`Gangnam Style` breaks YouTube counter with 2.1 billion views

USPA News - Video-sharing giant YouTube has been forced to upgrade its website after the South Korean hit song `Gangnam Style` surpassed 2.1 billion views, accounting for roughly 30 percent of the world`s population, the company said, more than two years after the catchy song debuted. The problem with the view count was discovered late last week when users noticed that the clip`s numbers were no longer increasing, even though thousands of people continue to watch the clip every single day.

The song by South Korean musician Psy was intensely popular in the second half of 2012, reaching a record one billion views on YouTube on December 21, 2012. YouTube, responding to the problem, explained that the view count was previously limited to 2,147,483,647 views, which had always been sufficient. "We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer, but that was before we met PSY," the website said on its blog, adding that it was forced to upgrade the website. As of Wednesday night in South Korea, `Gangnam Style` had more than 2.152 billion viewers, easily surpassing Justin Bieber`s "Baby," which currently stands at number two with 1.1 billion views.