Oppa! Here’s how Psy broke YouTube with Gangnam Style

YouTube says 2012 mega-hit Gangnam Style by South Korea’s Psy - accompanied by a horse-riding-like dance that became a global sensation - this week reached the maximum number of views its counter had imagined to be conceivable. YouTube designed its counter with what is known in computer science as a 32-bit integer, meaning the maximum number of countable views was 2,147,483,647.

We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer.

YouTube in a Google+ post

YouTube engineers anticipated the problem and upgraded to a 64-bit integer. That means that “Gangnam Style” or future mega-hit videos can now go beyond nine sextillion views - a feat that, at least according to conventional wisdom, would be impossible to break.

This is what happens when the whole world can play something at the same time.

YouTube spokesperson Matt McLernon

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