Charlie Puth Video Dethrones 'Gangnam Style' as YouTube's Most-Watched

At nearly 3 billion views, Charlie Puth's video with Wiz Khalifa, "See You Again," is the most-watched video in YouTube's history, surpassing longtime record-holder and fellow Berklee alumnus Psy, whose "Gangnam Style" has dominated the list for years.

By
Kimberly Ashton
July 13, 2017

Charlie Puth B.M. '13 breaks YouTube views record previously held by fellow Berklee alumnus Psy '00

Image courtesy of the artist

Berklee graduate Charlie Puth B.M. '13 says that when he joined YouTube in 2007, he hoped to post something that would get 10,000 views. Now, climbing toward 3 billion views, his video with Wiz Khalifa, "See You Again," is the most-watched video in YouTube's history, surpassing longtime record-holder and fellow Berklee alumnus Psy '00, whose "Gangnam Style" has dominated the list for years and was the first video to rack up a billion views.

Puth released one of his first YouTube videos while a student at Berklee’s Five-Week Summer Performance Program. The video, which featured him dancing around Commonwealth Avenue and singing what he now calls "a ridiculous song" entitled "'Sexy Sunglasses' or something like that" earned 10,000 subscribers by his third week.

Watch the video for "See You Again," by Charlie Puth and Wiz Khalifa:

"It started at Five-Week, on Commonwealth Ave.," Livingston Taylor, one of Puth's mentors at Berklee, said when Puth visited the campus to talk to summer program students. Taylor added that the driven Puth "took it all the way through and got it done."

Berklee Alumni Claim Top Five YouTube Views

Though 2015's "See You Again" has more than 2.9 billion views, it might not be the first video to cross the three-billion-view threshold. With 2.5 billion views, "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee—and engineered by Berklee alumnus Luis Saldarriaga B.M. '14—is tearing a white-hot streak up the charts. Having only been posted on YouTube six months ago, it's now the fifth-most-watched video in the site's history. 

Rounding out the top five most-viewed YouTube videos of all time are two others featuring Berklee artists. Justin Tranter '01 wrote Justin Bieber's "Sorry," which is in the third spot with 2.6 billion views, and the No. 4 video, Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk," (featuring Bruno Mars) was produced by Jeff Bhasker '99 and engineered and mixed by Josh Blair B.M. '99.

Read more about the Puth's new YouTube record on Billboard and at Boston.com.



Watch "Gangnam Style" by Psy: