American rapper, Wiz Khalifa’s song takes over as the most watched video on Youtube
By Sewe Ishola,
South Korean mega hit, Gangnam Style has been replaced as the most-watched video on YouTube for the first time in five years.
Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s See You Again heart-wrenching ballad sit at the top of the chart now as it has been streamed 2,895,373,709 times; beating Psy’s current count of 2,894,426,475 views.
The surreal video became so popular that it “broke” YouTube’s play counter, exceeding the maximum possible number of views (2,147,483,647), and forcing the company to rewrite its code.
“I joined YouTube in 2007 hoping to make a video that would reach 10,000 views,” wrote Charlie Puth on Twitter. “Just heard about See You Again… Wow.”
The song was written for the action movie Furious 7, playing over the closing credits in tribute to the actor Paul Walker, who died in a car accident before the film was completed.
With its unabashedly sentimental lyrics (“it’s been a long day without you my friend/ And I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again”), See You Again has become one of the most frequently requested pop songs at funerals in the UK.
It was the best-selling song worldwide in 2015, and received best song nominations at both the Grammys and the Oscars.
The video reached 1 billion views in six months, and hit 2 billion last September. However, its reign as YouTube’s most-watched clip may be short-lived.
Luis Fonsi’s summer smash Despacito has racked up 2.5 billion views in just six months, and it shows no signs of slowing down.