Tech-news sites this week reported at face value a tongue-in-cheek posting from YouTube that Korean pop star Psy‘s “Gangnam Style” — the site’s most-watched video ever with more than 2 billion views — had somehow “broken” YouTube’s video-views counting system.
“We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer (=2,147,483,647 views), but that was before we met Psy,” YouTube said in a Google+ post. “‘Gangnam Style’ has been viewed so many times we had to upgrade to a 64-bit integer (9,223,372,036,854,775,808)!”
Among the ensuing coverage, CNET reported that YouTube “stalled for a bit,” noting that mousing over the counter caused it to spin erratically and display random numbers.
But according to YouTube, the post about “Gangnam Style” forcing it to upgrade the video-view counter was a total joke. “It’s an easter egg,” a rep said. “We updated the counter to 64-bit months ago.”
In late 2012, viral-video sensation “Gangnam Style” — satirizing the upscale district of Seoul of the same name — beat Justin Bieber’s “Baby” to become the first video on YouTube with 1 billion views.
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As of Friday, per the YouTube (not broken) video counter, “Gangnam Style” has been viewed 2.158 billion times. Watch the video in all its odd glory again, if you desire:
