Adele has broken another record – her video for Hello is the quickest to reach one billion views on YouTube.
Hello, a ballad that ended a four-year album hiatus for the British singer, entered the exclusive one billion-view club late on Monday just 88 days after its release.
It easily broke the speed record set by South Korean pop singer Psy’s Gangnam Style, whose viral equestrian-themed dance video hit one billion views in 2012 after 160 days.
But Hello still has far to go to catch up to Gangnam Style in total views.
Gangnam Style on Tuesday reached 2.5 billion views, more than one billion above its nearest competitor, Taylor Swift’s Blank Space.
Hello benefited in views as it came around a month before the release of 25, the full album.
25 was the fastest-selling album ever in the United States and Britain and in both countries topped sales for 2015 despite coming out in late November.
Only 18 videos have hit one billion views on Google-owned YouTube. All are professional music videos except two – an episode of Russian animation Masha and the Bear and a nursery rhyme compilation by British educators’ channel Little Baby Bum.
