NEWS

A Billion Views on YouTube? Once Exclusive Club Is Getting Crowded

1/12/2016 by Marc Schneider

Courtesy of VEVO
Adele in the video for "Hello."

And the next YouTube video to reach a billion views will be...

Last week, Major Lazer and DJ Snake's MØ-assisted clip for "Lean On" became the 14th music video to hit 1 billion views on YouTube. It won't be the last. 

Not only did "Lean On" reach a billion, but it has already surpassed LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" on the list. At this rate, it won't be long before it passes Sia's "Chandelier," OneRepublic's "Counting Stars" and Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" to reach the top ten. Here are the current (music-related) members of the billion-views club:

1. Psy, "Gangnam Style" // 2.5 billion
2. Taylor Swift, "Blank Space" // 1.4 billion
3. Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth, "See You Again" // 1.34 billion
4. Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, "Uptown Funk" // 1.28 billion
5. Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris, "Baby" // 1.27 billion
6. Taylor Swift, "Shake It Off" // 1.26 billion
7. Katy Perry featuring Juicy J, "Dark Horse" // 1.24 billion
8. Enrique Iglesias featuring Descemer Bueno and Gente De Zona, "Bailando" // 1.23 billion
9. Katy Perry, "Roar" // 1.217 billion
10. Meghan Trainor, "All About That Bass" // 1.2 billion
​11. OneRepublic, "Counting Stars" //  1.1 billion
12. Sia, "Chandelier" // 1.07 billion
13. Major Lazer and DJ Snake featuring MØ,  "Lean On" // 1.018
14. ​LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett and GoonRock, "Party Rock Anthem" // 1.010

Amazingly, there were only two members of the billion-views club this time last year: Psy and Justin Bieber. See what the list looked like here.

So, who will be the next to join that increasingly crowded group? There are three videos released in 2015 that have already amassed over 900 million views: Maroon 5’s “Sugar” (983 million), Adele’s Hello (949 million) and Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do” (909 million).

Given that “Hello” dropped in October -- and that it has only recently been usurped on the Billboard Hot 100 -- it’s seen as a given that it will be next. After that, it could be either “Sugar” or Eminem and Rihanna’s “Love the Way You Lie,” the 2010 hit that is only 3 million views away from a billion. (Hop to it, Navy!) Only time will tell whether Goulding can muster up enough love for another 90 million.