PSY’s “Gangnam Style” becomes first YouTube video to reach 1 billion views

Less than a month ago, South Korean rapper PSY’s “Gangnam Style” became the most-viewed video in YouTube’s history when it reached over 805 million. Now, it has become the first video to reach 1 billion views.

The video, which was only posted five months ago, has stunned even the people at YouTube.

“I'd be hard-pressed to declare this normal,” Kevin Allocca, YouTube’s Trends Manager, told MTV News. “We're seeing the scale of these things increase over time, but I don't know that it can go much bigger than this ... [it's] a very special thing and it's very difficult to create or recreate.”

Allocca did say that he believed that “Gangnam Style” would hit 1 billion before 2012 ended, but since people have started looking back on the year, it has accelerated. After all, the Google-owned site did call it the No. 1 video of the year.

“The stuff that becomes important and has a big impact is [often] different and quirky,” Webby Awards president David-Michel Davies told MTV. “The way to get to one billion views is by being something that appeals to people in many countries and cultures.”

The success of the video has remained steady, even after reports emerged of PSY participating in anti-American protests. He issued an apology and will perform before President Obama in Washington Friday.

PSY’s track beat Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” which has been on YouTube since 2010 and has 813 million views.

According to TMZ, PSY recently purchased an LA condo for $1.25 million. That’s just a sliver of the reported $7.9 million he has made in the past few months just from “Gangnam Style.”

image: YouTube