The music video for “Despacito” has been the most viewed video on YouTube of the past decade.
“Despacito” currently has over 6.6 billion views, according to data obtained from YouTube by E! News.
“Despacito” was originally released in January of 2017, and the music video was first published on YouTube around the same time. That means “Despacito” became the most viewed video in roughly three years. Not to mention, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee released a remixed version of the song with Justin Bieber. The music video featuring Bieber has an additional 25 million+ views.
“Despacito” broke more records than just most watched YouTube video. The song changed the landscape of the Latin music genre completely.
“It was the culmination of a decade-long rise of sociological and musical forces that eventually birthed and cemented a style now called urbano,” Bob Boilen and Felix Contreras wrote for NPR. (RELATED: Taylor Swift Named Billboard’s Woman Of The Decade)
“Despacito” hit the top of the charts in 47 countries, E! News reported. The song also broke into the top ten in six additional countries, marking the Latin song as Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s most popular song ever. The song also became the first mostly Spanish song to make it to number one on the Billboard Top 100 since “Macarena” in 1996.
“Despacito” also sat at the top of the Hot Latin Songs chart for 56 consecutive weeks.
Other music videos in YouTube’s top ten most watched videos of the decade include Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You,” Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” with Charlie Puth, PSY’s “Gangnam Style” and “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars.
