-top) applications, is celebrating ten years of ‘The Billion Views Club’. It all started with the ‘Gangnam Style’ from Psy, which became a super hit globally. July 15, 2022, marked ten years since the song first came out and marked the start of the YouTube Billion Views Club. Since then, multiple artists and so many songs have joined the billion views club of YouTube. In fact, many videos now have multi-billion views.
Psy’s Gangnam Style achieved the mark of a billion views in less than six months of its release. Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’ was the second song to hit the milestone of a billion views on YouTube. But in the last ten years, artists/groups/bands such as Blackpink (How You Like That), Luis Fonsi (Despacito ft Daddy Yankee), Shakira (Take on Me, Waka Waka), Wiz Khalifa (See You Again ft Charlie Puth), Billie Eilish (Bad Guy), Mark Ronson’s (Uptown Funk ft Bruno Mars), Drake (Hotline Bling), and more have made their place in the league of the billion views on YouTube.
In fact, songs from Guns N’ Roses released in the 80s called “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and 90s called “November Rain” has made been played more than a billion times on YouTube. Justin Beiber and J Balvin have tied for the most billion views entries as lead, collaborator, or feature artists, with 11 official music videos each on the platform.
Adele’s “Hello” had the fastest entry into the billion views club in just 88 days. Artists such as Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Alan Walker, Nicki Minaj, Ed Sheeran, Whitney Houston, and Indian creators such as Jubin Nautiyal, Neha Kakkar & Tony Kakkar and more have also made big hits which have more than a billion views.
But when it comes to the most viewed videos on YouTube, at the top stands Despacito ft Daddy Yankee – Luis Fonsi, with 7.9 billion views. Shape of You from Ed Sheeran stands at the second position with 5.7 billion views.