Breaking The Internet: Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ Breaks YouTube Limit

It has been more than two years, but South Korean singer Psy’s famous music video “Gangnam Style” has been viewed so many times that it broke YouTube’s viewer counter.

The South Korean rapper has done what Kim Kardashian failed to achieve recently with her hyped revealing pictures.

Hitting the Mark

As the video exceeded view limit, the company was forced to upgrade its counter.

“We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer (=2,147,483,647 views), but that was before we met PSY,” said Google, which owns YouTube, in a blog post. “‘Gangnam Style’ has been viewed so many times we have to upgrade!” They have acknowledged that the actual number of views is perhaps way higher than the theoretical maximum.

YouTube was quick to solve the issue, as it revealed that it has now updated and changed the maximum view limit to 9,223,372,036,854,775,808, or more than nine quintillion.

When web developers and programmers developed YouTube nearly a decade ago, they never thought that there would be a video that can reach the limit they have set.

“Nothing actually broke,” Google spokesman Matt McLernon explained. “There was never anything that actually went wrong. It’s just people having fun with the language.”

Still, industry watchers have been impressed by Psy’s appeal to the audience, even though it is almost 2 and a half years old. “People still play this video an absurd number of times,” McLernon added.

Top 10 Most Viewed List

“Gangnam Style” surprisingly became the first music video ever to reach one billion views on YouTube. In May this year, the quirky video reached past 2 billion views. Earlier this week, it reached the 32-integer threshold. It’s the most watched video clip ever on the website.

As a result, Psy starred in a Super Bowl ad a year ago. Even world leaders take part in making the singer’s video famous, as US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron have danced to the beat. The video has been a phenomenon, as it held the Guinness World record for most “liked” video in the history of YouTube.

In YouTube’s top 10 most viewed list, no other video has been watched more than one billion. Nine are music videos, while the only non-music video is “Charlie bit my finger – again!” It’s a famous clip from 2007, which has been viewed 805 million times, featuring two toddlers in an armchair.