YouTube views of Korean artists have surged in the year since “Gangnam Style” debuted last July, the video-streaming service announced Monday.
Data compiled by YouTube indicates that videos featuring K-pop — short for “Korean pop” — have tripled. The graph, below, shows a large spike in views after “Gangnam Style” was posted online. It also reveals a smaller — though still sizeable — jump after Psy released his follow-up, “Gentleman,” in April. Boasting more than 1.7 billion views, “Gangnam Style” holds the title of most-viewed YouTube video of all time; the electronic-dance song hit 1 billion views last December. For its part, “Gentleman” has an impressive 481 million views.
A year before “Gangnam Style” hit the web, official music videos from K-pop singers were seen more than 2.2 billion times worldwide. From 2012 to 2013, however, viewership increased to more than 7 billion views, YouTube announced in a blog post.
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Interestingly, YouTube notes that less than half the viewership on popular K-pop channels took place outside the Asia-Pacific region from 2011 to 2012; but during this past year, the majority of views — 91% — were from outside that area. Specifically in the U.S., views of K-pop artist doubled the year after “Gangnam Style”‘s release.
In its blog post, YouTube also lists the top 10 music videos from South Korea since Psy’s first smash single. Check them out in the playlist, below.
Have you watched any K-pop videos on YouTube? If so, which ones are your favorite? Tell us in the comments.
Credit: Mashable
