’Despacito’ becomes first to hit 4 billion views on YouTube

Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s ’Despacito’ has made history by becoming the first video to hit 4 billion views on YouTube.

It has already replacedWiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s ‘See You Again’ (3.15 billion) as most popular video on the world’s biggest music streaming platform.

The achievement of ’Despacito’, first released in January 2017, is made more impressive by the fact that it reached 3 billion only in August.

The 4 billion views was for the original all-Spanish version, not the remix featuring Justin Bieber, which helped it break into English-language territories, and which has generated half a billion on its own.

According to Universal Music, ‘Despacito’ hit 4.6 billion in August with total plays on all platforms including YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.

It was the world’s biggest streamed act, beating Bieber’s ‘Sorry’ (at the time, 4.38 billion) and Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape of You’ (at the time 4.08 billion).

The track began breaking records in its first 24 hours, the first Spanish language video to blow in 5.4 million on Vevo.

At the time, Forbes magazine set out to estimate how much Fonsi had made from the hit.

It worked out that if he got $0.008 per stream (based it on Spotify’s pament) he would have made US$36.8 million.

But of course the real figures, as Forbes readily acknowledges, would bemuch lower as more than half of its streaming royalties came from YouTube, which plays considerably less as its shares ad revenue rather than paying per stream.

About 1.2 billion people actively use YouTube to play music.

’Despacito’ is tied with Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men’s 1995/6 ‘One Sweet Day’ as longest running chart toppers ever in the United States with 16 weeks. It still remains in the Top 10.