Music

Just how well is Psy's "Gentleman" doing?

by Tyler Munro

Everyone wondered if Psy’s “Gangnam Style” follow-up “Gentleman” could match the successes of his first big hit. The answer, after four days, is a pretty resounding yes.

Since being officially uploaded to YouTube on Saturday the song’s official video has been seen more than 122,000,000 times. It broke Justin Bieber’s record formost views in a single day when it hit nearly 11 million views in its first day online. Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” hit 8 million in one day; Psy beat that in less than 16 hours.

Basically, Scooter Braun is stoked either way.

Compared to “Gangnam Style,” the new song is growing at a pretty astronomical rate. “Gangnam Style” was uploaded to YouTube on July 15th. We found it on the 30th, reporting on it as a “hilarious South Korean music video.” Eventually the song took off, but the growth rate is nothing like what we’re seeing with “Gentleman.” It took a modest three months to crack 100 million views on YouTube, a feat “Gentleman” achieved in days.

Not that you couldn’t have expected this. Kotaku reports on Candy Crush Saga developers King.com, who they say via Korea sources paid Psy as much as $1 million to have their game in the video.

“If true, that would make this three second product placement more expensive than a Super Bowl commercial. During this year’s Super Bowl, $3.8 million bought around thirty seconds of airtime,” writes Brian Ashcraft.

So how fast is the song growing? If you apply the “Gangnam Style” growth rate to “Gentleman,” the Wall Street Journal says it would hit 12 billion views in under three months. It’s obviously unlikely that the song keeps the pace its on, but Psy can at least lay claim to being more than a one hit wonder at this point. They still expect it to eventually crack 1 billion views.