Gangnam Style loses crown as king of YouTube

NEW YORK - The quirky South Korean video that spawned a global dance craze and went so viral it nearly broke YouTube has finally been dethroned as the most watched video.

After four and a half years as YouTube's most seen video, Gangnam Style slipped to number two, replaced by See You Again by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth.

Gangnam Style, a satirical take on the nouveau riche residents of the Seoul district by the same name, surprised even its singer, Psy, with its sudden global ascent in 2012.

Psy, who until Gangnam Style was little known outside of South Korea, found an avid fan base with the video's equestrian-style dance moves set to its infectious pop beat.

The video became the first to reach 1 billion views on YouTube and caused the site's engineers to scramble to make changes when it topped 2.1 billion views, previously thought to be the maximum possible.

As of early Tuesday, Gangnam Style had 2.895 billion views on YouTube, a notch under See You Again, which was featured in the 2015 action movie Furious 7.

See You Again intersperses scenes from the film with Wiz Khalifa rapping and Charlie Puth singing as they overlook a sandy coast. The song was a tribute to Paul Walker, an actor in The Fast and Furious film franchise who died in a car wreck.

Charlie Puth tweeted: "For the record, I joined @YouTube in 2007 hoping to make a video that would reach 10,000 views. Just heard about See You Again ... wow."

But the video may already have a potential rival. Despacito - a Spanish-language song by Puerto Rican star Luis Fonsi and rapper Daddy Yankee - is the fifth most-watched on YouTube at 2.486 billion views, even though it was released just this year.

Once historic when Psy crossed the threshold, a total of 68 clips have passed the one billion view mark on YouTube, all but three of them music videos.

Agence France-presse