In the least shocking development of all time, Adele rules YouTube.
But seriously, it’s pretty remarkable that her video for “Hello” took just 87 days to reach 1 billion views, a new record by a wide margin. PSY’s “Gangnam Style” was previously the fastest to the billion club, getting there in 158 days. To be fair, though, PSY did that without the engines of the Western press hyping everyone up before his video was released, and he is still the overall views leader by FAR with 2.5 billion(!) views. Adele is about 40% of the way there. Good luck, Adele.
The measuring stick of an elite YouTube video, the billion views club has grown relatively quickly in recent years as old videos continue their slow build and new videos shoot up the list. Four of its members—”Hello,” “See You Again,” “Lean On,” and “Sugar”—were uploaded in 2015, and those videos are among the fastest to have reached the milestone.
Overall, 19 YouTube videos have topped a billion views. You can read the full list here, but we’ve pulled some interesting tidbits for you:
– Katy Perry (“Roar,” “Dark Horse”) and Taylor Swift (“Blank Space,” “Shake It Off”) are the only artists with two entries in the club.
– Two non-music videos appear in the club: Episode 17 of Russian animated series Masha and the Bear and “Wheels on the Bus,” a 54-minute compilation of animated nursery rhyme songs that parents of infants have undoubtedly worshipped as their savior.
– “Blank Space,” in second place right now, is over 1 billion views behind “Gangnam Style.”
– Factoring in recency, we’d guess that the next video to join the club will either be Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” or Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do.” They’re both behind Shakira’s “Waka Waka (This One For Africa),” but they were released in October 2014 and January 2015, respectively, so they probably have more momentum.