Psy's "Gangnam Style" video broke YouTube's hit counter

Shawn Knight

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gangnam style youtube video psy hits counter views music video

It’s been nearly two and a half years since Psy’s Gangnam Style music video went viral, setting a number of YouTube records in the process. As with most one-hit wonders, they often fade away just as quickly as they emerged but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Psy.

The Internet sensation is once again in the news as he managed to break YouTube’s video counter with over 2.5 billion views. Wow, just wow.

A Google+ post from YouTube said they never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer (2,147,483,647) but that’s exactly what Gangnam Style has done. As such, YouTube had to upgrade to a 64-bit integer (9,223,372,036,854,775,808) – a figure that’ll almost certainly never be outdone.

There was a brief period before YouTube could implement a fix in which the hit counter completely stalled. Now when you visit the page, you can mouse over the hit counter to see “a little math magic” as the figure is recalculated although it’s unclear how accurate the animation actually is.

Psy’s video became the most watched in YouTube history after just five months of being online. He also earned honors for having the most liked video in YouTube history.

I referenced Psy as a one-hit wonder but truth be told, most of his YouTube video have millions of views with at least one approaching the 1 billion views mark.

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I have to admit... This was my first time watching it after reading this article and I must say...It's pretty freakin hilarious. Good for him!
 
YAY! I can go down in history as being the only person on the entire planet who has never seen that Video. And I never will.

You have something in common with my 6 year old. She didn't try chocolate for like a year because we told her it was delicious, and she sure wasn't going to try something that her parents said tasted good.

You don't have to tell anyone you've seen it. Go watch it in secret, wear some headphones, use Incognito mode, and I dare you not to at least crack a smile when you see the guy dancing in the elevator.

If you're brave enough to enter the gutter of viral videos.. next you can answer the age old question... what DOES the fox say? (don't worry, it's totally safe for work/kids/grandma etc. although grandma would shake her head and look at you funny.)
 
I had seen it and forgot about it, until I watched it again today. I think the reason I had forgotten, is because I never understood the video to begin with and still don't.
 
I never had a clue who they were talking about so I started checking out the video then I recalled hearing that tune on radio a couple of years back but I had no idea what it was called and I wasn't interested either. It's not exactly my listening pleasure.
 
Am I the only one wondering why they used a SIGNED 32-bit integer versus an unsigned 32-bit integer? Does a negative view count make any sense? Also, amusing that the article makes no distinction between the two. Maybe they wrote it in Java, where they simply forgot to implement unsigned integers.... Naaah.
 
I watch the video some time ago. The dancing was amusing, but I would never have expected 2+ billion views. The ad revenue from that video must be insane.

If you're brave enough to enter the gutter of viral videos.. next you can answer the age old question... what DOES the fox say? (don't worry, it's totally safe for work/kids/grandma etc. although grandma would shake her head and look at you funny.)

The DJ at the gym blasted that song over the PA a few weeks ago. I could only shake my head.
 
Because a lot of people think it's in to hate on the thing that's in. It's trendy to hate trends.
 
You have something in common with my 6 year old. She didn't try chocolate for like a year because we told her it was delicious, and she sure wasn't going to try something that her parents said tasted good.

You don't have to tell anyone you've seen it. Go watch it in secret, wear some headphones, use Incognito mode, and I dare you not to at least crack a smile when you see the guy dancing in the elevator.

If you're brave enough to enter the gutter of viral videos.. next you can answer the age old question... what DOES the fox say? (don't worry, it's totally safe for work/kids/grandma etc. although grandma would shake her head and look at you funny.)
Ok, what does the fox say ? :)
 
Not my kinda music but it's funny and entertaining.. and my word.. those korean ladies :eek:
 
Why on earth would they use a SIGNED 32-bit integer when a video cannot ever have less than zero views?
 
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