Youtube, arguably the most popular website on the planet for viewing and sharing videos, has a new most watched video. After almost a five-year run being the top video on the site, "Gangnam Style" by Psy has finally been overtaken. The song that finally accomplished this was "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa. As of the time of this writing, "See You Again" has 2,904,675,508 views, while "Gangnam Style" has 2,896,838,110.
Gangnam Style's time at the top
"Gangnam Style" by South Korean singer Psy was uploaded to Youtube on July 15, 2012, and quickly became a pop culture sensation.
By November 24, 2012, it became the most-watched video on the site. It held this spot for a record 1,689 days until it was surpassed on July 10, 2017, by Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again." This amount is almost twice as much as the next closest video, as Justin Beiber's "Baby" held the top spot for only 862 days. By December 2012, "Gangnam Style" became the first Youtube video to reach one billion views and it was included in the site's 2012 rewind video.
In May 2014, the video hit another milestone by becoming the first to ever reached two billion views. The song was the lead single from Psy's sixth studio album, "Psy 6 (Six Rules) Part 1" and topped the music charts in more than 30 different countries.
How 'See You Again' became the top video on Youtube
"See You Again" by American rapper Wiz Khalifa and featuring singer Charlie Puth was first uploaded to Youtube on April 6, 2015. The song owes some of its popularity due to the fact that it was written for and featured on the soundtrack of the hit 2015 movie and box office beast "Furious 7." The song and its music video were done as a final tribute to Paul Walker, who died two and a half years before the film's release and portrayed lead protagonist Brian O'Conner.
The song reached number one in fourteen different countries after its release and ended the fourteen-week reign of Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars's "Uptown Funk" at the top of the U.S. music charts. It spent 12 total weeks as the top song on the Billboard Hot 100, tied for the most by a rap single with Eminem's "Lose Yourself" and the Black Eyed Peas's 'Boom Boom Pow.'
It was also nominated for Best Original Song at the 73rd Golden Globes and won the award for Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Song, among other honors. The "Furious 7: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" itself reached the number one spot on the U.S. Billboard 200.
